HDJ100 - Body off renovation, now with a hot dip galvanised frame *Picture Heavy* (1 Viewer)

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Well the engine was not very good... Took it in juuust in time before some very major issues.
I changed the timing belt last December 9000km ago (5600 miles). At some point since a lot of mud got in and completely rusted and seized the tensioner....
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Once opened, the next surprise was that at some point in the past somebody has "revised" the engine. With his @ss. The centring pins on 3 of the con rod caps have ben destroyed and the caps were put backwards?? Bearings on them don't look good either.

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Somebody has not been very diligent with his oil changes. Toyota fixed the infamous main bearings of the 1HD-T with the 1HD-FT. This is purely due to bad maintenance.

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So - new timing belt, tensioner, con rod + main bearings, new piston rings, gaskets, will see what else...
 
Oh the FT and FTE also have BEB problems, Toyota fixed nothing.
 
Nice going thread and restoration. You're lucky to have your father around to help, a good network of friends, 4x4 & Toyota enthusiasts, workspace and local shops to do your own work and get technical work performed when needed. I wonder if it's all centralized or if you have been driving all over the country back and forth to do frame, engine etc. You have a lot of logistics involved with the various steps of organizing tow trucks etc in your resto-

Interested to know more about your home country land cruiser life there. "BG"- Bulgaria- we don't often get much of a look into foreign 100 series ownership especially from the distant shores along the Back Sea in Eastern EU. Cool stuff- keep it coming.
 
Galvanisation is cheap. Why not?
POR15 has it's place as a quick fix on top of rust. But it can't compare with blasting, 2 pack epoxy primer and urethane on top.
I also prefer to avoid lifts - I do not plan more than 33" and don't have anything to fit underneath.
You don't have anything to fit underneath? I thought you were building it for overlanding? Typically you add a lot of auxiliary components underneath when overlanding. The sandblasting unfortunately will only remove superficial rust and not remove the rust that has gotten into between the spot weld seams. It's probably good your not going bigger than 33" tires since the front axle components can't handle much torque.
 
Nice going thread and restoration. You're lucky to have your father around to help, a good network of friends, 4x4 & Toyota enthusiasts, workspace and local shops to do your own work and get technical work performed when needed. I wonder if it's all centralized or if you have been driving all over the country back and forth to do frame, engine etc. You have a lot of logistics involved with the various steps of organizing tow trucks etc in your resto-

Interested to know more about your home country land cruiser life there. "BG"- Bulgaria- we don't often get much of a look into foreign 100 series ownership especially from the distant shores along the Back Sea in Eastern EU. Cool stuff- keep it coming.

It's more or less centralised. I am in Sofia - the capital and could get most of the work around here. The galvanising plant is in Plovdiv, but they have a depot here. The guy doing the engine restoration is there as well and I drove it to see the amazing 40 series restorations pictured above.
The offroad scene is... low cost, being in the poorest EU country. A lot of old (1990s) rusty 70 land cruisers - thats mostly the 70 model, not series in general - with the anaemic 2LT engine as this is the cheapest Land Cruiser you can get around here. Some 90 series, as they are still cheapish, but a bit nicer to daily drive. Surprisingly little 80, barely any 100 and almost no 200. Quiet a few 120 and 150 (Prados) on the streets, some offroading.
The general offroad scene here is Vitara/Grand Vitara, lots of Grand Cherokee ZJ/WJ, some Patrol Y60/Y61.

You don't have anything to fit underneath? I thought you were building it for overlanding? Typically you add a lot of auxiliary components underneath when overlanding. The sandblasting unfortunately will only remove superficial rust and not remove the rust that has gotten into between the spot weld seams. It's probably good your not going bigger than 33" tires since the front axle components can't handle much torque.
Apart from a sub tank I do not plan any other aux components underneath.
 
I finally dealt with the cab. I tried to blast it myself with a 8bar 800l/min compressor and some cheap gun with 4-6mm nozzles and 0.315-0.63mm quartz sand, but was not very successful. It just wasn't powerful enough, so I called a mobile blaster

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This was the before with all the seam sealer removed. I was in a hurry to epoxy prime it immediately and forgot to take a picture of it blasted...

One coat of primer. Eventually it took me about a litre of primer. By the end of it I was way more efficient and confident - if I do it a second time about 600-700ml should be enough.

