Builds 'Little Yellowy' 1982 BJ42 LX build

[plink01]

So the misus went home once we finished the hike and i continued on solo. This is camp just out of Mount Hotham, night 1 of the 4wd part of the trip. I don't put filters on any of my photos and i have no idea what i'm doing when it comes to taking them. The colours that night were incredible.

 

[plink01]

The trip had its first hurdle on the first night, the chainsaw was playing up so i had to head into Myrtleford to get it looked at first thing the next morning which was pretty annoying. I needed the chainsaw as i had a week of 4WDing and with a massive storm approaching in the next 2 days there was a good chance there would be tree's all over the tracks.
After sorting out the chainsaw it was back into it. I can't remember exactly where this was, from memory it was in a valley not far from Lake Cobbler. This photo must have been taken just before the weather changed.

 

[plink01]

Camp night 2. Not as good as the last few. Its in the 2019/2020 bushfire zone and you can probably tell by the way all the leaves are sprouting out of the trunks. These tree's all have survived. They have re sprouted and in a few more years you won't even know they were burnt unless you look for it.

You may have noticed i'm sleeping in my tent but i have my swag on the roof.
I made a massive **** up on the very first night of the trip, back in Cobungra before we even started the hike. It was freezing and snow level was down to where we were camping for the night.
For some reason i had a massive brain malfunction and because i sleep warm, i normally don't bring the extra doona with me unless my misus comes. Well she was coming with me, but i was thinking more of the 4wd part of the trip afterwords and forgot to factor her in for the first night.

So we were camping in the snow together in the swag, but in a cheap single sleeping bag that was unzipped to make a blanket. Normally the queen sized doona from our bed is in there also when we are in the snow and we are wrapped up like a taco. With just the single sleeping bag we were barely even covered, let alone warm. Well i woke up about 2 hours into the sleep ****ing freezing!!

I got up to grab more clothes and while i was at it re stoked the fire. Well being half asleep & drunk i put a ton of wood on and didn't think much of the consequences except for 'must get warm'.
Well we woke up the next day and the fire had blasted a massive hole in the side of it. So bloody stupid. I loved that swag, it has been everywhere with me. It's currently in the shop getting patched, which will probably give it more character but i would have rathered it not have the character!
So lucky i had little red tent with me from the hike. I still used the swag during the trip when there was no chance of rain.

So storm has just started rolling in. I'm not sure why the camera has made Yellowy look like that, but it looks cool! Makes it look like a toy. There was 40mm of rain forecast for the night, which is a s*** load!
A bit unnerving really. I had camped in some pretty feral conditions in the little red tent before, but 40mm of rain with gale force winds was going to be a new benchmark.

Pretty hard to tell in the photo but this was a really amazing view. You can see 2 waterfalls going down the cliff face if you look closely. In reality there were probably 5 waterfalls coming down, but i couldn't get it all on one photo. Looked almost prehistoric.

 

[plink01]

This is camp for night 3. Lake Cobbler.

I was pretty concerned about all this rain that was forecast, i checked the radar and it was definitely going to be a direct hit. I was mainly worried about getting out the next day.
It's all red clay country out there and it gets crazy slippery when wet and i have to drive a pretty steep rutted track for half an hour to get out. I'm still solo at this stage so its weighing pretty heavy on my brain. I decided to drive the exit route for a test run and it wasn't too bad. It was a good idea to do the test run as it made me relax a lot more. Winching solo is a pain in the

Parked up beside Lake Cobbler hut.

So i was at camp by about 14.00 which is really early for me. So being the moron i am i decided to hike to the top of Mount Cobbler, knowing the weather would hit at some stage during the hike. I think the sign said 3.5 hours return. Normally its safe to knock an hour off the suggested time, i think they factor in people of all ages and fitness. I'm not real fit by any means but those signs really seem to drag it out.

I did pretty much everything your not supposed to do and i knew it while i was doing it. My GPS battery was flat but i thought 'it cant be that hard to navigate it'. No one had any idea where i was or what i was doing, i had no phone reception. A massive storm was due in the next hour or so and i didn't have any of the appropriate gear for it.
My mind set was just smash it out, going fast will keep me warm and how hard could it be?

