I've got my hash pipe..... (1 Viewer)

[buckroseau]

Nothing special, managed to get about an hour or so in tonight. Got the rear tire carrier mounted. Found an old thread on mud with some very specific dimension. I didn’t take very good pics of the process, but using those dimensions and measuring off the door opening. I scribed some lines and then clamped it in place. Everything looked really good so drilled a few holes, tapped and started mounting. There was a foam block on the back of the one door when I got it from Australia. Carrier lined up perfect with that old block, so must be good???

Took a pic of the original rear view mirror, this is not going to work with the aqualu windshield frame, the base of it is too tall and will hang below the frame itself and look goofy. If someone has another mirror that you think might work please chime in, I’m all ears.

Matt

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

Are you tapping directly into the aluminum sheet or is there a backer piece? How thick is the aluminum?

 

[buckroseau]

Are you tapping directly into the aluminum sheet or is there a backer piece? How thick is the aluminum?

I am tapping directly into the aluminum. That being said most bolts will get a washer and nyloc on the back side too. On the tub aqualu has welded an additional 3/16” backing plate fairly large in those mount areas, so the aluminum is 3/8” thick that area. The area below the doors is a rectangle channel about 3/8” thick. When the tub comes off for paint and is upside down I’m going to transfer those holes to the back side. Not sure if I need to bolt all they way thru but I want the option.

 

[Owyhee Jackass]

What are you using on the bolts to prevent galvanic corrosion? Will regular anti-seize do the job? I've had SS bolts seize up in a aluminum bike frame in just a few years.

As far as your mirror dilemma, with a vehicle that long, you may want to add a back-up camera. Adding more electronics is not my thing, I just back up 'till I hit something, then pull forward a bit.

 

[buckroseau]

Not a whole lot to report. Spent a couple hours in the shop tonight, mostly thinking. I stopped by an Office Depot today and had them copy my tag board dash templates. They used a tag board as well, I had to cut them up and I didn’t want to use my original, in case I needed for some reason.

Used a razor blade to cut out the holes. I held the center console up to the aluminum dash, marked the 4 screw holes on the aluminum. Then used those marks as a guide on my template to lay it out and trace lines for the opening. The template is reversed, which seemed to make sense. After I was done I stared at it for a while, and it did make sense, at least for the outside openings.

For fun I pulled the 4 - center assembly switches in the dash. What is different is that you have 2 pull knobs that are cables, small and have flat spots required in the center console. The other 2 are electrical switches that require the round hole. Now the original template and openings this makes sense. Those pair shaped openings in the center are designed to accept a larger electric switch on the top or bottom and a smaller cable pull on the other side. But, now you have both cable pulls that are on the same side and both electrical switches on the same side. On a left hand drive unit are they still that shape, or is one larger than the other and the same size from top to bottom? Maybe not a big deal, but there is some structure needed for the screws to thread into the dash. If I start expanding things out I may lose some of that. May not be a big deal, but I would like to see the steel behind that console on a left hand drive dash.

I sent a few pics to the Netherland cruiser connection tonight. Of course he’s sleeping now but when he wakes up he gets to look at my pics and read my ramblings, I feel for that guy. That being said, pretty solid dude for helping me out. See what he comes up with.

Threw the spare tire on for fun, I like that.

All for now. Matt.

 

[buckroseau]

What are you using on the bolts to prevent galvanic corrosion? Will regular anti-seize do the job? I've had SS bolts seize up in a aluminum bike frame in just a few years.

As far as your mirror dilemma, with a vehicle that long, you may want to add a back-up camera. Adding more electronics is not my thing, I just back up 'till I hit something, then pull forward a bit.

Anti seize, paint and rubber between items where I can.

I’m going to pass on the back up camera. Maybe 10 years ago I may have done something like that, but right now I have to pass. With my wife and the age my kids are at time is tough to come by. I just want to do a good job, keep it simple and get it back on the road as quick as I can.

Matt

 

[buckroseau]

Had some back and forth with the Netherlands connection last night on fb. Mostly about the current geo political climate we live in. Somewhere buried in that conversation he explained to me that older landcruisers are few and far between. Europe in their ultimate wisdom has made it somewhat difficult for people to own and operate older vehicles, so not many around anymore.

That being said he was able to use google a little better than I. He was able to find a bare metal pic of a left hand dash. Blue pic is a rhd dash, white one is a Lhd. There are a few differences. The opening to the left in the LHD is the same as the rhd, but reversed. The far right opening is quite a bit larger, not sure why? The 2 center openings make sense to me. Both rectangular on the Lhd dash, one wider than the other. That makes total sense considering that 2 are for those narrow cables and the wider opening is for both switch’s.

I think im going to keep the outside openings the way I have them for now. If that one needs to be larger for some reason I can make it bigger, although I don’t think I will have to. The 2 center openings I will have to wing it. I know where they need to be, centered and height. It will be a matter of the narrow one being the narrow width of the pair shape. The wider one will be the wider width of the pair shape.

On another note, one thing I have noticed is I have yet to see a tach on the dash on a LHD HJ47. Not sure why?

Matt

 

[buckroseau]

Got in a few hours today. Almost all of it cutting holes in the dash. Said it before, extremely time consuming cutting and finishing aluminum. Once the holes were cut started fitting the center console. I had to make some slight modifications to the back of the console. It was designed to fit into the contour of a stock dash. Since the aqualu tub is flat, I had to to shave a little steel off the back to flatten the back of the console. I transferred all the hardware over from the rhd console to the LHD console. Did a little test fitting and tweaking, then drilled and tapped the 4 holes. I think it fits and looks good, factory I guess. Cut my template that I had done for the fuel filter and glow plug light, marked the hole location.

