Builds 'Little Yellowy' 1982 BJ42 LX build (1 Viewer)

[plink01]

I bought a pretty cool piece of shed art on Ebay Aus the other week. Its printed on some sort of plasticy/canvasy material (I don't know what it is honestly). But it looks awesome!

 

[plink01]

I've received some pretty cool goodies lately.

This was off PartSouq. I've been using them a bit lately, they ship to Aus super quick, I generally get stuff i order within a week and their prices are pretty good.

I still don't understand how they have so many old parts in stock, when Toyota Australia has pretty much none and won't even attempt to locate any.
Maybe its just Toyota Bairnsdale but they are absolutely hopeless. Unless you have a fairly modern Toyota they don't want anything to do with you.

I bought a genuine 3b water pump. It came with the gasket but it got bent in the shipping which was a bit disappointing. The pump itself is brilliant and I can't believe I found a genuine brand new one.

I bought a Daihatsu fan. Daihatsu made parts for Toyota and i see that little boat logo about the place, so its close enough. This fan seems to have some extra bits on the fins, I'm interested to see how it goes.
I also bought a few extra oil filters.

I was disappointed about the bent gasket. I was at work and drove past Toyota and I swore I bought a part off them a while back but I couldn't remember what it was.

Literally 10 minutes later I get a text saying my part is ready to pick up.

I'm pretty excited cos I cannot for the life of me remember what I had ordered, I went to the parts counter and it was the water pump gasket! When I bought the water pump off PartSouq I didn't realise the gasket came with it. So I had actually ordered it twice. Toyota said there is only 3 more of them left in the country so buy one quick if you need one!

I was checking Ebay Aus for bits like I do every night and I came across this fuel filter assembly. It was only $50 Aus, I'm pretty sure that's a bargain!
There was nothing wrong with the assembly I had but for $50 I couldn't not buy it. Its genuine and the box looks super old. I think I'm starting to loose the plot.

So I now have every piece of gear to completely overhaul the cooling system. As soon as the 42' comes back from ARB ill be pulling the radiator and getting it rebuilt, and I'll replace all the hoses, pump, thermostat, heater tap, fan, coolant and reco the heater box.

I'm a little bit apprehensive about it. The coolant is currently a feral rust brown colour and im worried its been just water for the last 15 years or so. Hopefully it hasn't caused any damage.

Once that's done pretty much every serviceable part has been replaced and its ready for some real adventures.

 

[AussieHJCruza]

Toyota here doesn't give a damn about older trucks from my experience - partsouq or megazip are my go-to, local dealer wants $40 for an oil filter

 

[plink01]

Toyota here doesn't give a damn about older trucks from my experience - partsouq or megazip are my go-to, local dealer wants $40 for an oil filter

Yeah it's a bit of a joke. I always try my local dealer first and sometimes they surprise me. But I have to do all the research and get the part numbers off Amayama first.
The second I mention bj42 they just stare at me blankly and don't know where to start.

I'm now a big fan of Partsouq. Amayama's postage is excruciatingly slow. I haven't tried megazip yet.

 

[plink01]

Some other bits i've bought recently.

I found this air intake hose off Cityracer. Pretty impressive i thought, its super close to the original. Mine had lots of little cracks through it and was getting a bit tired. Pretty cool an American store selling parts for a car that wasn't even available in the States. I've ordered a bit off them now and the quality is always really good. I searched for months for a NOS hose but they don't seem to exist anymore.

Air hose installed.

I'm really happy how under the bonnet is coming up. I've never had a car that isn't a mess of wiring and oil under the bonnet. I'm doing my best to keep this one clean.
I'm spewing i didn't re paint the blower box when i had it out. The foam strips i put in weren't quite big enough anyway so ill pull it apart again and do it properly.

I'll be repainting the radiator surrounds when i remove the radiator to get re cored. I have all new hoses and belts, i have a new radiator cap and overflow bottle to go on once i flush the coolant. I'm going to order some power steering stickers off @ToyotaMatt, i got the overflow lid and radiator cap off him as well. He also sells tons of awesome 40 series bits. I have a new 3B sticker but a part of me sort of wants to keep the original.
I'd like to restore the valve cover as well but i'm wary of opening another can of worms. Once i start this stuff i can't stop and i don't want to go in too deep.

The mirrors on this car have been a never ending saga.

The ones it came with had the classic 40 series mirrors, all cracked and turning all powdery. So i bought some cheap Chinese ones with arms.

They were absolute trash and i regretted buying them as soon as i unwrapped them. The mirrors were all warped and were just as bad as the ones i was taking off. I think they we're the last straw for buying Chinese Landcruiser stuff. Don't ever do it!! It's all junk. You only ever end up buying everything twice.

