ih8mud inspired build (1 Viewer)

[Dagha Boy]

I continued today by removing the last bit bolted to the engine block, the injector pump. And removed all the caked on diesel and mud that I had not been able to reach before and gave it a thorough cleaning.

I discovered it is made of aluminium... I was convinced it was cast iron. I know nothing about them but that they send measured portions of diesel to each injector at the correct timing under high pressure. No idea how that is actually accomplished.

While cleaning it I found an old decal under the paint which is pealing off in patches.

INJECTOR PUMP DECAL

From that I gather that this thing must be almost like a little engine and apparently has a crankcase that needs its oil changed every "?000km" (I'm guessing 5000km from the Japanese part) I couldn't see any filler or drain plug. After some looking and fiddling I found a dipstick. Dipstick is dry... I always thought the diesel acted as lubricant.

BLACK KNOB ON EXTREME RIGHT

DIPSTICK REMOVED

I still do not see a drain plug or filler plug, but came across a weird contraption at the back of the pump which may or may not have something to do with the lubrication system.

WEIRD CONTRAPTION

And then the bit about oiling the governor diaphragm every 5000km with "leather oil" What is that??? And "2 -4 drops." I've known a hell of a lot of these cruisers in my life, and they were lucky to see an oil change once in 2 or 3 years... "2-4 drops of leather oil" Not on your life!

I wish I could bet a replacement decal as I'll probably spray over it when I paint the pump.

When I took the oil filter attachment off and cleaned that I found a service instruction decal on the canister too. Very faded and over-sprayed a bit but still legible if the light hits it at the right angle. I have not sprayed the canister becuse I'm trying to make up my mind whether to paint it or leave it to preserve the decal. Maybe I will try to cover both with masking tape and spray around them.

OIL FILTER CANISTER DECAL

Well, it's off to reading the FSM to learn about injector pumps.

 

[diogenese]

Do you have the H engine manual?
Dropbox - 1976 H Motor FSM 98112.pdf

 

[Dagha Boy]

Thank you. Thank you. I was about to start searching. I've read the tune up chapter and already that has taught me a lot. I had 2 Dynas with the HU engine and I don't think their injector pumps ever had their lube checked much less their governors given 2-4 drops of oil. They just got on with it and ran forever.

Thanks again.

 

[handcannon]

You might find the info in this thread about the 3B IP oil kind of interesting. 3B Fuel pump leaking ?

I don't remember what thread it was, but Tom (lostmarbles) started a thread about when he found out about draining out excess oil in the IP. He should be able to point you in the right direction for his thread. I think you'll also find his thread interesting.

Don

 

[Zimmi]

Great build. Love the wildlife pics. Takes me back to my childhood.

 

[Dagha Boy]

Hey Don, thanks for that. I'm certainly learning all kinds of new stuff every day. And IH8MUD with some of these guys is like the University of Land Cruiser. Right now I guess I'm in the IP School, next week it may be the Brake School.

Howzit Zimmi. Thanks and glad you like the pics of the critters around the house. I feel for you having lost that beautiful country. We're not there yet but the slide is inexorable. I have always maintained that in Africa it takes 30 years from pre independence civilization to get back to the tribal state. But, I thought we would beat that here because we were so much more developed with a sophisticated economy and a white population that had become naturalised Africans. I was wrong, the writing is on the wall... But having said that it is still one of the greatest places on earth to live, especially in the bush.

 

[Dagha Boy]

I had a bit of time to kill on Thursday so decided to go and take another look at the "barn find" now that the excitement has worn off a bit. A whole different story in the cold light of the morning I'm afraid to say.

At first glance the body work looks really good.

THE HOOD. (PRETTY AS A PICTURE)

CLOSE UP. NOT SO NICE.

The panels were all sandblasted and then painted, but it is obvious that insufficient care was taken. The body panels have been outside in the weather for more than a year and in this spot you can see clearly that the paint has cracked and the water got in underneath. Not a big area, but the big question for me is how much more of this is there that hasn't become evident yet but will in a year or so...

THE BACK. (VERY NICE.)

UNDERNEATH

CROSS BRACE WITH ORIGINAL MUD STILL IN PLACE.

No man!!! They did not bother to sand blast or even properly clean the underside. This is bad, bad prep. Shows me that whoever did it was either intent on taking short cuts or simply didn't care. The doubts grow.

Now to the tub and doors...

 

[Dagha Boy]

THE TUB AND DOORS.

Looks reasonable at a distance. Only one fender though and that has not even had the dent taken out where the corner light was attached. The windshield hinges left in place. There IS rust under there. I know. It's OEM rust from Toyota taking short cuts and not painting before fitting the hinges.

The dash board trim?? Was that just put back like that temporarily or wasn't it even taken off properly? Who knows and to top it, it hs thick looks like hand brushed paint on it. Fuel filler left in and just sprayed over. How did they sand blast this thing with all that in place?