Well the higher up i got, the worse the weather and fog become. A few times i stopped and thought, 'stop being a ****wit, turn around and go back!' But i also thought i can't be too far from the top, stop being a sook and keep going! I suppose i had summit fever, but i wasn't on Mount Everest, i was on Mount Cobbler!

So i marched on and made it too the top. Couldn't see a thing because it was too fogged in. So i rested for a minute and got scared and started zooming back down.
It's really hammering rain now and the wind is blowing hard. I didn't have too much dramas going down till about the halfway point. The fog was really thick and i couldn't make out where i come from.

This was really concerning and the reality of the situation hit real quick! It would have been only a few degree's warm and i'm already soaked.
I tried a few different routes but none of them felt right. I backtracked back to where i knew the official track was and took my time & worked out where to go.

As annoyed with myself as i was with the situation i put myself in i was also pretty happy that i had the ability to stay calm and work out what i was doing. It would be super easy to really **** it up and end up completely lost in this kill storm with no map, GPS or anyone knowing where i was. I've done a lot of hiking lately and a lot of my practice paid off. As dumb as it sounds i really enjoy pushing myself like that, I'm still alive so i spose i made the right choices!

 

[plink01]

Once i got back from the hike i set up base inside the hut. No one else was around so i had it all to myself. It was flogging rain!! This is taken from the hut looking towards the lake. Can't even see the lake through the rain and it would be lucky to be 50m away.

The kitchen and bar setup inside the hut.

It took awhile to get the fire pumping as all the wood was so wet. Once it got going the hut was toasty warm. I love being in high country huts in bad weather.

Little red tent held up extraordinary well. It absolutely hosed down rain and blew like crazy all night. I woke up around 6 in the morning to a massive tree falling over. I'm not sure how close it was but it was enough to scare me out.

 

[plink01]

So after 3 days of 4wding i arrived at Mansfield to re stock and meet my old work mates.

There was way more cars than i was expecting. We had two 100 series, a 200 series, a Prado, a GU Patrol, a Jeep Gladiator, a Hilux, a Izusu D-Max, a Pajero, a Triton, a 60 series and my 42 series. It was pretty slow going with that many cars but we had no real dramas. The trip took 3 days and was pretty varied terrain. There was some seriously steep tracks but it was all well maintained and dry so nothing could really go wrong.

Camp in the Wonnangatta Valley. Really stunning spot. There was actually what looks to be a murder not far from here a few months earlier. Its become one of the biggest mysteries in Australia. Two people have gone missing, their campsite was found burnt out. But their 79 series Landcruiser was fine with the keys still in the ignition. They havn't been seen since. Their bank accounts or phones have never been used. The only thing missing is their drone.
The valley is one of the most isolated places in Victoria and there has been a lot of strange things take place there over the years.

There is a lot of history in this valley, a lot of it is pretty brutal. It was hard living back in the day. The stories on the plaques scattered throughout the valley do a great job of telling the history and its hard to imagine what these early settlers went though.

 

[plink01]

The 2 coolest cars of the trip!

This is my mates HJ60. Its probably the best example i've ever seen of a 60 series. That's probably its only problem, Its too nice so he gets too scared to wreck it!

Its got the factory 12HT diesel motor, ARB front bar, rear bar and a long range fuel tank, apart from that its pretty much stock as a rock. Just looking at this picture makes me wanna buy one!

We had a fair few river crossings to do throughout the day, crossing the Wonnangurra and the Wonnangatta rivers. They were both pretty high, high enough to be a bit scary for the people without snorkels.

I'm pretty sure it was this crossing where i flooded the drivers side foot well of Yellowy. Turns out the seal at the foot vent is stuffed and the river pretty much ended up in the car. One of my heater hoses had a pin prick hole in it on the first day and i had to replace it and got a lot of coolant throughout the cab. The river water pretty much flushed it out so it was probably a good thing.
Yellow has a pretty high air intake from factory as all you guys would be aware, but the water was probably just below guard height which is getting a bit close.

My mate in the 60 got a bit scared, the air filter light come on half way though the crossing. We checked the air filter and it was as dry as a chip, it must have just got a bit of a splash on the sensor which was a relief. Pretty impressive the design quality from factory, it doesn't have a snorkel or a lift and showed 0 sign of water.

