Lj71 build up (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Dec 6, 2022
Threads
2
Messages
41
Location
New zealand
New to the forum but I'm fixing up my old lj71 and I've got plenty of info from here in the past so hopefully it might be of interest to someone else and might get some more help! had a bit of a hard life think it had done a fair bit of beach driving in its past life and not very well looked after. Has been neglected a bit over the last few years by me not having work space/ not being able to take it off the road as it was my daily and was getting pretty tired but I've got another truck so Il be fixing it up for a bit of a hunting/family camping rig. List of repairs and mods keeps getting bigger.

owned it for probably 8 years now
Was a 2lte but the motor blew not long after I brought it and fitted a 5le running the turbo gear and a Chinese highflo ct20

Not long after that the auto lost reverse so got a box off a lj78 and manual converted it

Suspension was buggered so fitted efs 2inch kzj springs and shocks probably more like a 3inch lift

Has a tjm bullbar off a 100series? That I modded to fit

Had quiet abit of rust fixed in it and a bit more come up that I've just cut out and replaced


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Been stripping it down to raptor coat it. Paint was pretty tired and clear coat was cracking bad on bonnet and guards, got a mate that raptor coated his l300 4wd and doesn't look to bad. Used to get scratched a bit in the bush so hopefully the raptor holds up a bit better, opened a can of worms stripping it back found a couple bad spots of rust in the roof that I had to cut out and replace. Couple bad spots on the rear quarter panels and the rain gutters arnt to great on the driver's side. Stripped it back with the wire wheel and por15 the hell out of it. Actually bent up the top layer and got it inside on the worst bit so hopefully it stops it. Had the roof liner off so sprayed all the edges with rust converter and have some penotrol to spray in there to and re did the gutter seals with seam sealed. Bloody pain to put it on with a brush didn't get a very good finish but the trucks pretty high so can't see haha
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Primed the doors and bonnet and the windscreen wiper grill bit in the shed last night and got a coat of paint on it this morning. Texture looks good quiet thin which is what I wanted. Tryed drilling out a gravity gun tip to 2mm but couldn't get it to spray and had already mixed the raptor so only had limited time to muck around with it as it starts going off and I'm far from experienced with spray guns so used the 1.4mm I sprayed the primer with. Gave a nice texture but bloody slow. Might try filing the edges of the other tip as the drill bit burred them out a bit which might have something to do with it? Started sanding the roof but it's been raining for about a month here so that only lasted 10minutes as the sheds takin up by the other panels and the cruiser only has about 5mm between the roof and the rafters even with the tyres deflated 😂 going to do another coat on the inside door edges when I paint around the door part on the body (the name of its slipped my mind) and then bolt them on and paint another coat over the whole lot so it matches up
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Got the paint job done, Christmas day spent painting between opening presents with the misses and baby and Christmas dinner.. you really see the damage 30 years does to the paint. Roof had heaps of stone chips that had rusted under the paint. Grinded it down and rust treated it before primer. got sick of the gravity gun cause it kept clogging up with the raptor and couldn't get it down fast enough. Had one of the raptor shutz guns and it put it down a bit rougher and thicker so should be heaps tougher. Think I like the rougher texture more looks tough and hides the crappy old paint and prep work haha Now to get it in the shed to cure
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Stuffed up a bit before I painted, tryed to drop the tank to paint under the strap mounts and to clean underneath and touch it up and forgot it had almost a full tank and it fell off the jack. Cracked one of these pipes at the bottem. Pretty certain it's just a vent but it's welded into the tank. Anyone know if it goes into the tank on the inside or just pokes out? Thinking I can probably get some sort of sealant around it if it doesn't go in maybe instead of getting it welded?
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I wish we could convince your fellow New Zealander Geoffrey Croker to take on one of the 70 series from Mr. Toyoda instead of his old Land Rovers. His videos are really, really entertaining but at the end of the day anything with Whitworth fasteners is a hard pass from me!

I love the 2-door form factor of the little 70 series trucks. Broke down and bought a 1998 Prado 2-door which is fun, but some day I think I may have to get a real 70-series SWB.

I look forward to more posts on your project! Subbed!
 
Thanks mate, glad someone's interested haha. Swb land cruiser was always my dream 4wd. Got close to selling it at one point got sick of fixing stuff on it but it is older then me and I have a few parts wearing out. Listed it on TradeMe (NZ version of eBay) and took it down after the first offer haha couldn't do it to myself. Had some rust that would have taken it off the road and bad back brakes and other bits and I didnt have the space or tools to fix it. To much centimental value now and for the price I'd sell it I'd get a little corrola or something and never get another lc. Fortunately we brought a house with a garage thats full to the brim with tools now and it's not my daily driver so plenty of time to work on it. Got a list of about 40 repairs and mods that keeps getting bigger to do so hopefully itl be a interesting thread!


