BJ60 to HJ61 Body swap...the five year plan turned right now plan! (1 Viewer)

[PeeZed]

I'm starting to get a bit giddy as I think about things being put together on this rig!

But still a few more "prep" things before it can really begin to come together.

I need someone with expertise to help "fit" my firewall into the window frame as apparently it needs to be "bang on" for the window to seal properly. With the edges needing some repairs I don't think this is something I want to go solo into. So, if anyone is confident they have some skills and want to help a brother out...

Also found a couple places to put bondo as I've been prepping the fenders for engine compartment area paint.

And officially turned the HJ back into the BJ it really wanted to be by putting the VIN back onto the door panel. There's probably some official way to do this, but I just riveted it over top of the previous vin that was put on when it was imported.

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Exciting to see it get so close! If I lived up there I'd drop by and give you a hand with the firewall thing (not that I know much more than you....). Maybe cruiserpilot (Jon) will have a minute to drop by when he gets home next week? He obviously knows 60s very well.

 

[PeeZed]

Some more body work completed, painted some more parts, and slapped some gravel guard on a couple spots. You can really see the uneven spots on the rear lower quarters from my novice body work.

 

[PeeZed]

Got around to:
1. Grill repaint.
2. Door window chrome repaint.
3. Finished gravel guard on rear quarters and hood.
4. Door handles repainted.
5. Hung door hinges...not need to fit doors and adjust hinges so I can seam seal them in place.

 

[cruiserpilot]

Keeping up the grind! Looking really good. I hope you have good ventilation, phew, all
that paint! I'm home today finally, have to come down for a look. I don't know how much help
I'd be re-aligning the cowl, but should be able to bring my truck down to check measurements.

 

[PeeZed]

Cruiserpilot, glad you're back and safe on the ground (I'm sure there's some kind of "rule" about wishing people safe flights that you don't do, but I'm glad to hear that massive expanse of an ocean crossing was successful...and that you enjoyed the small island).

Yeah, getting the cowling/firewall welded back into place is the last "major" piece which needs special attention that I'm not willing to do unless I'm certain it's going to work. Having another 60 sitting there would offer some peace of mind that's for sure.

I'm leaving early this Thursday and will be away for a week, so I'm not sure how much I'll get done this week. I'll be working each day up until that point, but committing my evenings Sunday-Wednesday to get as much done as possible. If you want/can stop by some evening that would be sweet, but if not then I'll be back and rolling again by the 2nd week of February.

PS: I'm borrowing a full face respirator for painting Some people drink beer and smoke stuff...I paint

 

[Toshi38]

Using the rattle can (Cloverdale custom makes these if you bring in your own paint...cost $16/can though ) is really a time saver instead of setting up the HVLP gun for smaller jobs.

It's probably too late, but just as an FYI most lordco's also have a tool to make custom Spray cans of paint. You can just buy the paint there and they have some kind of set price for a rattle can of custom color. I'm not sure what they charge to fill a rattle can with your own paint but I imagine it is pretty cheap. (it also likely depends on who you know/deal with there)

 

[cruiserpilot]

Let me know when you are back, I'll run down

 

[PeeZed]

I realize that some of these posts are more about me revealing the process of this project than it is about delivering useful information for others...but I digress.

Basically removed old disintegrated foam from blower assembly, did a repair with one of those cool UV light glue pen things (actually worked impressively...I actually held the unit up by that tiny piece right afterwards and it held like concrete!), and dismantled my Camo Cruiser doors for spare parts. Legit.

 

[Rigpig]

Wow, Impresive! When you're done i've got a 4Runnerlandcruiserbj60bj70 something or other about 300 pages back in the archives somewhere that needs completion. Once its done, we could all wheel together, bang them all up and start all over again...

 

[PeeZed]

Wow, Impresive! When you're done i've got a 4Runnerlandcruiserbj60bj70 something or other about 300 pages back in the archives somewhere that needs completion. Once its done, we could all wheel together, bang them all up and start all over again...

sigh...

 

[Rigpig]

yup, that's also how i feel...

 

[PeeZed]

I will admit that the US dollar makes it slightly tempting to slap a price sticker on it once it's complete, but it would mean I'd have to rip another rig down to nothing in order to have the confidence that any other rig is half decent...and that takes time and money...so there would have to be some serious coinage to make me consider it seriously. Until then, complete the project, drive it with perma-grin for about a month, wheel it, do more mods, hand it down to my boys when they're old enough...life complete

 

[PeeZed]

Was away for a week at a conference so got back at it today.

