Build The Dentist - Turbo Diesel LX450

[asutherland]

Yep, the truck is all together for some time now. This is more of a retrospective write-up

The shop said the cracks looked really old, they were probably from the Yahoo P.O. in Japan who cranked the fuel screw.

 

[Greg_B]

Sad that the reason for this build happened in the 1st place, however nice to see the renewal getting documented on Mud. Well done and looking forward to future updates that track your entire build.

gb

 

[asutherland]

Now for some more carnage... everybody likes a little of that right?

Jason pulled the 3rd member out of the front of the HDJ81 axle and found this. It was so large, it wouldn't fit out the drain plug. I then knew where my howling was coming from. Another reason I chose to have the 3rd member removed and transferred instead of having the panhard rod mount re-welded to the other side of the HDJ81 axle and move the whole thing over.

Jason took both 3rd members (locking one from the HDJ81 and non-locking from the LX450) into Disturbed, a well known and respected differential specialty shop in the lower mainland. Ryan from Disturbed worked his magic, and made one good, locking 3rd member out of the two... with all new bearings and seals too of course.

Back into the LX450 front axle went the now fully rebuilt and locking 3rd.

 

[asutherland]

Squirrel!!!! Here's a bit of a side-track. Peden RV had a massive blow-out on Dometic fridges, so I bought one of the CFX 75DZ. 75L, true "dual zone" with separate compartments and separate controls. It was more than $400 off, and I had been looking for a good deal on one of these for more than a year.

Used it for a few trips now, and I must say, it's awesome! Keeps my veggies, milk, beer etc. cool at ~2 degrees C and my meat and ice cream frozen at -18C. As a bonus (I found out after) it can be controlled via wifi - which conveniently my Atoto head unit that I wrote about previously in this thread can connect to... full control and monitoring and alerts of my fridge right in my dash! LOL

I installed a dedicated 12 gauge power run from my Blue Sea panel in the engine bay (that I will write about further in this build thread) to a Blue Sea 12v outlet in the rear cargo panel.

 

[asutherland]

After what felt like an eternity (but really wasn't), Jason had the rig pretty well ready to go. A good friend of mine drove me down to Jason's shop (about 3 highway hours) in his pickup, where we spent the remainder of a very long, tiring day salvaging as many last minute items as we could think off the HDJ81 carcass and stowing them in his truck, and getting the new LX450 ready to drive back up the highway - it's first long distance maiden voyage!

It made it up the "smasher" snowshed hill on the infamous Coquihalla Highway just fine. Engine temps of ~165 - 175, EGTs less than 1250F, transmission temps ~120.

It was bittersweet parking the old with the new, so many good memories of exploring and adventures in the 81. On the flip side, such an amazing new ride - all of the good parts of the 81, all of the good of the newer LHD LX, combined into one super-cruiser. All re-freshed and fixed up, just waiting to head out....and many more projects ahead of me on the LX - a fresh canvas...

In my next few installments in this thread, I'll cover a crap-load of done-right electrical, vhf radio installations, cargo barrier build, new DOT. legal driving LED install, armour install, the new Cruisin' Off Road swing-out, new 35's, extendable camping pole-light, full Injection Pump rebuild, and more...

 

[FJBen]

Very cool! As someone who went through a roll over in a built cruiser (not an 80), I was faced with the same dilemma. Whole roofline/top half was shifted over badly and top caved although it pushed out, even though it didn't look "that bad" I ended up parting mine in the end as it was a lot of time, $$$ and work I just didn't have. Looks like a great cruiser!

Glad everyone was safe!!! I was alone in mine, no seatbelt which saved my life I believe in my case.

 

[asutherland]

Very cool! As someone who went through a roll over in a built cruiser (not an 80), I was faced with the same dilemma. Whole roofline/top half was shifted over badly and top caved although it pushed out, even though it didn't look "that bad" I ended up parting mine in the end as it was a lot of time, $$$ and work I just didn't have. Looks like a great cruiser!

Glad everyone was safe!!! I was alone in mine, no seatbelt which saved my life I believe in my case.

Thanks sir! Yes, it's amazing what damage can be hidden.

 

[ajordan1975]

While I was at it, I transferred over the Pioneer sub and "Whole Hog" mounting bracket from the '81.

