Builds Mail Order Ride - My HDJ81 (2 Viewers)

[Dork]

Thanks. I haven't done much with it the last few weeks, but I did get things hooked up. Winch and lights are mostly working. I've got the amber fogs lit up, but they also have white diodes. I've ordered a second switch so I can turn them on independently, but for now, this works.

 

[changingground]

Man, you’re giving me 80 envy. Seriously nice work on the bumper. Bet you could sell those as kits.

 

[Dork]

Man, you’re giving me 80 envy. Seriously nice work on the bumper. Bet you could sell those as kits.

Thanks. The idea of selling it has been brought up before. Maybe after some other tweaks to the design I'll consider it. Anyone know if selling some pieces of cut metal as a diy kit carries any liability issues for the seller?

 

[Dork]

I'm bored, posted a picture.

 

[baldilocks]

View attachment 2908235

I'm bored, posted a picture.

Which one is yours dork?

 

[Dork]

Which one is yours dork?

You might want to look through this thread a little

 

[MrMikeyG]

I don't see how anything could come back on you if all you're providing is a kit. That being said I'm some asshat out there has tried to rest blame on a kit builder at some point. The quality of the welds is on the end user and not you. Maybe there would be some "improper design" loophole but to me that's a stretch.
It is a nice-looking bumper. Good job!

 

[Dork]

Finally did a job I kinda put off ever since buying the truck - rear hubs. I started noticing a bit of growl/whine from somewhere so thought it would be a good time to finally do this. Took a while, didn't fix the noise and the bearings honestly still looked fine. But, at least there's new diff oil, new grease, new seals in there

Worst part of the job was wrapping up the second side, admiring how nicely the second big seal went in, then seeing the bearing sitting on the bench. Can't get it out without wrecking it obviously, so bring on the 1 1/2hr drive to go both ways across town during rush hour to get a new one.

 

[baldilocks]

Three pages later, how’s that going?

 

[Dork]

Three pages later, how’s that going?

How is what going?

 

[Dork]

Changed the ujoints all around again. This time they're Matsubas, the bearing cap looks longer, so appears more beefy? Found out at the end that I can't grease the rearmost without pulling the shaft from the diff. That kinda sucks.

Finally extended my diffc breathers. Ran the line up to the firewall and just moved the oem valve there. In the rear I ran it into the quarter panel where the jack mount is and ditto with the factory valve. There was a job that only took 5 years of procrastination and an hour of actual work.

Built a quick and dirty mount for a jerry can holder to throw on the back of the truck. Just 4 bolts to remove so I don't look like a tryhard overland poser when I don't need it. That was only 3 or 4 years of procrastination, and like 2 hours of work.

 

[Dork]

So, I made a mess.

If you don't care for story, skip this post.

Went on an overnight trip to Ruby Falls, if you're from Alberta you probably know the place. Only one truck, two adults (one with no offroad experience) and two young kids. Took the normal route up there, truck did it with fully open diffs, nobody else around, clear night sky, good times.

The next day on the way down we came across the branch to the alternate route past Ruby Lakes, and decide (against all better judgement) to go have a look and see how it goes. Get to the lake, looks awesome, nice views, trail still seems ok so we stay on it.

Then we hit some muskeg, get through some of it, had to winch twice, but keep going and seem strong.

Then the trail gets narrower, with tighter corners and deeper mudholes, but we keep getting through and moving forward so keep going.

Maybe we should turn around? GPS says there's only like 1km left to the road as the crow flies, keep going. I mean turning around now is like 4 hrs of backtracking, so that sucks, right? The truck is doing awesome, lockers are doing their job, winch is working quick when needed, confidence is growing.

Then it's too tight and I rip a flare off on a tree, slide downhill into another tree with the front bumper, dunk the back of the truck under the mud and need to winch again. Break the winch remote cable off at the plug after driving on it (**** dammit). This is obviously an ATV trail, not truck friendly. Pretty ****ing gnarly really.

Then another hole we can't bypass looks daunting. Still have the wireless function on the winch remote, but it cuts out annoyingly when there's a big strain that drops voltage in the system, but better than nothing. Tree straps waiting on tree, plan discussed with my inexperienced helper before hand, and I'm stuck 2/3 the way through a hole that's got water over the bumper. Helper gets me strapped up good n quick, Warn winch keeps working while underwater, truck gets out, and we find out that's the last big obstacle (which should have been the squirrel catcher had we not been on it backwards).

Then, we're on the side of the road, adding some air to tires, before driving 3hrs home at 120kph with not even a shimmy.

Made it, felt good about it, feel badass, but it so easily could have been worse. I mean, I had tools, supplies, full set of fluids for the truck, spares, jack, shackles, straps, tow ropes, air compressor, other stuff so not fully unprepared. We scoped out and discussed recovery plans for each obstacle before getting into them.