So i had had a gut full and bought some Toyota NOS convex mirror heads, they were apparently an option you could tick when you bought the car back in the day.
These are incredible, i couldn't be happier with them. They cost a zillion dollars but i think they we're worth it. The vision they provide is like a modern vehicle.

I cleaned up the original arms and put the convex ones on it but the original arm's are too far gone. They're cracked and won't hold the mirror in place at more than 60kmph.

So i found this online store call Sykopaths somehow and they sell full metal chromed arms. They are pretty expensive at $143 AUS + shipping but i bit the bullet, NOS arms are really hard to come by and are even more expensive again.

They arrived and i can't quite get my head around them. The holes look like they were drilled by hand with a cordless drill by a 3 year old. I don't think i could drill holes that bad if i tried. The arms have dints all over them like they have been thrown around and the holes in the gasket supplied don't even line up. But the steel feels super solid.

I don't understand how they went to the trouble of making a chromed quality arm but got it so bad at the easiest bits. It will have to do, i can't be spending any more money on these ****ing mirrors!! I couldn't recommend them at that price. The idea is right, the execution is ordinary for the price that's paid. I havn't installed them yet, if they flop about in the wind i'm gonna loose it!

 

[60 mad]

I was driving through Bairnsdale on Thursday and seen this sitting out the front definitely stands out in a crowd looks good makes me want one bad

 

[plink01]

I was driving through Bairnsdale on Thursday and seen this sitting out the front definitely stands out in a crowd looks good makes me want one bad

Mate I think ARB are using it as an advertising piece. Its been like a statue out the front for the last month. This tank install is starting to get a bit ridiculous. I'm gonna give em a call tomorrow.

 

[plink01]

Bit of an update.

I got my mate who is an engineer to build me a recovery point for the rear, sort of similar to what comes standard with a Nissan Patrol.

It come up incredible, i couldn't be happier, its exactly what i was imagining in my head. I haven't fitted it yet, Ill be completely be removing the tow hitch setup and respraying the bumper while I'm at it. I'm not sure what it was painted with in the past but its crazy faded.

I sat it on to see if my measurements lined up and they look pretty good i think.

One of the biggest struggles I've had so far parts wise is trying to find some radio brackets.
My radio has been removed in the past for some reason and the space blanked off with a bit of ply wood. I'm not sure why the PO would do that, but finding some radio brackets was impossible! The brackets themselves would have been pretty simple to make but without having one to copy i really needed to find some.
After looking everywhere for about a year i ended up sourcing some from @TeamJB. They aren't OEM, i think he made up a batch a while back. I haven't fitted them yet as i'm still waiting for my radio to turn up but they look the goods i think. I actually bought a spare set while i was at it in case i ever buy another Landcruiser that doesn't have any!

I found some NOS door inner door handles. Mine are still ok but they have splits in them and i don't think they will last much longer. My interior is all brown and these are black, I think trying to find some LX brown ones would have been impossible. I'm not too fussed, i'd rather have proper Toyota ones than Chinese crap.

I found this genuine fuel filter on a website i had never heard of called halfpriceparts.com.au. It only cost $10 and i found this gasket on it as well for $3. I don't know what the gasket is even for, but for $3 i was buying it!

 

[plink01]

I've amassed a fair collection of bits again. Because of all the troubles at ARB i havn't had any time to work on it over the last few months.

This is probably the most exciting find i've found in a while. I got some new zebra fabric for the seats! This is another item i've spent a year looking for, it seemed it would never happen and i would just have to put up with what i've got.
It isn't OEM but it looks really close. I was originally prepared to pay A LOT of money for this stuff but i got screwed over by a bloke on this forum and i went a bit sour on it. I eventually found an Aussie guy selling some on Gumtree for about $300 i think.
For a 38 year old car mine is in pretty good condition, but it has a few tears and the foam has zero support. I don't think i'd be able to get the original fabric off without it all falling apart.
I spoke to my local reupholster guy a few months ago that i had a lead on some fabric and he pretty much laughed at me, he thought it would be impossible for me to find some and he knew how rare the stuff is. I can't wait to take it and show him!

I found some NOS belts off Amayama. Pretty cool i thought. I was happy to buy some Gates belts but they never have the power steering belt listed. So i thought i'll buy these and take them too the parts shop to find a similar size so i know for next time. I'm still amazed how many parts are still available if your prepared to spend half your life looking and pay a s*** ton of money!
So my next service will include genuine belts, oil and fuel filter.
I'm not sure why the cat comes out every single time i want to take a photo of something.