THE FIREWALL IS IN PLACE PEOPLE!!! Hopefully it's in the correct place because it aint coming out again! I ended up measuring the OEM window with the seal in place and got it to within a 1/16" so it better work. If not, I'll just have to trim the window rail, baby I left the top 6" because it needs to be brazed so I'll do any tidy up on welds after that's done.

Had a line on a LEFT drivers side front outer fender but turned out to be a right side, so I slapped some metal and bondo on the original and it's going to have to do for now...not perfect, but not religious either!

Blacked out the front headlights and surrounding bezel pieces.

 

[PeeZed]

Inners all painted up...time to drop the body onto the frame now that the firewall is installed and painted.

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

I sand in awe at the amount of work and detail you've put into this 60 project every time that I look at your thread! Nice work Peezed.

 

[PeeZed]

Thanks GTS...you can stop by and sand anytime

 

[bikersmurf]

X2 you're putting the rest of us to shame... the amount of work I have to do is nothing in comparison to your project and I've not made any progress in years.

I can't wait to see it on the road & in person.

 

[PeeZed]

Not much of a "Family Day," but I'll take a Family Week off once this project is done and take a trip up to the interior to visit family and friends, and to stretch the new Rig's legs and see how slow I can go up the Coquihalla

Although my family got the shaft today, I was able to make some more progress with the truck.

1. Re-installed firewall bits and pieces.

2. Removed fuel tank. I think I'll probably slam my Camo tank in for now as I know it runs with my 3B (12v vs 24v shenanigans). Also, the PO looks to have done some funky fuel/air line acrobatics, so I don't really want to mess with things at this point. Look at the pic closely and you'll see what I mean.

3. Customized the rear seat heater from the HJ (under console mount) with the BJ motor and shroud. One might think that this is simply a swapping of the 12v into the 24v spot, but alas it is not! There are many parts which are the same, but how the HJ mounts under the console is quite different so you have to modify the BJ motor casing and mounting brackets. I didn't take pics because, well, I didn't...except the final placement, which I will include here even though it will just look like an HJ rear heater...pffft.

4. Asphalt sprayed the underside of the body...that was fun...not.

5. Prepped and sprayed the front bezel (I apparently forgot it the other day as it was hiding under a bench...doh!). Lucky for me, the PO had already beefed it up by cutting the bottom 6" off and installing a nice piece of 2x6 tube as reinforcement, so no welding for me!

6. I stripped the window wiper linkage down to the nitty gritty's and gave it a good lube. One of the pivots was pretty rusty. I suppose that's what was squeaking before. Moly greased the bajeebies out of all the pieces and made a custom syringe for inserting grease into and under rubber covers where pivot points were.

7. I pulled out my upper rear hatch to start putting all the pieces back inside of it but realized I really didn't have a clue as to what went where, so I'll have to look back through my pics or maybe one of you with a 60 can come over and I can use your rig as my schematic

8. Reinstalled the sound/heat mat under the hood and the rubber cushion with new inserts from Lordco. They work but are a bit loose. Does the job.

9. I bought all new bolts for the body mounts, so now that all the above things are completed I think it's time to drop the body on the frame! Who wants to come over and finesse those two together with me?


Here's a few pics because I know that's probably all I'd want to see in a build thread too...

Notice the cage at the front is chopped up...that's for clearance as it was hitting the floor. Also, the new mounting brackets on the sides...Bam!

 

[PeeZed]

1. Fuel tank rubber coated and re-installed. A couple notes on re-installation....highly recommend you do this with (A) someone else and/or (B) a hoist of some sort. I used a jack and some wood, but it was precarious and almost fatal. Also, don't tighten the swivel side of the tank straps all the way and then try and get the other ends to bolt in...they won't...you gotta keep the swivel ends loose (just threaded in) and then tighten each end a bit at a time. It's a tight fit under there!

2. Attempted to assign correct complete sets of new & used body mount pieces together in preparation for marriage day soon. Based on pics and part numbers, the older BJ and newer HJ do not have the same body mount hardware Hopefully I can at least figure out which sizes to put into the top part of the mount so I can drop the body onto those and then figure out the rest from there.

3. Cleaned the rear signal/running/brake lights. They were pretty crusty! Was able to lube the spring mechanisms which hold each lamp and make sure they are functioning well too. I will say that if Toyota had put as much care and attention to quality into their body/frame metal as they did into these rubbers then I may not be doing all of this right now, but I digress...