HJ75 Complete body restoration

[kelly saad]

A couple years ago this Body was dropped of to us from a good friend @ofer bruhis . The condition resembled most 60 series restorations that we had been doing, and had done previously. So, we began removing the old paint and bodywork down to the metal. The roof was removed because an Alu-cab will be installed. Once we uncovered the surprises (rust, damage, and previous bodywork), they were much worse than anyone anticipated, so it sat a while until we all created a plan, and scheduled the project for a completion date.

Here we are, now more than a month into the raw guts of this project. My intensions were to begin this thread weeks ago, however, I have had no time at all. This intense project will take both of us full time @orikawa and myself.

All the available new parts were ordered from Toyota. We have quarters, pillars, and lots of other odd items that would be impossible to recreate. Everything else, we will rebuild.

 

[kelly saad]

First thing is to get the front end of the vehicle done so he can fit them on the chassis and get the engine compartment stuff worked out.

 

[kelly saad]

Every part started to show cracks in the sheet metal. There were many cracks around weld-nuts, or the nut just cracked completely off. Cracks in odd places in the steel too. This vehicle had been beat to death.

 

[kelly saad]

Here is an example of how butchered the repair work was on this vehicle. These patches were everywhere. This is just the front inner fenders. So, I began repairing these front end parts and prep for paint.

 

[kelly saad]

The fenders required a ton of work also, but apparently I didn't take any pictures of that process. That's ok, because there is plenty of exiting repair work to see still.

 

[kelly saad]

The front end parts are now complete and picked up. I started on the doors, removing the lower skin sections as I do on all the 60's. Thses were pretty bad, and so I was told to stop, and new doors were ordered and shipped here.

 

[kelly saad]

Removal of all exterior coatings is when we started to get concerned. Now we could see much of the damage, but not all.

 

[kelly saad]

Lets cut off the roof, and a lower quarter and see whats lurking underneath. Oh no! Not good.

 

[kelly saad]

Rotisserie time. Thanks to @Overlandeffex for setting up the rotisserie and bolting the body on. Among many other things I am very thankful.

 

[prwillard2]

Where was this HJ sourced from?

 

[Bogan]

Where was this HJ sourced from?

Nicaragua

 

[Bogan]

Kelly and Spenser deserve an award for pulling this off! Seeing this in person made me feel much better about my HJ75!

 

[kelly saad]

Just a taste of what we are into here.

 

[kelly saad]

Removing quarters and pillars, and other panels. Spot weld drill week! Getting down to what is actually left of this body. Not much.

 

[kelly saad]

It gets worse. The floor. Underneath all this bedliner coating they rolled on, is a quilt of patches, poorly done of course. The front body mounts were trashed, and the floor underneath where they attach was rusted, and patched, and rusted again. The rear body mount locations were wasted, the second to rear body mount locations were completely gone. We had to slow down, and take our time on this floor.

Notice the steel they used to patch the floor thats peeled up

 

[kelly saad]

But wait, it still gets worse. Finally, it's getting to be fun. This was becoming such a boring project.

Everything you see in these pictures that is rusty near a seam, had the spot welds drilled, then the part is sand blasted, and/or dipped in acid, then rebuilt and reassembled with zinc primer. Everything, everywhere.

 

[Broski]

Following along

 

[kelly saad]

An example of old and new parts, also, rebuilt parts. We had to get this part on first before we can patch the floor. We are trying to replicate the original design of all the factory parts. Even though much of these areas aren't really visible, we still prefer that they look correct if possible.

 

[kelly saad]

This is back together. Now for the floor patches.

 

[kelly saad]

We did these in two sections with the seam in the exact same location as the factory floor. Tried to replicate the design as close as possible.