Builds HJ45 Cab On HZJ80 Chassis (1 Viewer)

[RocketIron45]

Having bought this 45 as my first vehicle back in 2008 at the tender age of 18, it has been forever evolving. This is the 3rd and hopefully final rebiuld of my 45. I plan to have a fairly all purpose Landcruiser that can handle a bit of 4wd driving but for me has to look the goods aswell. I have only seen 4 conversions like the one i will be attempting. I will be doing all of this at my work, cause the boss man will let me and all my gear is there. First few fotos are what i started with .....


This was a first time project for me and i needed it done so i had a set of wheels to get around with
P.S. I am new to this site so be patient if i make contradictions or other BS

 

[RocketIron45]

The 1st stage

After biulding the tray and some quick rust repairs and replacement doors,guards and front apron sourced, I Painted her in 045 toyota white. It still had the Stock 1976 drivetrain with the addition of a HOLDEN 253 V8 that was in her when i bought her. Most of this changed nearly a year afterwards.

 

[RocketIron45]

I have reached my photo quota so will post more recent ones when i can....

 

[cult45]

You can post more pics after buying a silver star. Looking forward to your HZJ45!

 

[RocketIron45]

Cheers mate, i just bought the membership, thanks for the tip.
Anyhoo, here is what i ended up with after the first stage of the build

After I had finished putting timber in the tray she pretty much looked like this

 

[serenity]

There are a few builds on this site of 45s being built on either an 80 series or 60 series chassis that you could use for guidance and ideas.

84 Sloths

D'Animals

Wagoneer5

and this isn't a 45 but it is along the same lines:
IPOR

There could be more but those are the ones I have seen

Good luck, can't wait to see what you come up with!

 

[RocketIron45]

Cheers for the links mate, in all honesty the only ones I have seen were on this site!! Anyhoo, bout a year after i painted her, the rear diff centre was makin a fair amount of noise so i decided to investigate...this is what i found

 

[RocketIron45]

I Had installed the H55F Gearbox i purchased from an auction a little while before this happened and had been driving without a handbrake! This is really the 2nd stage of the cruiser's evolution=H55F Gearbox And 75 series front and rear diffs. All this occurred roughly within a 18 month period. The conversion to hzj75 gearbox was needed because the previous owner, for some unknown reason mounted the 4speed and 253 v8 closer to the front of the car

So i had decided to remedy this when i installed the H55F. One the issues i had to overcome was the fact the h55f had the fine spline input shaft whereas the 4speed had the coarse spline which suited the holden friction plate and pressure plate. Working in a metal fabrication workshop, there was only one answer.... cut, spigot and weld!! I Also had the chance to remove some of the previous owner's agricultural v8 conversion parts

The top is the owners attempt at tucking the exhuast under the motor by cutting and welding a plate to the clutch inspection cover.The second and third fotos show the rigid as hell radiator mounts and (hard to tell by pic) 75x75x8 angle iron engine mount brackets.

 

[RocketIron45]

With the motor out I discovered cracks in the chassis below the shock absorber mount and also a crack on another previous owner repair.So i did what any other metal fabricator apprentice would do... Weld up the cracks and plate over them.

Then I re-aligned the engine with the gearbox back in and lined up the trans tunnel to the gear sticks then there ya go!!

 

[RocketIron45]

Now it came time for the diffs replacement.
I got these out of a FZJ75 Personnel Carrier paid $1000 coz they had long been sitting there and the internals were all good, still just open centres but hey!

All they needed were a good clean, new handbrake cable and new lines on the rear diff. Then i realised as i went to put the rear in, i had to move the perches in to suit the 45 spring centres! Not too much trouble for me but as the 45 was my only vehicle it made things a bit irritating to say the least.

 

[RocketIron45]

After replacing the diffs and gearbox i spent about a year enjoying my cruiser, driving to work and back and around the town. I also had decided to fab, from scratch a pair of #316L S/S snorkel rams and custom airbox for them. I purchased some 2.5" stainless tube and mandrel bends for it over the net and unfortunately didn't take any fotos of the making of them as i didnt know how well they would turn out. Anyhoo here is the airbox and stainless snorkels...

 

[RocketIron45]

My original plan for the 3rd and final rebiuld of my cruiser involved a 60 series power steering conversion and a full cab off chassis rebiuld. I had always wanted to try and make a set of 2" extended width from scratch front mudguards and inner guards to suit the 60 series ps box cutout and blank off of original steering box cutout. So early july of this year i set about fabricating these using only a old fibreglass sample. Here is how i went with that!!


the only things i didnt make were the quarter panels at the top of the guards and the front apron!

 

[RocketIron45]

I also fabricated polished s/s indicator boxes with leds to be mounted to the guards. These turned out pretty good

 

[RocketIron45]

So i had started to prepare for the third rebiuld and power steering conversion when a mate of mine had discovered a 80 series ute conversion project that was for sale on facebook, of all places and naturally i was curious as to how much. I found out the 80 series was in fact a unfinished project and the owner wanted it gone out of his yard. It was at this point I imagined how awsome it would be to have coils under the 45. I inspected it, she had no motor,gearbox most of the body work was rough or wasnt there and the chassis had a big dent in it at the rear and immediatly thought you-bewdy i'll have that!! $700 later she was mine.

 

[RocketIron45]

The chassis was mostly straight, the power steering box looked fairly healthy, it still had the steering column, brake booster,master cylinder, most of the lines on the chassis were still there.I was missing a front panhard rod, all the shockies, the springs were from another mate who had recently done a 105 lift but were just standard height, most of the chassis bolts to control/radius arms were seized and some were missing nuts. But mostly I was happy with my buy and began stripping the cab of useful parts, as i now drive a HZJ80 to work now With the cab stripped, i cut it up, saved part of the firewall that had the accelerator, clutch and brake flange holes and threw the rest.

 

[cult45]

Thank f**k someone's ding a RHD one of these. Now I have something I can relate to for my build.

Looks good man!

 

[RocketIron45]

Thanks mate, i cant wait till the cruiser is done, going be wicked!
Anyhoo, after removing the cab I decided to strip the chassis completely down and give it a quick cleanup and repair some minor imperfections aswell as the large dent in the rear of the chassis.

I had thought up about 5 different ways about doing this but decided to remove it from the chassis, straighten it with my BFH and weld it back on...

 

[RocketIron45]

Sorry for that last post, heres the foto of the chassis repair i did

Kinda hard to see how straight i got it but the next fotos are clearer

 

[RocketIron45]

I also cut the radiator support mounts off as i dont think i will be needing them.

 

[RocketIron45]

With the chassis repaired I toyed with the idea of sandblasting it back to bare metal but decided against this cause there wasn't much rust on it at all.So i just 5" wire wheeled the rough spots, prep washed the whole thing then super etched it then about 4 coats of black gloss enamel.


I chose gloss enamel because its fairly cheap and there is a high chance that i may need to weld or modify something on the chassis and how easy to touch up with a rattle can!