View attachment 1846339

I removed the useless Lexus OEM analogue telephone module. Don't forget to connect the wiring harness behind, or you'll lose your left-rear speaker! Using the OEM bracket, I mounted my Kenwood radio and APRS gear described above ^

View attachment 1846342

View attachment 1846343

I also moved over my cargo bars from the '81.

View attachment 1846338

Why mount the Kenwood back there?
My curiosity is overwhelmed!

 

[asutherland]

Why mount the Kenwood back there?
My curiosity is overwhelmed!

Heh! That's a separate radio from my normal voice one. It strictly does APRS (digital info packets over vhf) . It's always on 144.390 and is simply switched on/off using a relay/switch in my dash. Used for tracking, telemetry and short messages over VHF. Check out the APRS thread I made in the comms forum on here for more info. Google Maps APRS

 

[SNLC]

Well done!

A year and a half ago I passed up an LX exactly like the one you have. It was the cleanest Cruiser I had ever seen, in original condition. The interior looked brand new.

I been kicking myself in the ass on that one since.

Cheers

 

[asutherland]

A bit of a dated post, but here is the 110 amp high output OEX DXA433U Aussie alternator that I installed on the 1HD-T. I don't know why I never took a picture of it ON the engine... I just have this lovely stock photo.

OEX Alternator 12V 110A Denso Style - DXA433U - OEX | Repco Australia

It's worked well for some time now.

 

[asutherland]

After removing my factory rear bumper caps in preparation of installing my Cruisin' Off Road bumper and armour, I found something nasty... body damage! Boo! The PO. did tell me the truck had been involved in a small rear-ender (under $2k damage) but they obviously missed a spot. A crinkle in the body metal directly under the left tail light. Nothing major, BUT - rust had already began to form on the crumple lines, and it would end up just getting worse.

So on a particularly sunny afternoon after 2 beer I decided to play unprofessional body man in my zero experience doing auto-body repair. I sanded down the damaged area, cleaned it, prepped it with self etching primer, put some "near match" spray on, followed by some clear coat.

Since the damage is mostly hidden behind the bumper, I wasn't too worried about straightening the crinkles... more just keeping it from rusting. I am pretty happy with the results. If you're not looking for it, it's mostly unnoticeable with the bumper on.

 

[asutherland]

I had removed all of the armour from the HDJ81 before leaving the lower mainland and brought all of it back home in the back of my buddy's pickup. Minus the front bumper, which we simply installed for ease of transport.

I've been rocking the armour for almost 8 years, and it needed a refresh. A lot of it was pitted and rusted, especially the sliders. I took it all to a friend's work who does powder-coating. They had some surplus material in a handful of colours, which actually turned out really well. Beforehand the sliders and rear bumper were simply black. On the dark blue HDJ81 it looked perfect. However, on the lighter toned LX, it looked out of place. Turns out they had a metallic silver/grey that was an awesome match to the LX's body cladding!

I left the front bumper black, as I figured it would be too much silver/grey if I did the front as well. So I simply sanded and re-painted it satin black myself. It ended up turning out really well, the silver/grey metallic sides and back blend right in to look almost factory.. and the black front keeps that "ARB" look that I'm fond of.

In addition to wanting the armour fixed up, the main reason for re-coating was the big Cruisin' Off Road swing-out that Jason installed on my existing rear bumper. The HDJ81 had the factory tire carrier so I never needed one before... but now with the LX, I needed a place to carry my spare 35.

I got an extremely good deal on 5 315/75/16 BFG KM2s, brand new, mounted, balanced, taxes in and out the door for less than $1,100 USD from a local 4wd shop called Sportsman.

In addition to the tire, his swingout holds my jack-all and has tabs for the camping pole light.

 

[asutherland]

I took a lunch break at my work to modify the factory LX rubber/plastic compound "mud flaps" that attach to the bottom of the 4 flares. The rears simply needed a trim with a knife to fit around the sliders.

Keeps the bottom of the flare looking complete as well as keeping the dirt and crap in the wheel well and off the slider.

I basically cut them in half using a knife and tin snips, then used bench sander to straighten and smooth the cuts.

