First a little introduction of myself. Male, living in Norway, and a happy owner of a 87 LJ73. I`ve posted from time to time in "what did you do to your 70-series today" tread and of course been enjoying reading mods and builds by other members of mud for some years now.
Yesterday I was asked for some more pics of my front bumper, at first I thought I could send it as a pm or just add some more pics to "what did you.." tread, but making a new tread is maybe the best way to share it with those who may find it interesting.
As everyone can see the bottom of the bumper is highly inspired by Alex Gee`s bumper.
So, I started with a frame covering "skid-plate" with air intake and sideplates for attaching to the frame ends:
Some insert nuts and it`s attached to the frame ends:
So that`s the bottom end step by step:
Next up were a box to hide away the winch and the bumper itself. Tried to get it as close as possible to the rest of the car, only reason is I like it neat and clean:
One suggestion I would have is to somehow make part of the winch cover clip off easily so your spotter can have a good view of the winch drum when you are winching. Apart from the ~2% of the time when you get a straight line pull, you will always need to watch that the cable doesn't jam up on one side.
This x-mas I`ve been looking through pics taken of my LJ from I first got it until today, appr. three years now. Since I`ve already got this tread with my resently bumper build I thought I could post up some of them here to get them in the same place, maybe some of you might even enjoy it though it isn`t much new to be shown.
This is my first pic of the car, taken at po`s place. High km but almost no rust which is rare over here:
After some cleaning, removing old and adding version one bumpers etc. It looked like this:
Next step was changing the worn out front seats. Since the car already had second row seat from a KZJ90/95 (J9 series Prado) I chased down a set of front seats from the same car. Here in Norway we didn`t get the 3 door version so the seats came from Denmark.
I mounted the seats to the original adjustable base provisional at first to get the angel/hight in front correct befor I made the final brackets.
Luckily the original headrest fitted the new seats!
When I bought the car I got a windshield with almost zero rust in the deal. Had it painted 202 Black, fitted with new gasked/window and a set of painted hinghes:
Theese items represented what I wanted the rest to be like and started a long learn full prosess.
I removed the plastic covers inside the B-pillar/rollcage and changed all the volvo list from beige to black:
I also got handmade (not by myself) a copy of the rollcage that goes over the second seat row. I added a set of 3-point (not sure if thatr`s the correct term?) seatbelts for improved protection of passengers:
