I guess it really started before last week. I received a bunch of parts for the cruiser for my 40th birthday including a ARB tree strap, steering wheel cover, winch, winch plate, etc.. My aunt got my some Gamviti gutter mounts and I had already purchased a ATV ramp in preparation for removing the stock roof rack and building my own J-Moose rack.
Fast forward to Sunday, May 31st. The J-Moose rack is complete and ready to be bolted on. I had horror stories of rust underneath the factory roof rack but I was convinced that wouldn't happen to my Cruiser. I pulled out the first two bolts. The factory roof rack was so wobbly that it lifted right up with three anchor points still attached. Sure enough, I was wrong and there was rust. No big deal. I pulled up two more anchor points. Some rust but nothing bad. The rear passenger corner was the wake up call. After removing the screws, large flakes of rust and paint were falling out. This was BAD.
From the picture it looks like surface rust. But what you can see are the bubbles that extend a 1/2" past the rust hole and the layers of rust and steel that came out after scratching the surface. I knew then I was going to be up very late each night.
The only way to repair these holes the right way was from the inside out. Well... that means pulling the headliner. The process went fast and I was about to get it out in one piece. It was a lot of work but easier than I expected. I love the way Land Cruisers are built.
Once the headliner was out, I was in for another surprise. There were no nutserts. The factory roof rack was held on with sheet metal screws. The screws had done a wonderful job of pulling the sheet metal up. The second surprise was that the front set of screws were inside the sunroof. Ugh... Now the sunroof had to come out.
I removed all the rust from each hole and leveled out the sheet metal with a mini-sledge and a ball peen hammer. I didn't have the time or patience to find a body hammer and dolly. This worked incredibly well. I wanted to weld the holes to make things right but didn't have the tools for spot welding on sheet metal. I used the traditional fender hole cover up: metal mesh and foil tape. I treated each screw hole with rust remover and started applying bondo. This was my first time with bondo but I LOVE it. I've done a lot of wood working in the past and bondo dries so much quicker than I expected. It dries rock hard and yet is easy to stand and shape. My bondo work wasn't the best but it was certainly good enough.
Blue paint and grey primer on my nose from sanding.
Bondo is now good. I used metal mesh on the really large deep rust hole to reinforce it further. My options at this point for a finish coat was either paint the bondo only a close blue, paint the bondo a random color till I decide what to do, or paint the whole roof white. I've always wanted a white roof for heat reflection so white it was. I picked up some tape and had some ideas. This was my inspiration. I've had this image saved on my computer for almost two years.
6 cans of flat white paint later, I had a new roof. My bondo work although not perfect in my eyes completely disappeared under the white paint and I was very surprised.
Finally, I feel like I am making progress. While the headliner was out, I decided to add some sound deadener and insulation. I only had a hair dryer and shipping took longer than expected but the entire roof was lined with a 80mil layer of Noice sound deadener and reflectix insulation to help with heat and road noise. When installing sound deadener, buy a heat gun! I used a hair dryer for half of it which takes 4 times longer to get the material hot. No photos. I was working late into the night on this.
I had a friend come over on Thursday. The sunroof, headliner, and all the interior bits went back in quickly and after 4 days of hell, I was able to add my J-Moose rack to the roof.
Friday I packed the Cruiser up and headed to Freeman Park with the guys. The roof top carrier, XL canopy, and hammock A-frames all went on top of the roof rack.
We had a blast at Freeman Park. Hammock camping on the beach is awesome and probably one of the most comfortable nights I've ever had outside under the stars. Everything was great... until the storm came and I found out quickly that I need a snorkel....
to be continued.
Fast forward to Sunday, May 31st. The J-Moose rack is complete and ready to be bolted on. I had horror stories of rust underneath the factory roof rack but I was convinced that wouldn't happen to my Cruiser. I pulled out the first two bolts. The factory roof rack was so wobbly that it lifted right up with three anchor points still attached. Sure enough, I was wrong and there was rust. No big deal. I pulled up two more anchor points. Some rust but nothing bad. The rear passenger corner was the wake up call. After removing the screws, large flakes of rust and paint were falling out. This was BAD.
From the picture it looks like surface rust. But what you can see are the bubbles that extend a 1/2" past the rust hole and the layers of rust and steel that came out after scratching the surface. I knew then I was going to be up very late each night.
The only way to repair these holes the right way was from the inside out. Well... that means pulling the headliner. The process went fast and I was about to get it out in one piece. It was a lot of work but easier than I expected. I love the way Land Cruisers are built.
Once the headliner was out, I was in for another surprise. There were no nutserts. The factory roof rack was held on with sheet metal screws. The screws had done a wonderful job of pulling the sheet metal up. The second surprise was that the front set of screws were inside the sunroof. Ugh... Now the sunroof had to come out.
I removed all the rust from each hole and leveled out the sheet metal with a mini-sledge and a ball peen hammer. I didn't have the time or patience to find a body hammer and dolly. This worked incredibly well. I wanted to weld the holes to make things right but didn't have the tools for spot welding on sheet metal. I used the traditional fender hole cover up: metal mesh and foil tape. I treated each screw hole with rust remover and started applying bondo. This was my first time with bondo but I LOVE it. I've done a lot of wood working in the past and bondo dries so much quicker than I expected. It dries rock hard and yet is easy to stand and shape. My bondo work wasn't the best but it was certainly good enough.
Blue paint and grey primer on my nose from sanding.
Bondo is now good. I used metal mesh on the really large deep rust hole to reinforce it further. My options at this point for a finish coat was either paint the bondo only a close blue, paint the bondo a random color till I decide what to do, or paint the whole roof white. I've always wanted a white roof for heat reflection so white it was. I picked up some tape and had some ideas. This was my inspiration. I've had this image saved on my computer for almost two years.
6 cans of flat white paint later, I had a new roof. My bondo work although not perfect in my eyes completely disappeared under the white paint and I was very surprised.
Finally, I feel like I am making progress. While the headliner was out, I decided to add some sound deadener and insulation. I only had a hair dryer and shipping took longer than expected but the entire roof was lined with a 80mil layer of Noice sound deadener and reflectix insulation to help with heat and road noise. When installing sound deadener, buy a heat gun! I used a hair dryer for half of it which takes 4 times longer to get the material hot. No photos. I was working late into the night on this.
I had a friend come over on Thursday. The sunroof, headliner, and all the interior bits went back in quickly and after 4 days of hell, I was able to add my J-Moose rack to the roof.
Friday I packed the Cruiser up and headed to Freeman Park with the guys. The roof top carrier, XL canopy, and hammock A-frames all went on top of the roof rack.
We had a blast at Freeman Park. Hammock camping on the beach is awesome and probably one of the most comfortable nights I've ever had outside under the stars. Everything was great... until the storm came and I found out quickly that I need a snorkel....
to be continued.
