LJ79 Resto/build thread in Nicaragua (1 Viewer)

[Kcizik]

I posted up back when I first got this truck and was looking for a direction to go with it.
I've been slowly working on it, tackling the priorities first.
Overall the truck was in good shape, the previous owner did take care of it.
I've also been using partsouq to get the little bits and pieces that were either broken or missing. That is an awesome website.
I'm still toying around with the idea of maybe next year driving it up to the States and importing it. Nothing set in stone, just considering it.
This is what we started with:

A bit on the ugly side. For some reason here people let the emission and road tax stickers accumulate of the windshield instead of removing the expired ones. Just another thing to take off.

The first on the list was to tackle the suspension. It was obvious many of the control arm bushing were worn, and quite frankly it was a bit sketchy on the road.
My mechanic was able to source OEM Toyota bushings and replace them.

Here are some of them that were pulled out. Those might've been the originals, which is not bad for 25 years and 400k kms.

Someone mentioned on the last post to pull the fender flares and check for rust and corrosion as that seems to be a typical hiding spot. I wanted to paint the fender flares anyways in a matte black. I ordered up some of the rubber trim and some of the missing pieces to put it all back nicely. I was able to get the rear replacement mud-flaps from partsouq as well.
After pulling the fender flares; the majority of the metal was fine and very little rust was there. However on the rear left panel, it was completely eaten through with rust. We ended up having to pull it and replace it with new metal.

We ended up changing out some metal in some other areas, mostly because of poor repair jobs. Like a lot of the South American land cruisers, people here rely on bondo and silicone. Fortunately the guy I use is quite talented in forming metal with the most basic tools. Everything is getting take down to the metal and aligned as we slowly tackle the body work.

 

[Kcizik]

This is what we ended up pulling out of the rear lower quarter panel.
Considering it's age, it wasn't really too bad.

Here is the new panel made.

Sanded and painted with a base coat:

On the rear right corner near the glass, it seems as if someone backed into something, and then poorly repaired it. So because the base metal was in bad shape, we ended up cutting it out and forming a new piece.

And again primed and painted with a base coat:

 

[Kcizik]

We also went ahead and lined up the front fender and hood, polished up the blinker lights, and started assembling the fender flares and accessories. Also wet sanded and painted the front grille.

This is how she currently sits:

She's starting to look pretty good.
The front bumper and well as the roof rack with go matte black as well.

I also went ahead and changed the timing belt, tensioner, idler, and the seals this week. The belt that was in there was a Toyota original, which is a very good sign that the previous owner spent money on maintenance.

I do have some priorities on the list. It is consuming oil. The compression is still very high, which makes me believe the valves seals are more than likely the culprit. In the next month or so, the head will be coming off and going to a machine shop for new guides, valves, springs, etc....
I do need to do some reupholstering as well. The original steering wheel's foam is completely gone. I was able to source a better one, which I'll get re-wrapped here.

The front seats are pretty worn as well, that'll be in the near future.

Does anyone know where to source some coil spring spacers? I'm thinking of lifting it a bit to fit some bigger tires.

 

[SNLC]

Dobinsons on coil spacers?


Make sure and seal up the backside of the new repairs, that is something they don't seem to do down there even when it is quality work.

Cheers

 

[Kcizik]

Dobinsons on coil spacers?


Make sure and seal up the backside of the new repairs, that is something they don't seem to do down there even when it is quality work.

Cheers

Thanks for the tip! I appreciate the sharing of experience.
Coincidentally I just got a tube of the 3M sealant for that, I think it's urethane based.
I'm not sure how much that normally costs elsewhere, but here is around $15/tube.

 

[SNLC]

Thanks for the tip! I appreciate the sharing of experience.
Coincidentally I just got a tube of the 3M sealant for that, I think it's urethane based.
I'm not sure how much that normally costs elsewhere, but here is around $15/tube.

Ya silicone is cheap there. Walk in a Toyota dealership though and ask for a tube of fipg!

Cheers

 

[Kcizik]

Been a while since I've posted an update on the truck. Been busy at it, trying to take advantage of any time I've had.
Back in June I decided to pull the trigger on the engine rebuild. While it ran fine, it did consume some oil. Others had mentioned here sooner or later it was going to need it as it had nearly 400k km on the clock.
This is what I ended up doing: re-sleeved the block, new pistons & rings, bearings throughout, polished the crank, head completely redone, injector tips y recalibration, rebuilt injector pump, rebuild on the starter and alternator, new timing cover plate with the oil pump and water pump, timing belt and it's tensioner and pulleys.
About a month later had the tranny pulled. It was whining in 5th gear, not horrible but something that eventually had to be done. I tried to find a R151 tranny to replace it. While those transmissions are abundant here, finding the bell housing to the L-series motors was very difficult. So in the end the old G52 got rebuilt and was put back in.

I started to turn my attention to the aesthetics of the truck. First of all I had to get rid of the factory decals. 26 years of Central American sun had baked them on real good. I was hoping they would come off without to much damage to the paint, it just wasn't possible. So I prepped the sides for a quick base coat and clear. I also had the bumpers and roof rack painted matte black.

Next on the list was new tires.
I found a set of 15" matte black wheels that I liked. I was debating where to go with a 32X11.50 o 33x 12.50. From what I read, there was a chance that the 33's would rub. I decided on the smaller size, but when I went to buy them I could only get the 33's. Turns out they don't rub and they actually fit nicely on the stock suspension.