I was looking at aqualu ‘s website after looking at my dash, and i haven’t seen a dash pad on an aqualu aluminum tub. I won’t go it into the details but I think it can be done but is going to require some thinking and engineering. More on this to come.

Matt

 

[troopie]

Looking good Matt!
And no problem at all. I have spend more time on my 45 last week than i have in the six months before. It deserves some attention

 

[buckroseau]

I’ve had some days this last week I could have been working on the hj47. But I’ve been feeling a a bit under the weather. Not sure if I picked up some rona or not, seem to be working thru it. I made an attempt to do some work today, although I only lasted about an hour. I managed to cut the holes in the dash for filter and glow plug lights. I was looking at the tach. I could have swore at one time I saw a thread where they reversed the dial 180 degrees. It could be mounted in the orientation as it sits but I think it would be nice to reverse it.

Matt.

 

[Honger]

I’ve had some days this last week I could have been working on the hj47. But I’ve been feeling a a bit under the weather. Not sure if I picked up some rona or not, seem to be working thru it. I made an attempt to do some work today, although I only lasted about an hour. I managed to cut the holes in the dash for filter and glow plug lights. I was looking at the tach. I could have swore at one time I saw a thread where they reversed the dial 180 degrees. It could be mounted in the orientation as it sits but I think it would be nice to reverse it.

Matt.

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Someone has a billet version of that tach bezel somewhere around here... might be an opportunity to reverse the orientation.

 

[whitey45]

I bought one of the billet ones a few years ago for my bj45 troopy. I dont recall who had it, but will search.

 

[thecrazygreek]

I can spin up a polymer version. If you could provide some basic dimensions to confirm what I have I will give it a shot.

 

[buckroseau]

1 of 2

Few hours today. I had reached out to aqualu a few weeks about installing the stock dash pad. I had looked at customer rigs on their website and didn’t see any installed. When I reach out to Rene at aqualu he wasn’t aware of anyway to do that, he mentioned that even ICon doesn’t do a dash pad. Personally I think the dash pad kinda makes up a big part of the interior.

Did a little thinking and thought up what I thought would be a good way to mount the dash pad. I was able to obtain the stock top tin piece from my local 1979 chassis guy, he had a junk firewall I was able to drill out the spot welds. I then had a piece of 20 gauge bent up at a local steel shop. Back in the day I would have sheared and bent it up myself. When we moved 8 years ago i sold my shear and break. After trimming some of the stock tin off I busted out the spot welder and welded the 2 together. The new piece fits the dash pad abs then I’m using the dash pad bolts that are threaded into the aluminum dash to support the the piece. Overall it worked extremely well.

Matt

 

[buckroseau]

2 of 2

Few other miscellaneous pics.

Windshield dash bracket. Aqualu sent an aluminum bracket that mounts the dash Not really doing it for me. I’m thinking I could drill out the factory dash bracket, weld the holes shut and bolt that stock bracket to the dash. At least that’s my plan.

Drilled and used the die grinder to cut out the holes for 2 main electrical lines.

Dig out the ac unit, trying to figure out where the holes need to go. I had made some templates 10 years ago. The ac unit was on the left side, now it will be on the right. I think the lines on the back side are going to need to be modified.

Looking at cutting the stock clutch bracket off the firewall and bolting it to the aluminum firewall to support the hard/ soft line.

Need to figure the tach out. Have a template of that as well from 10 years ago.

Matt

 

[subzali]

1 of 2

Few hours today. I had reached out to aqualu a few weeks about installing the stock dash pad. I had looked at customer rigs on their website and didn’t see any installed. When I reach out to Rene at aqualu he wasn’t aware of anyway to do that, he mentioned that even ICon doesn’t do a dash pad. Personally I think the dash pad kinda makes up a big part of the interior.

Did a little thinking and thought up what I thought would be a good way to mount the dash pad. I was able to obtain the stock top tin piece from my local 1979 chassis guy, he had a junk firewall I was able to drill out the spot welds. I then had a piece of 20 gauge bent up at a local steel shop. Back in the day I would have sheared and bent it up myself. When we moved 8 years ago i sold my shear and break. After trimming some of the stock tin off I busted out the spot welder and welded the 2 together. The new piece fits the dash pad abs then I’m using the dash pad bolts that are threaded into the aluminum dash to support the the piece. Overall it worked extremely well.

Matt

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That is stellar. Late 40s need a dash pad.

 

[Scheefdog]

Everything you are doing looks great and you seem to be making quick work of it! This is a valuable thread for those of us doing an aqualu tub - thanks for documenting everything.

For cutting aluminum like you are doing with all of the dash stuff, these Aluminum jigsaw blades work great. You can buy them on Amazon or maybe the local hardware store. It looks like you have most everything cut now, but it might be valuable for the next person with an Aqualu.
Bosch T227D

T-Shank Jig Saw Pro Blades for Metal | Bosch Professional

www.boschtools.com

 

[buckroseau]

I bought one of the billet ones a few years ago for my bj45 troopy. I dont recall who had it, but will search.

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Any luck finding out who sold you this??

 

[buckroseau]

I can spin up a polymer version. If you could provide some basic dimensions to confirm what I have I will give it a shot.

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What would you need from me? I can send you the entire tach. Would you be able to mold up the back side as well?

 

[MDH33]

Have you tried opening the tach up to see if you can just rotate the internals 180°?