Camp that night at Talbotville.

I don't usually like to camp at the large main campgrounds as i like camping alone away from everyone else. But as we had so many cars we really needed to stick to the big sites as we wouldn't have all fit anywhere else.

 

[plink01]

I've had a fair bit going on lately so this hasn't been updated in a while, i'll try and get it back up to speed.

Real simple mod here, replaced the badges with some brand new genuine ones. They come up awesome!

I tried repainting the old ones but they came up s*** house. I've still kept them and will try again another day when i run out of things to do.

This one wasn't so simple. It took me a long time to get brave enough take the plunge and get the seats re upholstered. As anyone who knows anything about the LX varient these are the zebra seats that only the LX came with. The fabric is incredibly rare as no other manufactures ever thought to give their seats zebra stripes! The drivers seat had already had a repair done at some stage, it isn't supposed to have the vinyl on the sides. The passenger seat fabric wasn't actually too bad but the foam was stuffed and had zero support. The drivers side foam had minus zero support, i might as well have been sitting on the springs.

So after a couple of years searching i finally come across some of the zebra seat fabric. It was a long process that i won't get into. I got stitched up by a vendor on this site but he can remain nameless for the moment. In the end i found another guy selling some and i got it at a really good price.

I had had enough of having a sore back every time i took the car for a drive any longer than an hour, so I booked the seats in at a local upholsterer (Xquisit Trim and Upholstery in Bairnsdale)

They come up pretty incredible i thought! They are like brand new. I'm super happy with the quality and i'll be going back for some other bits and pieces i need done on my cars/boat. I wish i had painted the seat rails and a few other bits while it was all apart but you can't really tell when they're back in the car.

They are pretty comfy now too, way more support.

 

[plink01]

Seats back in the car, maybe the most worthwhile rebuild I've done so far. Its made a world of difference.

I wanted a spot to mount my hi lift jack. Space is a premimum on these shorties so i went the tried and tested way and decided to mount it to the side step. I thought i should give the old jack a bit of a birthday first and had it sandblasted and powdercoated.

I think it come up a little bit too nice! I got the jack mount off Mr Landcruiser in Queensland. I'm pretty happy with it, it doesn't fit perfect but it does the job.

 

[plink01]

The seats were an awesome upgrade, but this one might actually have been better. Ever since i have owned this car there has been a loud clunk coming from the front end when you hit certain bumps. I had never been able to work out what it was. I replaced every piece of suspension, rebuilt the diff down to the swivel housing, all the steering components, the engine and gearbox mounts, tightened every single bolt i could find but i couldn't get rid of the clunk, it was driving me crazy!

I was sort of becoming used to it, it didn't seem to be getting worse and i had taken it on a stack of 4x4 trips and it hadn't broken down, but it was always un-nerving on solo trips in the middle of nowhere when there is loud unexplained clunks coming from the car.

I was reading one of the 40 series facebook pages on my misus facebook and someone mentioned they had a loud clunk, and it turned out it was the bonnet hinges.

I thought that is an interesting idea and ran out to have a look at mine, sure enough there was an absolute ton of play in the hinges! The bonnet was moving side to side in the hinges. I was going to repaint mine eventually, they were pretty ratty looking, but i found some brand new genuine ones online and bought them, hoping this would fix the clunk.

Low and behold it fixed it! I was amazed, i had spent years chasing that clunk and it turned out to be the bonnet bouncing up and down. In the end it was probably a good thing, I replaced just about every single serviceable part possible looking for it, so half the car is like brand new! The new hinges come unpainted, they are zinc coated i assume. I was going to paint them but i sort of like the contrast they now make so i'm leaving them as it.

Bit off topic but i thought a few of you might find this interesting, i bought a 1989 Kawasaki Jet Mate during the Covid lockdowns! It's kept me pretty busy and kept me away from the 40 for a while.

I love all things Japanese engineered, and this is probably the most Japanese thing ever made. Its a 3 seater, 650cc 2 stroke jet boat, controlled via a joystick.
They are super rare in Aus, there seems to be a few of them still getting about in the USA.