 

[plink01]

So i finally got the 42' back from ARB. It was a long time coming and i have mixed feelings about it. They fixed all the problems with the new sub fuel tank and it appears to be working.

They fixed the leaking hose and fuel gauge no dramas but had a to wait a few weeks for Brown and Davis to supply the bits to make the filler work. They ended up using the original Toyota filler which was a bit annoying.

ARB had to cut a piece out of the body work to make the original filler Brown and Davis supplied and now they have gone back to the original Toyota filler there is piece missing. The whole reason i went with Brown and Davis was so no body work needed to be touched. It's more Brown and Davis's fault i suppose for supplying the wrong filler but its pretty frustrating. I'm the only person in the world who will know/see's the missing bit of body work but it annoys me.

So now the 42' is back i decided to take my 80 series off the road for a bit and remove the rear diff so i could fix the air locker leak in it.

I don't want to do any proper 4x4 trips in the 42' till i finish rebuilding the cooling system, but a camping trip that doesn't go proper off road i was confident the car would be fine.

So i packed everything in the back and man it was squishy!! I'm used to having heaps of room in the 80 series, this was like playing a game of Tetris. It finally convinced me to either buy or make some drawers for the back. I was travelling solo and the car was pretty much full, i didn't have any of my misus's stuff, recovery gear or spares.

The plan was to camp at Cobungra and do a pretty big hike i'd been meaning to do for a while at Mt Hotham. It's pretty much a 2 and a bit hour drive from Lakes Entrance to Conbungra so it was a good oportunity to test out the new sub tank and clutch.

Will it definately tested it, and it didn't pass!!

The car was making a funny noise every half hour or so for a few seconds. But i couldn't pin point where it was coming from. I thought it sounded more like it was coming from the front wheels and i was thinking i had done something wrong when i did the front diff overhaul.

So the noise wasn't really getting worse and i kept cruising along. I had just driven out of Omeo and the sound started getting way more consistent. 5 minutes later and the noise was stuck on and i thought 'this is getting bad' so i pulled over and had a look.

I had a look under the car and oil is really pouring out from somewhere near the front of the gearbox!
This is really not good i'm thinking.

I'm only 5 minutes from camp at this stage so i limped it in doing 20kmph. The rate the oil was coming out was pretty concerning, it wasn't just dripping, it was a consistent stream. I hope it only really started leaking when the noise got stuck on, if it was leaking the whole way from Lakes Entrance then i have probably ran the gearbox dry. The undercarriage wasn't completely drowned in oil so hopefully it wasn't too bad.

So i set up camp and drank a million beers trying to work out what to do next. The hike at Mt Hotham was definately not happening anymore, Hotham is a half an hour uphill drive from where i was camped and there is no way my gearbox would last. I really needed to limp it back to Omeo so i could call ARB and let them know they have probably stuffed something up when installing the clutch/replacing the gaskets and they are going to have to organise a tow back to their shop.

It was Saturday and they wouldn't be open Sunday so i thought i might as well stay where i was and make the most of it and limp it back first thing Monday morning.
I woke up late the next day and did a small hike to the Victoria Falls. It was an easy walk, climbing down to the falls themselves was a bit sketchy and i was super wary that the place is probably full of snakes.

Like just about everywhere in the eastern side of Victoria it got really badly burnt during the bush fires last summer. It must have got super hot through here as not many of the tree's have re-sprouted. As there was bugger all vegetation left to hold the ground together, scrambling down the falls was a bit tricky in places.

We've had a lot of rain lately and the falls were pumping. So i stripped off and swam around nude for a bit. No one else would be stupid enough to climb down there so i was pretty safe!

So i wandered back to camp and set everything up and with nothing else to do I had all afternoon to drink and read my book. I haven't had a day like that in ages and it was actually super relaxing and i really enjoyed it. The plan was to drink early and go to bed early so i could get up early the next day to ring ARB as soon as they opened. Of course going to bed early never works and i stayed up way too late and felt pretty ordinary the next morning when my alarm went off at 6.30 AM!

Camping out the back of the 42' went better than i imagined. The whole idea with this car is to get a little bit more back to basics and it went really well.
I was really impressed with the Yeti, i deliberately left it in the sun to see how the ice would hold up and it barely put a dint in it. It wouldn't want to for the price i paid!
But it will get used in the boat as well and should last me forever, it feels indestructible and i'm confident if I cooled the Yeti first and cooled all the beers in the fridge before i packed them I rekon i could easily get 5+ days out of the ice.

 

[plink01]

I used the little emergancy glove box light for cooking and it worked a treat! I was originally going to put some LED strip lights in the back but the little light worked crazy good and im going to stick with it.

