Out of Liberia - Prepping 86 LJ70 for the road

[richmason]

Many thanks to all who have helped me with the various questions I've had on the list. It has been a few years since I turned a wrench myself after too much living behind t-walls in various fun places. Now that we've managed to find an accompanied post in a friendly place, the next step was, of course, to find a project car for me and my 12 year old son to work on in preparation for some adventures in the bush of West Africa. We've put a road trip to Accra in Ghana via Guinee and Cote d'Ivoire on our calendar for the first week of November and I'm going to use this thread to track the improvements to our baby LC. I'll start with a pic of our first oil change. Parts I have on order (it all has to come in friends' luggage) include an Ironman spring and shock set, a set of replacement hinges and bars for mounting a jerry can on the small rear door, a snorkel and some bits from Onur. My IPM headlight wiring harness and higher watt bulbs (courtesy of Cruiser Outfitters) came in a mate's luggage yesterday along with a new windshield gasket for when I tackle the rust. While I realize I should prioritize the rust over the suspension work perhaps, I justified it to my wife on the grounds that the higher lift and new larger tires that will come next make it easier to access the undercarriage for repairs. I will also use this thread to showcase the talents and tribulations of local Liberian body repair as I patch the truck up with whatever is available locally.

Cheers,
Rich

 

[OGBeno]

Very cool Rich.

 

[richmason]

Onur,

Any idea how I rotate that picture?

 

[NGray]

if you are using windows and have windows photo viewer just rotate the photo in there and it should save. When I snap a photo on my phone and load on my computer they are usually sideways, so I have to rotate them. Seems to work.

 

[In2cruisers]

also- looks like you might have backed over someone

 

[cicak]

Exactly what do you do in liberia apart from restore one lc?

Keep posting im enjoying it

 

[richmason]

also- looks like you might have backed over someone

That's my son poking out from under the driver's side. I was impressed with his enthusiasm for getting dirty, which is important as the entire underbody as been sprayed with motor oil as a rust inhibitor.

 

[richmason]

I'm a USAID contractor who works in monitoring and evaluation. My primary job in Liberia is convincing ministry officials to measure the performance of their back offices while our other advisors help them improve it - financial management, procurement, HR, assets, and IT. Liberia has some of the best fishing in the world. It also has the rainiest capital city in the world by volume - 8 meters a year. I'll take it over the sandbox any day however. There are very few paved roads here and the main road that connects the middle of the country to the south eastern border with Cote D'Ivoire is dirt, mud during the rainy season.

 

[OGBeno]

I'm a USAID contractor who works in monitoring and evaluation. My primary job in Liberia is convincing ministry officials to measure the performance of their back offices while our other advisors help them improve it - financial management, procurement, HR, assets, and IT. Liberia has some of the best fishing in the world. It also has the rainiest capital city in the world by volume - 8 meters a year. I'll take it over the sandbox any day however. There are very few paved roads here and the main road that connects the middle of the country to the south eastern border with Cote D'Ivoire is dirt, mud during the rainy season.

Very cool. So, having a Land Cruiser is in fact an essential part of being able to do your job correctly.

 

[richmason]

Oh dear - first structural rust and a dilemma

So I started taking the rear bumper off yesterday. The corners came off ok but the center piece is welded to the frame, which I assume is how it was designed. This is my first time under the back of the truck and I'm not pleased with what I found. As the pictures show, the frame has big holes in it on either side of the tank. There is a good amount of rust all over the place. I didn't have a decent flashlight with me so I couldn't really evaluate the spring perches but they have at least surface rust on them. Also, the linkage for the arm that runs crossways behind and attached to the rear axle is cratered. The driver's rear quarter looks to be pure body filler. In short, it's a mess. Now the dilemma (and no it isn't how quickly to unload the car on someone else ): I don't have a garage or carport to keep it in. No one out here is going to be equipped or motivated enough to remove the body from the frame, at least I don't think so. Labor is super cheap, however, it is unmotivated to excel. Can I effectuate suitable repairs on this thing with the body on the frame? If so, my next question is really a moral one: does a restoration with your kid count if you have someone else do most of the work? There are one or two shops here that could fix this for $35 an hour but where is the fun in that? Looks like I'll have to drain and drop the tank this week and, most importantly, find someone who can weld on-site. Flatbedding it once I have everything stripped and cleaned up for welding isn't really an option. Even if I could find a good welder, I'm probably not going to trust them if I don't watch every move. To be continued...

 

[The Phoenician]

Rich,

I was born and raised in Liberia, I do miss it much and yes it rains non stop for half the year. When I was living there there were 3 vehicles that most NGOs used. Range Rover/Land Rover, Land Cruiser and the Gwagen. The range rovers were the best for fighting the rust since they are made of aluminum, but had their electrical gremlins. The Land crusiers rusted quickly but ran without fail. The Gwagen was for the people who had money. You don't happen to be near Mamba Point by any chance?

 

[richmason]

My office is in Mamba Point. We live in Sinkor at the end of 13th Street. When were you home last? This place, at least the parts of Monrovia I frequent which I know aren't representative, changes daily.

Interesting overlap of addresses. When were you last in Yemen? I worked there for 6 months prior to arrival in Monrovia.