Apparently the word is only 30 odd were every imported here. It wasn't running when i bought it, but i took a punt and thought how hard can it be? Its a super simple design, its just the 650cc motor out of the stand up Jet Ski Kawasaki was using at the time.

The photos make it look bigger than it is, its really the size of a large bathtub. There is nothing else in the world quite like it, i don't know what Kawasaki was thinking when they made this thing and what market they were designing it for but i love it.

The plan was to get it up and running and do a bit of fishing and drinking in it.

 

[cbmontgo]

Man, we’d be hanging out if we lived on the same side of the globe. Excellent stuff.

 

[plink01]

I've been on a bunch of trips lately, but i havn't been taking as many photos so some of them might merge in together a bit.

I did a trip from Wullgulmerang - Mckillops Bridge. Its one of my favorite spots in Victoria, The plan was to do a bit of 4wdriving and hiking with the misus. These photos are taken from my secret spot. Like being on top of the world.

Little Yellow woke the koala up.

 

[plink01]

Man, we’d be hanging out if we lived on the same side of the globe. Excellent stuff.

Haha, i think i've offered before. If you ever come to Aus for a holiday i'd happily take you on a multi day 4wd trip through the Victorian High Country. Its some of the best scenery and 4wding on earth. I'd even lend you the 80 series!

 

[cbmontgo]

Haha, i think i've offered before. If you ever come to Aus for a holiday i'd happily take you on a multi day 4wd trip through the Victorian High Country. Its some of the best scenery and 4wding on earth. I'd even lend you the 80 series!

One day, I will take you up on this! Same for you, if you come to the USA.

 

[plink01]

I took the 80 series out to the base of Mount Bogong for a few days and and hiked to the top of Bogong. Mount Bogong is the highest mountain in Victoria, i wanted to have a bit of a look around to get some ideas for some back country skiing this snow season.
It was probably the hardest vertical climb i've ever done, it was 6 hours of pain! But it was worth it at the top. Camped just over the other side, this place was like something out of a movie.

For New Years i packed the 40 and did a week long trip 4x4/camping trip. From Wulgulmerang to Lake Dartmouth. It started really badly!

Day 1 i was driving through Gelantipy on my way to where i wanted to camp and i came around a corner and a koala was standing in the middle of the road. I slowed down to pull up beside it and try and shoe it off the road, i pushed the clutch in but the pedal went straight to the floor with no resistance.

I thought wowee this is bad and i'm in a terrible spot here, if i stalled it i wasn't sure if i would have a clutch at all to get it started, so i floored it and got to a safer spot to pull over and check out what was going on. Sure enough i had no clutch pedal, i had to pump it 3 times for it to build up enough pressure to be able to shift gear. I had some brake fluid on me so i tried bleeding it but no air was coming out, i was pretty stumped.

I had only put a brand new Aisin master cylinder and slave on it 6 months ago, also replaced the hose with a brand new genuine one. I thought that either the master or slave was stuffed.
I had to go to the telephone box in Seldom Seen, as there is no phone reception out that way and i used a telephone box for the first time in 20 years. I rekon i was probably the only one to have used the thing in the last 20 years! Its in the middle of no where, the only reason its still there is incase you break down or something bad has happened.
I ordered a new Chinese master and slave cylinder from Repco in Bairnsdale, the master was in stock and the slave would arrive in Bairnsdale in a few days. I was a bit flat as this was going to ruin my whole trip. I really didn't want to have to drive 2 hours back down the hill to Bairnsdale, then turn around and drive 3 hours back up again. It would put the whole trip out of whack and i had a bit of a schedule because i needed to be at the Blue Duck Pub for New Years Eve in 3 days. I was pretty confident the master cylinder was the culprit, as there was a tiny bit of clutch fluid on the firewall.

So i limped the 40 to camp, every gear change required 3 pumps, and to put it in reverse i had to turn the car off, put it in reverse then start it back up again. After a while i sort of got used to it and it wasn't that big a deal!
I got a bloke from work to run me up the new master cylinder the next day and we replaced it. It didn't fix it. I had a spare clutch hose as well and we changed that and bled pretty much a whole bottle of brake fluid through it coz we were both confident it must just have air in it. And nup, still didn't fix it.