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A LOT of hard to reach nooks and corners

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2 coats of Raptor liner. I thinned it 15% and shot it with a HLVP gun with 1.7mm nozzle. It took 2 bottles. It shoots very different compared to the primer. Again, by the end of it I was much more confident and efficient and could have done it with ~1.5 bottles.

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The wheel arches got 4 coats

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Even with the HLVP gun the surface is grainy. Eventually I want to paint the entire cab, but would like to achieve smoother finish. Might need some more thinner and a higher pressure. I was shooting with 2.2 bar at the end. The gun is rated for 3.5 bar working pressure, but I was wasting a lot of raptor that way and was getting a lot of orange peel. I am very very new to gun painting and still struggle.

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After having perfected the hydrochloric (muriatic) acid way of zinc stripping I blasted and sent the control arms for galvanising too. A single front control arm stripped from everything attached to it weighs ~8.5kg (~19lb)!

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What I have left
- Apply seam sealer after paint dries
- Coat the wheel arches with anti-chip/stone
- Wax all hollow places
- Get the engine, turbo and pump back from refurbishment
- Make new rear AC pipes
- Get all bolts and pipe mounts de-rusted and electro-chemically plated or painted
- Replace front hub bearings, while they are removed
- Refurbish front calipers (I have already done the rear)
- Drop the body, frame, axles and a whole lot of parts to my mechanic to assemble everything.

I sincerely hope to have everything done by mid November. I am super tired of this entire project. I appreciate everything I learned, the skills I earned and the contacts I made, but I did not fully anticipate the amount of work and effort that would go into this. I very very very much look forward to finally driving and not wrenching.
 
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I finally dealt with the cab. I tried to blast it myself with a 8bar 800l/min compressor and some cheap gun with 4-6mm nozzles and 0.315-0.63mm quartz sand, but was not very successful. It just wasn't powerful enough, so I called a mobile blaster

3ZYuEKZ.jpg


KS0MF37.jpg

This was the before with all the seam sealer removed. I was in a hurry to epoxy prime it immediately and forgot to take a picture of it blasted...

One coat of primer. Eventually it took me about a litre of primer. By the end of it I was way more efficient and confident - if I do it a second time about 600-700ml should be enough.

SzTbIHR.jpg


A LOT of hard to reach nooks and corners

v11X5Gp.jpg


2 coats of Raptor liner. I thinned it 15% and shot it with a HLVP gun with 1.7mm nozzle. It took 2 bottles. It shoots very different compared to the primer. Again, by the end of it I was much more confident and efficient and could have done it with ~1.5 bottles.

aRxDeOX.jpg


The wheel arches got 4 coats

xehTwr9.jpg


Even with the HLVP gun the surface is grainy. Eventually I want to paint the entire cab, but would like to achieve smoother finish. Might need some more thinner and a higher pressure. I was shooting with 2.2 bar at the end. The gun is rated for 3.5 bar working pressure, but I was wasting a lot of raptor that way and was getting a lot of orange peel. I am very very new to gun painting and still struggle.

3VhZuBC.jpg


After having perfected the hydrochloric (muriatic) acid way of zinc stripping I blasted and sent the control arms for galvanising too. A single front control arm stripped from everything attached to it weighs ~8.5kg (~19lb)!

Jb3nZFr.jpg


What I have left
- Apply seam sealer after paint dries
- Coat the wheel arches with anti-chip/stone
- Wax all hollow places
- Get the engine, turbo and pump back from refurbishment
- Make new rear AC pipes
- Get all bolts and pipe mounts de-rusted and electro-chemically plated or painted
- Replace front hub bearings, while they are removed
- Refurbish front calipers (I have already done the rear)
- Drop the body, frame, axles and a whole lot of parts to my mechanic to assemble everything.

I sincerely hope to have everything done by mid November. I am super tired of this entire project. I appreciate everything I learned, the skills I earned and the contacts I made, but I did not fully anticipate the amount of work and effort that would go into this. I very very very much look forward to finally driving and not wrenching.

Thank you for providing so much information on this project, ongoing since post #1 on 5th August 2020! The pictures are greatly appreciated – they are rare and show the “general assembly” of the Landcruiser as well as many details – in this case with 1HD-FTE and A750E and AHC, so the pics are of special interest to me and probably to many others as well, given that 4k people are watching. If possible, more please – maybe from different angles to show RHS and LHS during re-assembly? So far, it must have been a very demanding project personally with the “light at the end of the tunnel” seeming to be far, far away and probably receding! The engine refurbishment is noted and hopefully all ‘surprises’ have now revealed themselves. Anyway, best wishes for a smooth re-assembly of this 2020 LC100 – and hopefully the “light at the end of the tunnel” now approaches more quickly!!!
 