Cheers,
Rich

 

[richmason]

A bottle of single malt in shipping brought me these from the Toyota fairy

The Toyota fairy otherwise known as West Coast Offroad in Wales. The single malt covered the excess baggage from London to Liberia....The jerry can mount and rear suspension goodies are coming via another suitcase next week. I broke down and contracted a local shop to strip the undercarriage, repair the frame rust and repaint everything before the suspension goes in.

 

[The Phoenician]

My office is in Mamba Point. We live in Sinkor at the end of 13th Street. When were you home last? This place, at least the parts of Monrovia I frequent which I know aren't representative, changes daily.

Interesting overlap of addresses. When were you last in Yemen? I worked there for 6 months prior to arrival in Monrovia.

Cheers,
Rich

I was in Yemen in 2008 a day after the attack on the US embassy. My profile picture is one of me in Yemen. I haven't thought of Liberia as home in over 20 years, though I was born there my family and I are Lebanese Americans. My father owned the Ambassador Hotel in Mamba Point next to what used to be the Ministry of Labor ( if I recall correctly, I think they changed its purpose after the civil war). My cousins still live and work in Liberia.
You live in Sinkor, that's a decent commute to work. Post up some picture if you get the chance, it would be good to reminisce. We use to offroad by the firestone plantation near the airport, it was more hunting than offroading, but you needed a capable car to get there.

 

[jericho]

Looking good! Can't wait to see the repairs! Question on the Jerry can mount, is that toyota parts? If so what are the part numbers, an if not who makes it and what was your source?

 

[richmason]

Looking good! Can't wait to see the repairs! Question on the Jerry can mount, is that toyota parts? If so what are the part numbers, an if not who makes it and what was your source?

Jericho,

I believe that it is Toyota. I bought it from Paul at westcoastoffroad in the UK. You should be able to find them online. I won't have part numbers until it gets here next week.

Cheers,
Rich

 

[richmason]

Update on progress with frame work on frankenyota

I don't have any pictures but the shop is moving forward (slowly) with repairs to the undercarriage. The damage was confined to the last two feet or so of the frame where the fuel tank was located. They've degreased the underside several times with brushes and have welded in some patches. The previous years of used motor oil rustproofing are coming off slowly. A steam cleaner would be a useful bit of kit. I have three cans of Eastwood inner frame treatment spray coming in at the end of this week as well as more Por-15 and some rust converter. I'm also bringing in an undercoating spray gun for the shop so we can mix up some imitation waxoyl for more treatment every 12 months or so. The rear portion of the Ironman suspension came in yesterday along with the jerry can mount, which is indeed Toyota. I'll have an actual jerry can cradle fabricated locally. I'm surprised at how much bigger the rear springs are than the fronts but I guess the additional body and fuel weight is greater than the engine. I also received an interesting assortment of rubber grommets and plugs from Onur to replace missing and worn out pieces in the floor pan, firewall and other places, along with new motor mounts. We've decided to let the shop have a go at fabricating new rocker panels from sheet metal. They aren't very visible when the running boards are installed anyway. Once the frame and pan are finished, the front wings are coming off along with the windshield so we can stop the firewall leaks. Its going to be in the shop for several more weeks I'm sure but will come out in time for dry season.

While I feel no small amount of guilt for not doing all of the work myself, there was just no way I could make solid repairs working without a house or garage or carport. We do have a solid pile of other to-dos and maintenance parts for my son and I to tackle once the harder stuff is taken care of.

In other news, the engine for my dead Montero finally came in from the US via ship. I doubt seriously that this truck will be of much use after sitting in the salt air for 6 months but we'll see.

Cheers,
Rich

 

[richmason]

Just getting worse - dash removed and there's more rust than metal!

Here is the windshield rust I'm dealing with on the driver's side. According to the shop, the fender is riveted/welded in place and they aren't comfortable removing it so this is the best access we are going to get. I'm thinking that once the windshield is out it will make sense to cut metal out of the cowl/firewall in order to get sufficient access to treat all of the rust inside and behind what can be seen here. I need more Por-15! More progress has been made on the frame and pan. It's all be sanded down and now welding can begin for patching the frame. Current hold-up is finding a good degreaser as there doesn't seem to be any available. They are going to use a gasoline/diesel mix first.

 

[Slowerthanu]

Here is the windshield rust I'm dealing with on the driver's side. According to the shop, the fender is riveted/welded in place and they aren't comfortable removing it so this is the best access we are going to get. I'm thinking that once the windshield is out it will make sense to cut metal out of the cowl/firewall in order to get sufficient access to treat all of the rust inside and behind what can be seen here. I need more Por-15! More progress has been made on the frame and pan. It's all be sanded down and now welding can begin for patching the frame. Current hold-up is finding a good degreaser as there doesn't seem to be any available. They are going to use a gasoline/diesel mix first.

Oh wow.

 

[richmason]

Windshield lower frame is gone

The windshield is out and here is the current state of visible rust. The next phase will be to cut out a large section of the upper cowl so we can access the void in between and repair all of that rust properly. It seems that it will be cheaper to cut the metal and reweld (seams will be covered by cowl cover) than to strip everything out of the dash and cut from above. Still have to resolve the fender issue. I don't see how we can effectuate a complete repair without removing them so we can R&R the tub that is underneath the drains and the endcaps of the cowl area.