More updates to come later.

 

[JDM Journeys]

Here is the new panel made. View attachment 2222578

Sanded and painted with a base coat:
View attachment 2222579

That's some great fab work! He *MADE* that patch panel? From scratch? Wow. Even put the steps and square holes back in place? Nicely done.

Great progress so far on your Prado.

 

[Kcizik]

That's some great fab work! He *MADE* that patch panel? From scratch? Wow. Even put the steps and square holes back in place? Nicely done.

Great progress so far on your Prado.

He's a man of great patience. What's the famous quote: "necessity is the mother of invention". Unfortunately tools are outrageously expensive here, especially specialty tools. So with a piece of a railroad rail as an anvil, a hammer and cold chisel he made that.

 

[Kcizik]

So as many with older cruisers know, rust is inevitable. I knew when I bought the truck that I would have to do some metal repair. Fortunately it wasn't as bad as some of the trucks that I've seen. Under the factory fender flare it was fine as well as the body mounts. It was pretty much limited to the rear fender wells where the sandwich plate are for the seats and seat belts.

The seats mounts were unaffected, so I just had to drill out the spot welds and they came right off.
I sent down via cargo ship a bead roller. They have those Eastwood bead rollers on Amazon for about $140. Definitely a good investment for anyone that wants to do their own metal work. That together with my trusty millermatic I was able to get both fenders done in about a day and a half.

As well, I re-made the reinforcement plating for the inside of the fenders. Those are made of 1/16" plate from the factory, so that's what I replaced it with. Now, the bead roller maxes out at 18ga, but with patience and not pushing it too hard it did just fine.

 

[Kcizik]

Since I changed the tire size I knew something had to be done with the spare tire carrier. It wouldn't accommodate a 12.5" wide tire. I thought about making a new bumper/tire carrier, but I don't want to change too much the originality of the truck. Anyways the rear bumper in my opinion looks pretty good.
The original tire carrier was in rough shape. It had some cracking and the repair looks to have been done by a blind person. I had some 3/16" plate hanging around, so why not try something?
This is what I cut out:

Those horrible repair welds cracked again because they're mostly pockets of slag....
The rest of the tire carrier seemed to be in good condition:

So to fit a 12.5" tire I really only need about an inch more of space.
At this point I started running out of flux-core wire for my welder. There's only three places in the entire country that sell it, and they were out. So I laid the most important welds with the flux core and everything else with 6013 on AC.

I'm definitely not a fan of 6013, but it'll work.
Some flappy disc and we were finished:

I couldn't find easily an original Toyota wheel lock. What I could get was a Mitsubishi one. The Mitsu is a stud with the lock, while the Toyota is the nut. Not the biggest deal and it will work to keep the spare on the truck.

While I was doing this I sent the hinges off to be remachined. The 70's rear doors are notorious for loosening up and developing some play. So for $15 ea., I had all 4 done.
More to come

 

[White Stripe]

That tire carrier turned out great. What are you doing living down in Nicaragua? It looks cool.

 

[Kcizik]

That tire carrier turned out great. What are you doing living down in Nicaragua? It looks cool.

Thanks!
Nicaragua can be very cool, but at the same time very frustrating. The life is very simple and stress free, one of the big things that keeps us here.

 

[Kcizik]

I've been slowly changing all the bulbs in the dash and the exterior to white led. Somehow the bulbs and sockets over the rear license plate completely rotted out. This would be the next project on the to-do list.

The metal was so thin that even welding a little bit would be nearly impossible. I ended up brain storming for a bit on how I would fix these... OEM would be difficult to get, plus the entire bracket assembly came had to be purchased with the lights.
On amazon I found these LED license plate bulbs with great reviews:

I figured why not for $6. Took about 3 weeks for me to get them, and they seemed pretty decent.
So on to the mounting. First of all the factory lens reflectors were pretty dirty and yellow, even after washing and scrubbing. So I tried to see what a little rubbing compound could get me. Turns out 5 minutes with rubbing compounds works miracles.

A little before and after there, once less thing to to worry about trying to find. I was completely happy with how they turned out.
Now I have mentioned before, good tools are very difficult to come by in Nicaragua due to the lack of availability and price. While I would love to have some decent metal shaping tools, it's just not in the cards. So time for ingenuity and determination to kick.
I had some left over 1mm (18 ga.) sheet metal left over from another project that would work perfect for the bulb holders.
So with some rough measurement and some lines as guides I started shaping the housing over a piece of angle iron with a ball-peen hammer. (Next time a planishing hammer will be on the tool wish list)
Slowly but surely it began to take shape.

Eventually with some patience, and welding some end caps I came up with this:

 

[Kcizik]

So after sanding them down and massaging out dips in the metal, I cut out a new base and welded them up. This is how the came out:

Probably not the prettiest thing, but definitely functional.
Got some paint on them and mounted them up.

Now after going through that and connecting them up I realized I had made a mistake. Unfortunately in my haste of ordering them, I did not choose white, rather blue was selected. I hate blue exterior lights.... Lesson learned, pay close attention to the purchase details. Now with the holidays upon us, the country will be on a long vacation until the end of the year. It'll probably be near the end of January before I can anything else makes it to me. I'll have to stare at those dumb blue lights until then and think about how rushing never really pays...