This engine keeps delivering. Also one of the injectors had a very poor spraying pattern, almost dripping.

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I had a bunch of the bolts and brackets cold galvanized/electroplated. Were supposed to be yellow chromated, but they forgot...

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The coating is only a few microns thick, so any pitting from rust remains visible. All rust is removed with acid beforehand

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Speaking of acid, removing of the hot dip zing coating from the control arm bushing openings with hydrochloric (muriatic) acid. Now that I have done it before it's way easier and straightforward

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The fuel thank had a few spots of rust.

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I wasn't ready stripping it when the guy cam to blast the body, so had to do it manually with wire brushes now. Never again. Some people claimed that it might have been electroplated or something similar and grinding it has been a mistake... Oh well...

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Epoxy primer and urethane MIPA paint on top. I am starting to get the hang of it.

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Started working on the front calipers. Major corrosion on some of the pistons. Had to work them one by one so that they could move freely

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If you put something that fits exactly in the center slot where the disc runs, the pistons will come out just a hair before popping out, which makes them very easy

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Gnarly. The outer seals had failed on all 8 pistons. No tears, just loosened and dried enough to let water and dirt in.

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And now for something completely different - we had to move a couple of APCs that local kids have been vandalising. They are 7-8 tons each, so we took out the big truck that my friend built for a movie prop.
The cabin is completely custom built in the workshop for a Dutch movie, but the truck is originally a M939 6x6. There is a big ass turbo, so it should be the Cummins 6CTA8.3 engine.
Unfortunately we shorted the starter ground cable. This could have been a disaster 😱

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The carriers are some old 60s or maybe 70s Soviet model. The engines are out, but most of the other machinery is still there

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So I disassembled the hubs to replace the bearings. Bad stuff. Last year, when changing some seals I supposedly assembled them back, according to FSM, with a torque wrench and a fish scale, but did not replace the bearings. Due to one reason or another, the bearings (like all 4 on both sides) have been too loose and have spun on the spindle.

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Lots of punch marks from chisel, when apparently Steve Wonder had given his best tightening the bearings for the PO, so the FSM torque values probably have been too low. There is a the tinies ridge on the bottom (road) side of the spindle and none on top. I will hate to have to buy new knuckles right now (~$1000) so I will tighten the new bearings to spec and a bit above and monitor tightness during the first few thousand kilometres. If they come loose again will maybe get new knuckles or try to find good second hand ones.

Both claw washers had deep groves where the bearings spun. Strong burnt grease smell from the bearing...

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I do not expect the knuckle arms to ever rust through, but nevertheless gave them a good scrub with the wirebrush, then some Wurth rust converter. Usually I don't like to use rust converter at all and try to get to clean metal, but I didn't feel like bothering with chasing blasters or wasting ages wire brushing, so what the hell, let's see how much does the converter (doesn't) work

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The usual epoxy primer and urethane paint and they look pretty good

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Then I scrubbed the AHC hard lines to the shocks (ok, hydraulic rams). Again, epoxy, urethane and I have new tubes

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I called a few places - my best option with the AC lines will be to get them remade from rubber hose which will cost me ~$150, compared to ~$1000 for Toyota replacement. Couldn't find anybody who could make them out of aluminum and I do not want to take my chances with galvanic corrosion if I have them made from copper.

I also found out that I have fcked up when painting the underbody. The seam sealer is supposed to go on top of the epoxy primer and under the Raptor... So now I have applied a few small blotches of sealer as a test on a few places - over clean Raptor, scotchbrited Raptor and Raptor scrubbed to the epoxy primer underneath. Hopefully the sealer will stick with no drama...

The list from above has slimmed down a bit:

- Apply seam sealer after paint dries - might have fcked that up 😬
- Coat the wheel arches with anti-chip/stone
- Wax all hollow places
- Get the engine, turbo and pump back from refurbishment
- Make new rear AC pipes - There is a plan now
- Get all bolts and pipe mounts de-rusted and electro-chemically plated or painted
- Replace front hub bearings, while they are removed
- Refurbish front calipers (I have already done the rear)

- Drop the body, frame, axles and a whole lot of parts to my mechanic to assemble everything.
 