Been stripping the old insulation off the roof atm to put some new sound deadner on. Was planning to repaint it but the paints pretty good and idk how it would stick to the glue and it's a real pain to get off. It's taking a lot of scrapping and given couple bits a light sand and they seem to come up ok to stick deadner on so see how it goes
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the paints pretty good and idk how it would stick to the glue and it's a real pain to get off. It's taking a lot of scrapping and given couple bits a light sand and they seem to come up ok
If the paint is good: Leave it on. Only sand down where paint is loose or rust is present. Usually, a factory undercoat and paint is better than anything you could apply as a repair (without doing a full all-professional paintjob). In particular scraping hurts the metal and is an invite to rust.
Enjoy your truck
Cheers Ralf
 
If the paint is good: Leave it on. Only sand down where paint is loose or rust is present. Usually, a factory undercoat and paint is better than anything you could apply as a repair (without doing a full all-professional paintjob). In particular scraping hurts the metal and is an invite to rust.
Enjoy your truck
Cheers Ralf
Exactly what I was thinking when I started tackling it. Hard as and no rust at all in this part of the body haha. I've scraped the underlay insulation stuff off without damaging I think and a quick scuff with 180 grit on the glue Seems to get enough off without damaging the pqimt that the sound deadner will stick to. Next problem is the supports that go along the roof have come off from the actual roof. Looks like some sort of double sided tape that holds them on? I'm thinking itle be a pain to replace but the supports unscrew. Only 4 little Phillips screws I'd imagine would break if you rolled it or anything like that so was just gunna take them off and lay the deadner and maybe another couple layers on them so there touching? Probably be just as good maybe
 
I'd keep the supports on. They may prevent vibrations and rattling. They were glued on with a butyl type glue, which now has deteriorated. Just glue them back in with some modern elastic bodywork sealant, e.g Sikaflex 221i (or whatever you guys use at your location).
 
I'd keep the supports on. They may prevent vibrations and rattling. They were glued on with a butyl type glue, which now has deteriorated. Just glue them back in with some modern elastic bodywork sealant, e.g Sikaflex 221i (or whatever you guys use at your location).
Ok will source some of that. You don't think butly sound deadner spread over the roof and a couple strips on the supports would do the same? So there touching? My bonnets the same. Would bounce up and down when your driving so not opossed to getting a glue for them just as il need to fix that just wondering if packing the supports would be enough
 
You don't think butly sound deadner spread over the roof and a couple strips on the supports would do the same?
Probably yes. Hard to tell without seeing the situation live. The Butyl deadner is quite thick. I wonder whether it would fit the gap so the Phillips screws would still fit. You need to try.
Btw: Sealant is not a glue and also needs some thickness in the bead to work. There are also autobody glues which make a much more stable bond, but will not much damp any vibrations (e.g Sikaflex 552).
May need some experiments what works best in this situation.
Good Luck
Ralf
 
Nothing that exciting, just put the doors back together, looks good. Drivers door handle has a big crack and rear handle has a broken spring so might need to find a couple of them at some point. Got the smaller rear window back in. Went alot smoother then I thought, ran some paracord around it and slotted the top on then just worked my way round bottem was a bit fiddly but easy enough.
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One good trick I found off Google was refreshing the door rubbers. I was planning to get new ones all round but 100+ each I'd rather put that towards other repairs atm. Read somewhere you soak them in silicone spray for a couple days in a plastic bag. They swelled up heaps and look like new again might still replace the window slide rubbers and one of the rear doors that's broken in two but good mod for 8 bucks for a can of spray
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Paint looks super orange in photos for some reason but it's actually quite dark brown
 
What IS that paint?
 
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anyone know what sort of glue this is? Sounds like sovents won't budge it and itl be a lot of sanding to get it off. Wondering if I can just paint over it? Got a bucket of 2k epoxy primer I'm thinking will be enough protection over it? Don't want to put the sound deadner on and have rust form underneath
 
Just been putting it all back together, got all the front doors done apart from the door cards and both back door windows in, put sound deadner on everything except the floor because I ran out. Need to figure out what I'm painting the floor with before I put deadner down.

Painted a couple coats of epoxy primer on the roof for a bit of extra protection incase I scratched the paint. Didn't have any top coat but I think the butyl mat seals it up pretty good from what Ive read and paint looked pretty good anyway. Got some cheap foam mat stuff off aliexpress aswell on the roof. Ordered it to try didn't know if I was going to use it so didn't get enough to finish the roof which is a pain.

Seems to stop a bit of noise when you put a speaker on top of the truck were the mat is and were the mat isn't. Sounds like the good deadners will work with 25% coverage and I've got the cheap stuff so did somewhere between 70-90%. Very interested to see how much of a difference it makes. I think il get some more of the foam mat and cover everything with that can't make it worse. Don't care if it's not luxury car quiet but it would be good if your ears didn't ring after a long drive.

glued the roof cross members down aswell which I think is probably one of the main reasons it was so noisy, big area to rattle around. finally got round to fixing the passenger window while I had it apart. The magnet on one side had come off and jammed the motor so a quick squirt with some spray adhesive and its good as new.
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Also sprayed penetrol along the inside of the roof seams to hopefully seal up any rust I might have missed
 
Looking good bud! LOL - I did notice you had to let air out of the tires to get it into the shop to work on!! Hey whatever works! :cheers: Did you actually spray the body outside? How did that work? I am guessing you waited for a calm day. I suppose the raptor paint would hide any dust as well, so no biggie!
 
Looking good bud! LOL - I did notice you had to let air out of the tires to get it into the shop to work on!! Hey whatever works! :cheers: Did you actually spray the body outside? How did that work? I am guessing you waited for a calm day. I suppose the raptor paint would hide any dust as well, so no biggie!
dropped the fuel tank that was full of gas out to clean up underneath and had to put strops between the back axle and the chassis to get it down more to get it in 😂 Yep sprayed it outside. Turned out pretty good. Raptor defiantly hides the imperfections. It's not for everyone I guess but for a older rig that's going to get scratched I reckon it's perfect. The dust just adds to the texture. it had rained the day before and even with the primer it still came out clean. It looked pretty good in grey to
 

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