 

[asutherland]

After mounting the 35" spare, I immediately noticed a small problem - you definitely could not make out the license plate! Ahh USDM issues... on the HJD81 it had the factory plate holder on the left side of the tailgate.

So I used a small piece of alum. flat bar and some stainless carriage bolts and nuts and made an adapter. It works well, I only had to put two small bits of truck tape (foam one sided sticky tape) on the tailgate directly behind the carriage bolt heads so they wouldn't slowly vibrate and rub.

^ This photo is a little newer than these other ones, you'll notice in this shot I have my winter tires, Geolander A/T with the 3-peak mountain snowflake winter rating.

 

[asutherland]

Since I've been hinting at it for some time, before I sign off tonight I'll show some pics of the camping pole light. My good friend Greg Morgan and I do many, many camping and exploring adventures together. He made two, one for himself and one for me.

It's an extendable all stainless light pole. At the top there are two waterproof Brightsource LED lights that pivot and turn independently. They are fairly bright and have extremely low power consumption - both lights together use 1.2 amps (I measured).

The pole extends by loosening the t-screw on the shaft and pulling up. The coil wire follows perfectly. It has high and low stops and can be set anywhere along the travel. There is a waterproof toggle switch on the pole and another master switch on my centre console.

 

[asutherland]

In this pic you can also see my new winter radials, the Geolander A/T w/Mtn Snowflake rating.

 

[asutherland]

I finished most of my aftermarket wiring. My switches still need little labels.

The fuse panel is a Blue Sea 12 circuit distribution panel (link: here) that is rated for and fused with a 100 amp Pico breaker and 4 gauge wire. Each circuit has slightly over- appropriate gauge wiring, is fully split-loomed along factory wiring channels (when possible) with under-sized fuses.

Dual band VHD1 (voice),
APRS VHF2,
fridge outlet,
seat heaters,
2x extra Toyota cig 12v outlets,
Atoto Android deck, (see above posts for more details)
gauges,
solar in from sae connector on bumper,
led driving lights,
led exterior (small) lights,
and a 14 gauge run to the RTT

All wiring inside the truck is done with Molex connectors, and exterior connectors are Deutz.

 

[asutherland]

I also bought new OEM battery clamps as the ones on there were looking pretty beat up.

I built an aluminum bracket for the Blue sea that I riveted to the top of the cruise control motor plastic shield, and used some OEM wiring clips that snap into holes on the bracket to release pressure off the 2 main connectors.

Switches are a very basic but usable simple toggle, that has a small green LED on it when ON. I have a selection of both constant power, ACC power, or IGN power, depending on what I wanted for each device.

Winch solenoid,
OBA,
APRS VHF tracker,
Inverter on/off,
Rear pole light and
Rack lights.

You can also see I attached the removable face plate of the dual band VHF here... it's the perfect spot. It attaches with magnets to the metal bracket.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the outcome of my dash and console work. It's very usable, and also pretty

While I was in the wiring mood, I also finished my Australian made Bogaard glow plug timer circuit, including using the Check Engine light on my gauge cluster as the glow light... finished my driving light install (next post), and the OEM boost and over-boost LEDs on the gauge cluster.

 

[asutherland]

Next up: Driving lights. On the HDJ81 I had the very, very large Australian light Force XGT nuclear HID powered lights. Though I never had an issue with them and the law, it was probably a matter of time. They also were literally too darn big for my bumper set up. SIDE NOTE: I have a pair of good condition Lightforce XGTs for sale.. PM me!!

I opted this time, to go for a set of smaller (7 inch round) street legal LED rounds made in Canada by Brightsource. Link: here

They're kind of fancy looking, have incredibly good build quality, including the beefy wiring harness. Being DRIVING LIGHTS and not FOG LIGHTS, to be legal in Canada they must be tied in to the Highbeam circuit to activate. So I changed the relay trigger to a negative switch, and tied in with the little wire that goes to the blue Highbeam light on the gauge cluster.

The lights themselves are rated at 60 watts each and more than 4,500 lumen each - you can see why they need to be tied to the highbeams only! I also ran it through an OEM fog light switch on the dash, so I could still use my normal highbeams without. I attached the main power to the relay into my Blue Sea panel.