Left side floor/transmission hump. Two patches there. I'm no metal worker and until a few months ago had never worked on sheet metal. If my work had looked like that I would have taken it elsewhere to be done. You can't see it in the picture, but they did not even use a grinder to smooth it a bit. I can only assume they did not bother to clean the welds before painting.

MORE TUB

Pieces of the wiring harness and the pedals left in place and all heavily sprayed over. Where the dash was hacked the hole was not closed but simply left rough and bent. Rusting Mic holder bracket left in place on dash cover. Gauges rusted - you can even see it on the pic. One door retainer left and partially sprayed over - the other one is gone.

THE DOORS

The doors looked reasonable from the outside... but the insides are raw with surface rust, dirt, dust etc, large parts of which have been covered in overspray. I was getting weepy at this point so did not take pics of that. There is no indication that the doors were ever rusted through and repaired or are deeply rusted but they do need to be properly sand blasted sealed and painted. They may have been sandblasted on the outside, but certainly not on the inside...

The underside of the tub has been left muddy and rust speckled just like the load bed.

Not "just for assembling" as I had originally thought in my initial excitement.

My estimation is that the body parts are good and solid. But will have to be properly disassembled and sand blast all over. Bad workmanship will have to be cut out, and a total proper undercoat up applied. New fender and everything for the doors. I could not find a roof and sides and no glass. No parts for the doors either. Everything is needed new...

CHASSIS FRAME. (REAR)

The frame is a thing of great beauty. Heavily powder coated. Really nice, but for an ugly tow bar (?) bracket welded to the back of the frame. You can't see it clearly on the photo, but you can see its shadow. That will have to be cut off which will screw up the powder coating. How stupid can you be? Radiator support frame was also left in place -WHY???? I could not find the radiator and fan shroud...

CHASSIS FRAME (FRONT)

Centre arm hanging by one bolt. Powder coated all over... Left had side bumper bracket needs repair - more powder coat damage...

Bottom line, lots missing and a hell of a lot of work to get that frame to what it should be...

 

[Dagha Boy]

And now for the mechanical stuff.

Aaargh. I can't carry on right after the body stuff, I'm going to have to take a lie down first.

To be continued...

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

yikes, but if it were easy - everyone would do it and there's no profit in that...

 

[DSB345]

Hang in there bud. You will get to the other side. Remember, It's nothing but a lot of small projects one at a time. Great thread by the way!
Dave

 

[2fpower]

The condition you are showing us is not that bad. What I am seeing in these pictures, any one of us would salivate over in the states.

Some of what I am hearing sounds like the OCD coming out. I admit to having it, so I am not poking fun! Rarely do I see work that I purchase (at a bargain price) that I think is good enough for my standards. That is why my current rig is spread out in my shop!

Bottom line, you have to determine what is "good enough" for you. If you are building these to sell, you need to get comfortable with what is good enough vs perfection. Perfection is what I end up shooting for; however, I am not trying to make money at this. I am getting ready to sell my ol' blue rig, and I fully understand that if I were to add up the hours, I am going to get around $5 an hour for all my work.

 

[Dagha Boy]

SBG. The next one will not be for profit, it will be a keeper. The way I look at it the less I spend on the junker, the more I have left to put into it, and of course the less junk the junker is the better.

Dave. You're so right. After reading your post I pulled my wiring harness out of the box it has been hiding in. Just one project within the bigger project. Right? It looked daunting lying on the floor. The solution, I followed your advice, break it into a whole lot of even smaller projects. I started at the left front tip and ignored all else. Left headlight, left horn, temp sender, alternator to regulator, oil pressure... an hey, I was at the firewall already. Not nearly as daunting as it looked as a whole. Thanks for the compliment.

2fpower. Perfectionism, OCD, call it what you will, I got it and in heaps! The Dagha Boy has to be sold, so by my reasoning it has to be perfect because I cannot sell a thing that is half arsed. The next one will be for me, and I'll never be able to live with just good enough so that will have to be perfect.

Problem with this barn find is that I'm seeing a very good foundation, but whoever worked on it is f#%@ ing it up. Shortcuts too many to fix individually, you have to start from scratch. How do you sandblast the outside of the body work and don't bother to turn it over and do the underside?

When first seeing it I was all excited and thought it had been done properly and needed minimal work to get to assembly stage. I'm bitterly disappointed that it isn't.

I'm still interested but it is just a heap of parts really. The only thing that has been done is that it has been pulled apart and the parts are scattered all over. That is going to cause much frustration in the rebuild. For me anyway. I put everything into a little ziplock bag with a label and then a bunch of baggies grouped together in a labelled box and onto the shelf. It makes life sooo easy doing it that way. Anybody can walk in here and take over the Dagha Boy build without a problem.