But, the big mistakes were driving down a trail I've never done before, a trail that sees much less traffic, with people that are really next to no help, in a situation where being heplessly stuck would have meant hours to walk to a point where we could eventually find someone driving by that could pick one of us up and bring us 30-45 minutes down the road to where a cell phone would work, so wives could come pick up kids while I'm left to figure out how to get help getting the truck out of there. Not a good risk/reward ratio to work with.

I've had a vehicle stuck alone before, and it sucks. So much time, money and energy wasted. I should have known better, and will not be doing something like this in the future.
Next post, the aftermath.

 

[Dork]

The right rear flare came off on a tree, but it looks like it'll be easily fixable. There was bark on the bumper wing at that corner and a decent scratch on the fender, but no real damage so I figure that bumper did its job.

The front bumper got thumped too, and it had bark scuffed on it, but no damage there either. **** yeah on the home brew bumpers.

Muddy water was coming in the doors so there's a bunch of nastiness in the truck to take care of. Carpet was gross, the doors were full of mud, rocker panels, rear quarters too.

There's new pinstriping everywhere. The stuff that's Raptor lined looks perfect.

There's some new leakage from the output seals of the transfer case. Naturally the driveline got all torqued up, so that will need addressing at some point in the near future.

When driving with the winch remote plugged in I drove over the dang cord and wrecked it. Way to go idiot.

First, gotta clean it up.

 

[Broski]

Strange that the transfer case started to leak like that.

 

[Dork]

My in head explanation is that judicious use of the skinny pedal while the already awful driveline angles are being thrown all over the place has got to cause some fairly significant unnatural stresses to apply to those output shafts in directions that aren't straight, leading to seal damage. Front looks like it got it worse than the back.


I am not a mechanic however, so grain of salt, call me out on my bull****, etc.

 

[Dork]

Clean up time.

I pulled basically the whole interior from the truck and got rid of water. Broke off a couple of bolts for the tie down hooks and one of the rear seat bolts, so picked up some replacements and those will need to be drilled and tapped later. The rear seats were also held in with some one way safety bolts, (must be a Japanese thing) but a Dremel helped make those removable with a big screwdriver.

Opened the drains under the carpet and got the remaining floor water out. Used the shop vac on the rear quarters and cleaned those out best I could. Shop vac'd all the other voids and crevices in which I found muddy water.

Went under the truck and popped the plugs on the rockers and let all that water out. I have a video over a minute long of that water pouring out, and this is a already couple of days later. Make a mental note of opening these every now and then. Fluid film will be going in there too.

Brought the thing outside and then got to cleaning it out. Scooped as much dirt from the doors as I could and then rinsed them out with the hose until water was running clean from every angle. Sprayed water into the rockers from all little holes until water came out clean there too. Moved the truck around on the driveway at different angles so the water could drain mostly fully before putting it back in the garage.

Strangely, I found two inspection cover plates sitting loose in bottom of the right side B pillar. They look like a proper part, but don't seem to fit anywhere, so I'm not sure what they're for, and so they get tossed out.

I did find a little over 350yen, which is apparently around $3.50 right now, so yay me!

So, that leaves me with an empty clean truck to work with. Interior project got bumped up the to-do list, and the princess is being very accommodating.

 

[mudgudgeon]

The rear seats were also held in with some one way safety bolts, (must be a Japanese thing) but a Dremel helped make those removable with a big screwdriver.

Yup, JDM specific for those bolts.

I replaced the front/lower bolt on the 2nd row seat brackets with these in the correct thread size

 

[Dork]

Those would work real good as tie downs. In my case the 2nd row seats are going back in and never come out, so I don't strap anything down there.

 

[Dork]

Clean up part 2.

Took the head liner and trim pieces out and did some work on those. They were in ROUGH shape due to the sheer volume of Japanese smokes that must have been inhaled in this thing. Tried a method I read about whereby you spritz it with stain remover, then hit it with a hot, slightly damp, micro fibre towel and elbow greased it for a while, following up with some more elbow grease and a dry towel. Looks light years better than it did before, but still far from perfect. There was also some little holes with globs of glue in it from some lights or something they had mounted up there in a previous life. The photos show half cleaned parts to see the difference.

While the head liner was out, I checked my sunroof drains (all clear), took out the little tiny useless rear speakers and slapped some sound deadening up there. I went with the Noico 80mil butyl stuff, followed by the Noico Red 150mil foam layer as recommended. I had no roof rack holes to worry about, so that was all simple enough. I pulled the old insulation off, burned off the loose stragglers, and scraped what I could of the old glue off. The rest of the glue, I said **** it after using Goo Gone, Adhesive Remover, and more with no success and I didn't want to spend a week on removal.

The Noico decision was due to cost and cost alone. Stuff made on this side of the pond ends up being 3-4x as pricey.

Ceiling/Roof is happier now.

 

[IanB]

Those would work real good as tie downs. In my case the 2nd row seats are going back in and never come out, so I don't strap anything down there.

Yup, JDM specific for those bolts.

I replaced the front/lower bolt on the 2nd row seat brackets with these in the correct thread size

View attachment 3137685

Those would make great child seat rear tether attachment points as well I bet. Good idea!