LHD BJ74 for sale

[lumpy70]

Thought I'd try posting this here:

https://forum.ih8mud.com/vehicles-trailers-sale-wanted/240948-lhd-bj74-sale.html

 

[toynut]

Thats not a bad price, maybe a tiny bit steep but not by much, there are two places that i know of that will do the conversion for about $3000, so if you figure it out you can pic up a 74 now for between 10 to 14 g plus cost to convert, and voila.
just wondering why you are selling after all that work, now if you want to go ahead and convert an 80 for me we can talk .

 

[lumpy70]

I think the price is fair given the $1600 in parts I bought to get the LHD A/C. I think you could do it for $3000 without those parts because the RHD A/C won't work in LHD configuration. That plus the other parts, consumables (steel, welding gas, zip discs, paint, etc) and my labor is where I got my price.

Anyways, why am I selling? I've got a brand new baby and 2 full grown labs and the truck isn't really suitable for holding all of the above in the level of comfort that my wife would like. Read into that as much as you like. Basically she says it's no good for all of us.

I'll be buying an HDJ81 once this gets sold.

Anyways, the truck is listed as "or best offer" so as long as the offer is reasonable I'd be interested.

Craig.

 

[Deny]

Is one of those two places that does the conversion Carian Wilson, not some back yard mechanic hack job? $3000 is pretty cheap in my books, for an attention to detail kind of conversion.

 

[lumpy70]

$3000 is pretty cheap in my books

Agreed. I didn't want to argue, but I have my doubts that it could be done at that price. $3000 covered my parts without A/C and doesn't cover my labor at all.

Craig.

 

[Mud_Guppie]

Nice job on the 74! good price too

 

[toynut]

i was told the conversion process was fairly straight forward, i was qouted for converting an hj61 using some parts from a bj60, the 74 may cost more i wont name the 2 shops i talked to ciran was not one of them one of them is on vancouver island and the other in the lowermainland, both have done conversions to date, i was told what parts i would need basicaly a junker bj60 and the hj61, as far as back yard hack job i dont know, both guys i talked to have solid reputaions so maybe the $3000 was not acurate but i was told most of the cost would be in labour.

 

[Deny]

Yeah I would think 3000 is a fair price for a 60, cause crappy 60s are a dime a dozen, we still have like 4 sitting at my parents place and already hauled one up north. But I would still think that if you wanted it to look 100% original, like Carians work, Haven't seen Craigs work( but someone anal enough to source out a LHD airconditioner unit instead of jimshiming something together would probably do a good job) price would probably still be higher.
Cheers,
Deny

 

[lumpy70]

i was told the conversion process was fairly straight forward, i was qouted for converting an hj61 using some parts from a bj60, the 74 may cost more i wont name the 2 shops i talked to ciran was not one of them one of them is on vancouver island and the other in the lowermainland, both have done conversions to date, i was told what parts i would need basicaly a junker bj60 and the hj61, as far as back yard hack job i dont know, both guys i talked to have solid reputaions so maybe the $3000 was not acurate but i was told most of the cost would be in labour.

Agreed the process was fairly simple but time consuming. There are a lot of 60 series around for donor parts but only 600 BJ70's ever in N. America so parts were harder to come by and I used my parted out Canadian BJ70 as a donor.

I don't want to insult anyone's reputation, but there is a difference between moving the steering box over and doing a full LHD conversion.

Maybe someone could do it for that price on a 60, I don't know. I just know that my conversion used a lot of 70 series parts that are unique and that I didn't do a back yard hack job, and I'm in for roughly $3000 without labor. Trust me when I say that in my asking price my labor works out to about $2.00 an hour.

I'm open to offers, maybe I'm out to lunch but I think that there is value to someone doing a complete and proper job that they will stand by.

Anyways, thanks for the response,
Craig.

 

[toynut]

I did not mean to question your work and I dont think I did, the suv market (not the only one ) has taken a bit of a dive, and the prices of them have gone down by a huge amount recently.

That being said I think there is a definate market for left hand drive diesels out there . I wondered if it may have been more practical to do an engine swap over the steering and pedal bucket conversion ?

 

[lumpy70]

I did not mean to question your work and I dont think I did

No worries, I didn't feel like you did either. I was referring to a couple of "hack and slash" jobs that I've heard of, probably the same as you were referring to.

I wondered if it may have been more practical to do an engine swap over the steering and pedal bucket conversion ?

Quite possibly, but I wanted the BJ74 body with the removable hardtop and the extra length. Plus, the firewall from my BJ70 was about the only thing straight and not rusty so putting the 13B-T into my 70 wouldn't be a very good option.

Craig.

 

[Greg_B]

I think the devil is in the details, as always. When you start with disassembling two entire firewalls with care, drill out pinch welds, coat, protect, spot weld back together, coat, protect, seam seal, paint...and while your there look after any frame cleaning/painting, and if you want the correct fuel door lever cable, and correct, and correct...then look after all the details for a clean re-install...

I've always admired Ciarans RHD to LHD work.

Good luck with the sale Craig; someone will step up when the fit matches. Tough market right now, and current happenings will not help. otoh, a bombproof 74 might be just the ticket for someone in todays climate.

gb