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Joined
Jul 5, 2019
Threads
3
Messages
29
Location
Australia
Hi all would like to just introduce my my self, I havent been on the forum for many years and my previous account i have no idea what it was. Any way moving on many years i have decided it was time to s*** or get of the pot, either get rid of the ole girl or fix her up some so i could get her roadworthy and registered (I live in Melbourne Australia if not familiar with our terms ) which is the BS so we can get vehicles back on the road.
I have had my HJ45 ( it has a 3F in it) so kinda of refer to it as a FJ45 since the mid 90's, when it was my daily driver work truck, its had many Km's pu on it and alot of repairs over the years so when it came time to decide sell or keep her, i just decided im still not ready to get rid of her.
This weekend after a preliminarily dig at the rust spots ( oh saying spots is being kind) a few weeks ago, I decided to take the plunge, in hindsight i have been planning this and slowly stockpiling things for the rust removal. Any way enough of the words picture are better to understand my woe's.My budget is super tight so my time and labour is going to tackle this as much as possible.

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The top pics gives you an idea of her cancer problem. The more i scrape the more i find. The chassis has nothing of concern, but the roof is a right off and the turret has got a lot that needs attention, and the floor though heavily pitted of the drivers side does seem to still have some good metal to work with.
 
The HJ lives elsewhere so have been brining a few pieces home to clean up in my spare time (which is limited), back in the day as a young mechanic we pulled everything apart with spanners and sockets and ratchets, now i have invested in a few Milwaukee cordless tools which speed up disassembly so pulling the cruiser apart has been relatively quick.

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The purple paint strip discs on an angle grinder are a god send for removing all the paint, the old sound proofing material so far has not proven to much hassle, a scraper has been removing it easily from under the fenders and the floor pans. i drilled out my first lot of spot weld on the drivers fender, very happy how easily it came apart with a spot weld hole saw bit.
 
The roof like i said is beyond help, Ive been looking for a good steel replacement for months and have found nothing, a fibreglass roof is my only option currently.most of the bolts i was surprised to find came out easily, a couple were rusted away so got cut off.

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My plan is to get rid of the old car from the garage and then reverse the HJ in and unbolt the tray and weld some legs on for a welding bench then drive the cruiser in unbolt the cab push the frame out and then work on the chassis in its current position. its a little tight but its what i have.
 
The running gear needs a bit of a refresh, like i said earlier it started life a a 12/78 2H HJ45, it currently has a carby 3F in it when I bought it supposedly out of an 80 series, it had a 4speed in with a old fairey overdrive which blew to pieces on its first big trip to Cape York in North Queensland. I then purchased a new overdrive from Marks 4x4, it worked well but I wanted to get away from the additional weight hanging of the back of the transfer, I was lucky to find a 5 speed and put that in and was very happy. After a couple of diff centre disaster I ended up putting a Detroit EZ locker in the front for some more grip, and was impressed how well it worked. I removed the drum brake front and installed a disc brake front end from a Hilux, over all this was a great improvement over the 4 wheel drum brakes even with the big finned drums on the rear.
 
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In between the cold, wet weather yesterday, I managed to get the glass out of the turret, not an easy job, after all the work I found my window seals are suffering from rubber fatigue, I am considering getting the rear glass tinted before I put them back in. I had a dig around the rust in the turret, hopefully I have unearthed the most of it.
Not sure what my plan of attack should be. I would like to start on the lower section first, probably on the door column, where the dowl pin go, the passage side is the worst. There are few areas were there are pin holes, not sure if i should cut them out or just weld them up..

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In between the cold, wet weather yesterday, ...
Huh? Oh yeah, I see where your from. Cheers! How’s the skiing? 😃

I’m no expert, but in the same boat as you, replacing non-existent metal with existent metal. I wish I had rust.

I find that only the single pin holes are worth trying to weld up by themselves, and only if I have access to the backside for placing a copper backer in position. Otherwise I cut out bad pieces and splice in a new(ish) piece. Still a challenge butt welding new 16-gauge to old 16-gauge. If I can, I weld from the back (or bottom) with the copper plate on the outside (or top). That way the puddle is flat on the good size and takes very little grinding/sanding. I leave at least one side of weld fairly proud, as the old metal is not as thick due to rust and I’m concerned with weakness. I’ll float the weld joints with paintable seam sealer or even USC all-metal if a bit more rough. I’m not trying to get perfection, just good functionality with no holes. Did I also mention I’m no expert?
 
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Hi middlecalf, Its definitely not Idaho cold here, but cold enough to loose the finger tip feeling. I have a few pieces of copper saved for backing the welds, I like the idea of welding from the side which will allow for a flatter weld, will keep that in mind.

Im thinking as sandblasting is not in my budget currently, if i should spray the internal rusty areas with some phosphoric and try to get rid of rust in some of the hard to get to spots. I have been cleaning out some of the old seam sealer and have found some surface rust under it, not sure if re applying seam sealer may hide rust in the joints in the future or better to apply and keep the joint sealed.

The turret section requires the most attention as far as rust repair goes, and as I have never done any previously I am really experimenting with all the different process I have read about and watched on the internet. When I was younger I watched my friends dad repair a big rust hole in a car door by packing it with news paper applying a bit of fibreglass and then some filler... this makes me cringe now, as I get ready to start cutting out rust and making metal patches by hand.
 
So today I pulled the windscreen frame off, the 1/2 impact pulled the screws out easily, I found one largish rust hole at the bottom, i have not pulled the glass out yet so hopefully there will be no surprises as there was no rust bubbles around it.

I have not found a single seal that is reusable for the cab section, I was really hopping to save some money on seals but it looks like they will all need to be replaced.

Where the windscreen sits on the cab the oval holes looked like they had tiny lips, they are mostly corroded away, are these required or can I get away without them? Also is there supposed to drain hoses in the ends on the frame?


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So in the need for some material for weld in patches I decided I will cannibalise the old roof. I cleaned up a piece with a paint strip wheel and it looks promising, if anything it will give me some pieces to practice on.

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This project is starting to get bigger and having it on the road for summer is now highly unlikely given my time and finances, but thats ok she sat patiently for ten years, whats a couple more.
I priced up today the seals for the cab and for the main door seals Im currently looking at $1400+, Jeez this is truly a labour of love...

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While the old sealer has played a large part in all the rust problems, as i dig around the rust holes I am trying to identify where and what caused the rust problem.

The cowling sealer was crumbling but still hard to dig out in spots, I am thinking of cleaning the sealer gap with phosphoric acid due to possible rust hiding in it or should I just use some rust converter? I don't want seal in problems when the time comes.

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Congratulations on getting the ball rolling. looks like your doing a good and through job - best of luck and thanks for the updates,
Cheers!
 
So the fight against rust NEVER ends...
I have been trying to find ways which are cost effective (because i have a tight budget) and not so labour intensive.
I have been wire wheeling a few rusty bracket but they never seen to get some of the deep, built up rust, as it just seems to turn in hard black spots which refuse to come off.
So I have been trying my hand a rust removal using electrolysis, I started on my windscreen hinges which were seized solid, after 24hrs in the electrolyte the external rust could mostly be wiped off, however they still wouldn't move, so I put them back in the electrolyte (which by this time had slowly started to turn in rust soup) for another 24hrs, after which all visible rust was gone and the hinges could be moved by hand...:bounce:

So feeling confident I put in my side step brackets pictured below and am very happy with the results, it even got the deep pitted rust out after 12 hours.

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