Bottom line is, I want it but I'm not going to pay top dollar for it. I don't care that the frame is powder coated, I'm going to have to work on the frame so the powder coating will be compromised. I'm sure the owner has spent a lot getting to where it is but I'm not paying for any of that. The negotiations could be interesting!

On the Dagha Boy front, still waiting for parts for the axles so the frame just waits.

All the engine parts have been cleaned, painted and put back loosely. It needs a new oil pump and new rings, so I'll strip all the outside stuff off again before that is done.

ENGINE BEFORE

ENGINE AFTER

The drought carries on, reported to be the worst in 100 years. The animals are suffering badly, and in their desperation to get food have lost almost all fear. The MWFD is frantically trying to save the lawn, but where it is outside the fence it gets nailed. A few months ago the "lawn" in the picture was beautiful but the zebras zap it. At first they came at night, now they come in the day, even while I'm working in the carport. They have no fear of coming into the confined space and no fear of me.

DESPERATE FOR SOME GREEN.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

when I started my project, I could have relatively easily put it back to stock and likely sold it for a decent profit. what's funny, though, is now that I'm about done with it now (shipwreck); I've had offers that equal a profit of more than what a nut n bolt resto FJ40 would bring (in the states). The difference is I built it for myself. It's so easy to build an unsellable (at a profit) car; but I think I've changed my mind about what can bring the most profit - just like your build - people like what you've done and will pay a premium for it.

build it for yourself, and when it inevitably sells (unless, of course you'll be buried with it) it will command a premium because you built it.

and no, I'm not selling (yet) - the offer, while tempting, wasn't enough...

 

[Dagha Boy]

Our market is unfortunately a bit different to yours. To start it is very small and not very flush. The very, very best I can hope to get for this one is about R200k (USD $13k) but more likely around $11k at the top and $10k at the bottom. BUT, that is going to take time. I'm guessing it is going to cost me between $10 and $12k when finished, so the reality is that in this market it is a matter of by how much I can limit my loss.

To get that kind of price I will have to keep it pristine so will not be able to drive it much beyond a good shake-down trip to ensure everything is ok and to give everything a chance to settle down to be able to check torques on everything afterwards.

The one avenue I want to explore is moving it to the USA and selling it there....??? From what I have been able to determine off the internet I should get a better price there even though it is RHD. I have no idea what kind of red tape and concomitant costs will be involved on that side. Also whether it would be better to take it to Portland, Oregon, or De Kalb, Illinois, the two places I have connections to be able to keep it for sale. Or, do I ship it directly to an auctioneer somewhere and just auction it off. Break-even is the holy grail on this one.

The next one is MINE. That one I'll spend on and use it for however long and whatever I get for it after that will be pure profit.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Portland because the overland community is a lot stronger there. If you do decide to import - that's part of my day job. The expensive part is shipping, the hard part is documentation more specifically that every VIN numbered part either matches or you have proof that it's not stolen. Once you have it together, getting a pre-clearance before it ever leaves your dock puts you miles ahead. There are reputable companies that do nothing but import - some don't even cost that much (their cost is the bond, which, if you get pre-clearance should be zero or very little dollars)

 

[Dagha Boy]

Sounds like I will have to consult you professionally. The more I think about it the more attractive it becomes as a proposition.

Before we can export a vehicle from SA we have to take it to the specialist motor vehicle theft branch of the National police and they physically check the Vin number, engine number and all records and then issue a "Police Clearance Certificate" certifying that it is not stolen. That has to be presented to customs when leaving.

All our second hand vehicles, when being registered the second time have to be spray marked with micro dots, for which a certificate is issued by the government approved applicator. That enables them to pick up stolen parts from chop shops and tie them to a specific vehicle.

The Cruisers here have only the frame number in the normal place and a plate in the engine bay firewall with the same number on. The engine number is on the engine only and not correlated with the VIN/Chassis number. I could perhaps get documentation from Toyota to show that the specific frame and engine numbers go together.

Two questions, if you don't mind...

Firstly, roughly what do you estimate shipping will be? A number of ports are available, but the big motor car export ports are Durban (Toyota) East London (Mercedes Benz) (I know Merc sends C class vehicles to the USA) Port Elizabeth (Volkswagen and GM) I believe statistics show that we export more motor vehicles to the USA than we import from you. Which route they follow to get there I don't know.

Secondly, would it be easier/better if the vehicle was already registered on this side in the name of a US citizen?

And then the third of the two questions: You say "overland community." Here that means guys with vehicles rigged for camping and being away from civilization for long periods typically travelling to the wilder parts of Africa for periods of months at a time. Does it have the same meaning there? If so, then I imagine a good canopy (camper shell) would be a worthwhile addition?