The next day i limped it into Omeo and called ARB. They were pretty good about it and organised a tow truck.
Not how i wanted to end the trip but it is what it is.

ARB have agreed to pay for the tow and any damage caused as long as it was their fault. They are a bit confused at whats happened but it seems way too coincidental not to have been something they have done.
There was nothing wrong with the gearbox before they touched it and 2 hours later the thing is hosing out oil and making horrible sounds.
Its been there a week and I'm still waiting to hear what the problem was.

 

[60 mad]

Bloody hell your having a s***house run of luck with with this tank and arb saga I really feel for ya owning a 40 should be a pretty bulletproof option compared to a newer 4wd but atleast you were in gods country up round Omeo

 

[plink01]

Yeah its pretty disappointing. This is the first time I've had someone else other than me do work on the car and everything has gone wrong. I really need a hoist!
Exactly, I was lucky where it s*** itself in that I could still limp it into camp. It was warm enough to swim even though the river still feels like snow melt!

 

[plink01]

Ok its been a while since an update. A lot has happened since my last post.

ARB fixed the problem, the output shaft seal had s***itself. They didn't charge me for the repair, which is fair enough. I'm very confident it was their fault anyway.

So the plan now was to completely replace the cooling system, it got a little bit out of hand! The cooling system was the last thing that was crucial to be fixed up before i could take it out confidently to remote places.

The plan was to have the radiator reco'd, replace the thermostat, the water pump and all associated hoses.

I ended up pulling half the engine bay apart and cleaned, resprayed and restored just about every serviceable part.

It was way out of my original scope of work but once i pulled the cooling stuff out it just opened up the rest of the engine bay, allowing me to reach things i couldn't normally get to.

I'm super happy i did. I have never had a car with a clean engine bay before, and now i do i can't stop staring at it! I think im loosing the plot.

So this is what it looked like originally. The photos don't really do it justice how grubby it was. Everything was coated in grease and oil and there was no real way to tell where it was coming from as it looked like it was coming from everywhere!

 

[plink01]

So i started stripping things out and resprayed as i went.

Grubby alternator. I never intended to fix this stuff up but while i was in there i thought i might as well clean it up, spray it and get it reco'd.

Before we started scrubbing.

 

[plink01]

After we had finished scrubbing. My missus helped me and we went at it with a combination of degreaser in a spray bottle, and brake cleaner on engine parts. Most of it was done with a toothbrush, for some reason that seemed to work the best out of all my scrubbing things. I can't believe how well the paint came up, i thought the paint was stuffed, turns out the paint under the bonnet is some of the best paint on the car.

After removing more stuff and scrubbing the engine. Again i was amazed at how well it came up. I spent hours and hours cleaning this stuff, even though i know no one will ever see it. Most of it won't even be able to be seen once the radiator and the rest of the accessories go back on. I painted the chassis and front diff while i had access. Its not a perfect job but I'm super happy with how it turned out.

 

[cbmontgo]

Wow. Looks incredible, @plink01.

 

[plink01]

Old and new OEM heater tap. Water was used as coolant for who knows how long. It has caused a bit of damage. The water that came out when i drained it was like a thick rust soup. Hopefully i have caught it before it did too much more damage.

So i kept stripping things out to clean. While the power steering pump was out i thought i might as well get some new seals put in.

There has been a loud clunk, sounding like its coming from the front left somewhere. I hadn't been able to work it out, i've replaced just about everything it could be. So i thought it must be the engine mounts. I set up this dodgy contraption and swapped them out for some new ones. I had never replaced engine mounts before and i had built it up in my head that it would be a tricky job.
I set up this dodgy contraption and lifted the engine just enough to swap them out. It was actually super easy, i don't think it would have taken me more than an hour to replace both.

Thats the left mount and it was completely stuffed. The photo doesn't really do it justice. I was hoping that would be the fix to the loud clunk that was driving me crazy.

 

[plink01]

I found this really cheap on ebay, it was only $30. There was nothing wrong with the one i had but for $30 i couldn't not buy it! Looks pretty.

The bushings on the radiator support were completely stuffed. None of the auto shops could find me a new one and couldn't point me in the right direction. I came up with a clever idea and thought a grommet might work. It worked a treat!

This was the masking off i did before i painted the chassis, diff and the yellow under those little rubber bonnet protector things. It took me a while and i am getting much better at the prep work when painting. I have heard it a million times before that the painting is all about the prep but i never have the patience to actually do the prep properly! This worked out pretty good, little to no over spray which is a new record for me.

 

[60 mad]

Looks good I pulled my 2f out to do some oil leaks and a clutch but ended up going way overboard on cleaning stuff up so ya not on your own in blowing the job out