I was still a bit disappointed but i was confident i could limp my car to Benambra over the next 2 days, as long as i didn't go on any really difficult tracks. The plan was to meet my misus in Benambra, she would bring up the slave cylinder with her, hopefully swap it in, bleed it again then continue on to Lake Dartmouth. I'm now confident it has to be the slave cylinder, there is nothing else it could be!

Camped on top of this mountain beside the cairn. I can't remember the name of it. By this stage i had limped it probably 5 hours to get it here, and after a few beers i was happy and confident i would make it to Benambra, and even worse case i rekon i could limp it to Dartmouth. That would be a massive mission though and would be completely stupid and irresponsible, but there was no way i was letting it ruin my holiday! The weather forecast was perfect, i wanted to be at the Blue Duck for New Years and i wanted to be camping on the Lake for a few days of rest. I was going to get there even if i had to push it the whole way!

 

[plink01]

The koala that alerted me to the fact i had no clutch pedal! I had to walk back and shoe him off the road. He climbed up the tree and watched me bleed the clutch by myself and got to witness a lot of yelling. Single man clutch bleeding is brutal!! He didn't appear to care much, it would have been handy if he could have pumped the pedal for me.

 

[plink01]

One day, I will take you up on this! Same for you, if you come to the USA.

Yeah awesome, ill definately keep it in mind. My misus is from Alberta so hopefully on one of our next trips back there we might pop into the States for a bit. I'll letcha know! I'd love to go check out some of those old towns you post pictures of, they look like something out of a cowboy movie.

 

[plink01]

I managed to limp the 40 all the way to Benambra and met my misus there with the slave cylinder. I replaced it and bled the clutch and it still didn't fix it! I was completly stumped and i couldn't believe it. I resigned to the fact i'll be limping the Landcruiser along one of the windiest roads in the state, during holiday period, it was going to be a nightmare.
We had some lunch while we were there and i thought i'll have one more look before we go. For some stupid reason i never thought to adjust the locking nut on the pin on the slave cylinder. So I adjusted it out as far as it would go and whooshca! It worked perfect. I was annoyed with myself i hadn't worked that out earlier, but at the same time i had ARB Bairnsdale install it at the same time they did the clutch. I thought while they're at it they might as well put it on.
They never tightened the locking nut so it must have over time loosened itself so the pin had bugger all throw on it.

So now the list of ARB ****ups include:

Installed wrong filler tube for the AUX tank.
Wired fuel gauge incorrectly, it just always read empty.
They installed the output shaft seal in the gearbox incorrectly when replacing the clutch, causing the gearbox to spew oil and required me to get towed home.
They installed the wrong type of hose on the fuel filler, which caused diesel to leak all over my driveway.
They never tightened the locking nut on the slave cylinder.

They were the only guys i've had work on the car and they stuffed up everysingle thing they touched. Never ever again am i going to those bozo's!

So i was a bit pissed off at myself that it took me so long to work out. But we were back on the road and 5 minutes later i was all happy again, i now have a clutch that doesn't require 3 quick kicks and a rapid fire gear change!

That's Mount Bogong off in the way distance, still had a tiny bit of snow on it even though it was summer.

Camping along Lake Dartmouth. I thought i had really buggered up. We have camped here before but it was when the lake had way less water. So you could just drive down lower and camp wherever you liked.

Well it was now the holiday period and the lake was full to the brim. Meaning there was next to no campsites. I had pretty much resigned to the fact we won't be finding a camp, the first 3 we tried were already taken. But then we come across this one and it was probably the best of the lot. We were completely alone for 3 days. Except for the 3 brown snakes that zoomed through the camp!

It was a bit of a different type of camping for us, normally we only stay a night at each spot and are continuously on the move, exploring or doing activities.
I did enjoy just laying around reading, drinking, swimming and sleeping for a few days but to be honest its not really for me. I sort of like the challenge of finding an awesome spot with no one around and setting up a new camp every night.

 

[60 mad]

What part of Dartmouth is this spot you stayed at?
I always go to eustace creek because it’s about the only properly suited spot to tow the boat into

 

[OPMACHINE]

Beautiful! I love Australia