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

We do need to talk - you have no idea how attractive diesel powered Land-Rovers (pre-91) are here.... especially LHD.

Overland community = Expedition Portal Forum

It doesn't matter who it was registered to there, the "easiest" way would be to bring your own personal vehicle to the US then not take it home.

Shipping, I haven't a clue today - but probably could find out in a day or two. The biggest issue is how it transports. Optimal is a RoRo, but sending it via shipping crate isn't a terrible option either. The real advantage to you is are on some major trade routes - so it's not like shipping a car to Bolivia.... that is a nightmare. Also, about the shipping, I've found it's harder to ship through a automobile-only port. Customs people know how to do new cars, not 50 year old cars and to make them think is about as easy as you're finding getting the striped horses out of our yard.

 

[Dagha Boy]

Rain, beautiful rain. We had 22mm last night and this morning it is overcast and cold 20*C. Not much or enough rain, but at least the hellish heat of the past 4 months is broken. There is hope.

Why did God make new parts so damn pretty? Makes me want to buy all new stuff but he didn't supply the wherewithal to go with the temptation.

What gets me on that subject is that I got some new bits yesterday. Two new fenders at an absolute bargain price... but they are for a LHD vehicle. Maybe that's why they were about half the price of others, but I suspect the others may also be for LHD - I'll check that out tomorrow. Either way, the mods required are minor - cut away for the steering box on one and blank off allowance for steering box on the other.

Rebuild kits for the centre arm and draglink.

New top for thermostat housing. This was also surprisingly reasonably priced @ R300 about USD $19. I was expecting a not-so-nice aftermarket part, but surprise, surprise it appears to be a genuine Toyota part. When I pulled the supplier's label off, there was what appears to be a Toyota OEM parts sticker on it. A genuine Toyota part for less than $20! I didn't know such a thing existed.

Got the new flanges for the axles as well and dropped them off. Hopefully I will get them back on Friday and can then finish up the frame.

Also got two new door handles and door lock mechanisms and two tail light clusters. Again at a really good price. I had been waiting to buy them in the Sates next month, but at the prices these guys (N1 4x4 in Pretoria) quoted, about half of CCOT's website, I had to get them here.

After reading Dave's post #251 above on Sunday, I decided to pull the wiring harness out of the box it had been sitting in since the middle of last year. My first impression had been that it was toast and would have to be completely redone. I took Dave's advice and started with the first project - clean it up so I can see what is what.

OUT OF THE BOX ONTO THE FLOOR. (TATTY BUT NOT TOO BAD)

Took lots of close up pictures of each branch and then I stripped of all the relays etc (I do not have a clue what any of them do)

Yesterday morning I gave it a good bath in some nice powerful cleaning stuff, rinsed it off well and then hung it out to dry. Wow, what a difference. The I got distracted having to take the MWFD to the airport, and to pick up the new parts at a local bushpub where it was to be dropped off. One thing led to another beer and I eventually got home merrily after dark. No thought given to the now very dry wiring harness hanging outside. The 22mm of rain overnight wet it down nicely again. I've hung it up in the carport and it drips gently on my back while I'm on the computer. Small price to pay for rain.

GENTLY DRIPPING

The harness is not too bad. Amazing what a good clean-up can do. Little bit of hacking over the years is present and at least the charge wire from the alternator shows signs (melted plastic) of burning. Plan is to take all the relays, regulator etc to be tested and identified, take the tattered binding off, visually inspect all the wiring and test for continuity and resistance, identify what needs replacing and get that from Coolerman next month. Shouldn't take too long to replace what needs to be replaced, rewrap it all and put it back in when I get back in June.

 

[Dagha Boy]

This ole wiring harness has turned out to be very nice still. Properly cleaned and dried I inspected it and found that only two of the heavy gauge wires connected to the Glow Plug relay had been melted. Not burned, but just melted. Although they had stuck to some of the other wires in the loom I was able to pull those free gently without causing any damage.

MELTED

COULD THIS BE THE CAUSE?

I tried to get replacement wire here but can't get the correct colours so will order from Coolerman. This harness is really soooo good, I must put the right stuff back.

The only other hassle with the harness is that I need to replace a few of the connectors, especially the bullet types to the front indicators/ fuel sender and the temp and oil pressure senders. The bullet types seem to be mud traps and rust. I have yet to inspect all connectors very carefully for corrosion/ loose wires but so far it looks really good.

Any advice on how to extract the "clips" from the plug body?

The only other problem is where somebody tapped into wires right at the fuse box. Not too bad. I'll get some of the correct wire from Coolerman, cut them further back to within the wrapped part so I have clean wire going from the wrap to the plug.

I'm not too clued up on auto elec, especially when it comes to all the little black boxes. I have however been able to identify all except one.

WHAT IS THIS?

I will take them all to my guy in town to test next week.