I got new AC hoses! The fittings that go to the cab in the rear are salvaged from my original pipes, as they are not generic. The rest is new. They made connections in the middle, so any repairs should be easier. Can be bent 90 degrees. The hoses are way, way heavier than the aluminium pipes.

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I pressed the new bushings in the control arms. I wish I knew that there are part numbers for 100 bushings only and not entire arm assemblies, before I ordered the 80s ones. Now I will have to make sleeves, as they have bigger internal diameter.

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I had the rest of the bolts and mounting plates zinc plated. This are some of the worse ones initially
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This is after a 10 minutes bath in ~20% hydrochloric acid solution:

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I LOVE IT! The zinc won't cover any rust, paint or anything else except for clean metal. You can see some rust around the holes on the big washers, that I didn't have the nerve to fully clean.

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But seriously, I LOVE the end result ❤! I did all sorts of things, like the entire parking breaks system

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Now that all bits and peaces are back with me, I assembled the fully refurbished axles and hubs

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I also did some tests with seam sealer and found one that sticks like crazy to the Raptor - Teroson MS 9320. I ordered 4 cartridges and end of next week I will be doing the underside of the chassis, then start mounting the AC lines, fuel lines and tank! I can't believe that I will be starting to put things back together!
 
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Incredible build! Thanks for sharing, the way you are approaching this, this 100 might outlast all of them! :)
I like the idea of using gray underneath as it will make it easier to spot leaks in the future.
 
I got the callipers back from blasting and powder coating. I went with close to the rims grey. New pistons and seals.

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I also got my new intercooler from the UK. Those are some beautiful welds.

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The stock is just pathetic in comparison

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Finally cleared the VIN from zinc. It was completely filled in from the dip

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I had to lift the chassis on it's side to make it horizontal

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Then I glued in some pieces of plastic with epoxy resin to make a small pool and filled it with hydrochloric acid. While dissolving the zinc, the acid boils so I put a baking soda soaked rag around to catch any droplets

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Finally, legal again. I was in a hurry to get it done yesterday, as we got half a foot of snow today which would have made that operation much more challenging.

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Some epoxy primer to prevent it from rusting.

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I am sooooo close to being done. I am putting things back together. Hopefully, by the end of the week I will have a rolling chassis with the control arms, torsion bars, springs and rear axle back in place. Still waiting for the pump and turbo to come back from refurbishment and those are the two things holding me back from booking time with my mechanic to put the engine, transmission, brakes, AHC and body together. Fingers crossed to have a car by Christmas!
 
Fking finally!!!

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I finally sourced the seam sealer that I wanted, but by now it's winter and the sealer needs 15C ambient, so I had to make a heated space

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I used a propane heater (lifted a corner for oxygen circulation) which got it from -3 to +20C in 45 minutes

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Turns out that I didn't have the right nozzle so the sealer was spraying in a completely wrong pattern, regardless of air pressure and sealer quantity... I wanted a thick narrow layer directly on top of the seam

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So I spread it with a brush. It sealed well, but a much narrower layer. It will also be absolutely horrible to remove one day. It sticks like crazy and it's almost impossible to remove.

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This was the original seam sealer that I removed in the summer

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I also covered the wheel arches. It's very elastic

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I had a very sad setback with the rear axle. It was blasted and primed (supposedly Jotun epoxy primer) in the summer. I sprayed Raptor 3 days after that and then forgot it for the next 4 months, until I started to attach brake lines, ABS cables, etc and dropped it on the floor 😳. The paint cracked like an egg shell with clean blasted metal underneath. It was separating everywhere, as if the primer had not sticked to the paint at all. I used a hammer 😲 to crack and peel the paint in couple of hours...

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Then sent it for another round of blasting, epoxy primer and urethane paint. The new paint is very shiny, but noticeably less durable than the Raptor...

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Attaching the axle to the chassis without a hoist, but with a crane is very frustrating to say the least...

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So here I am - with the chassis finally on wheels and next to the body. Next week I will wax the bottom of the body and attach tank, fuel & AC lines. After Christmas and NYE I will hopefully get back my fuel pump and turbo and get everything put back together :)

Tomorrow it will be exactly 5 months after I drove my cruiser to my mechanic to start separating the chassis.
 

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