The Desert Ditch 62

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Sad but ditch the body or fix it but the next buyer will complain about it not being original.
My hj wont have a next buyer (only scrapyard) so I don't care much about originality or the next buyer.

I don't know if these panels are available, I think a local guy can fix it better than it looks now, frame off helps a lot, blasting too.
If there is not to much money in it already you might "just" fix it and make it drivable, not show room condition?
Are you sure the engine is ok, had a compression test?
 
What a thread to wake up to today.

I have a feeling I'll need to come to Dubai for a few days this year, so if I do, I'm reaching out to come say hi!
 
Did someone say replacement high-roof body?

This one is a right hand drive import that i will convert to LHD using my old existing firewall for reference.

 
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richinvan said:
What a thread to wake up to today.

I have a feeling I'll need to come to Dubai for a few days this year, so if I do, I'm reaching out to come say hi!
Click to expand...

If you do decide to comedown, make sure its after september as its devil's piss hot right now and we're just starting to get our share of humidity. But yeah, comedown and say hello! :D
 
Damn that original body was toast.
 
So how much does it cost to completely soda blast a body like that? This new one
looks just like that - new. Are you going to cut and replace the entire firewall for the LH
drive conversion?
 
cruiserpilot said:
So how much does it cost to completely soda blast a body like that? This new one
looks just like that - new. Are you going to cut and replace the entire firewall for the LH
drive conversion?
Click to expand...

It was the equivalent of $1000 to do one body, i plan on first just swapping the mounting plates so i don't go hacking up firewalls. I still have some remedial metal work to do around the rear arches as well as swapping the barn doors over.

But thats not where im concerned most, i plan on removing the high roof as i don't like the way it looks and replacing it with a holy grail part. :flipoff2:
 
Take a huge piece from over here, put it there.. quite amazing. If you blasted my cruiser you'd end up with something that resembled a cheese grater!

Have you managed to find a solid gold roof encrusted with diamonds? Isn't that the sort of thing one might find in Dubai?
 
Thebedouin60 said:
It was the equivalent of $1000 to do one body, i plan on first just swapping the mounting plates so i don't go hacking up firewalls. I still have some remedial metal work to do around the rear arches as well as swapping the barn doors over.

But thats not where im concerned most, i plan on removing the high roof as i don't like the way it looks and replacing it with a holy grail part. :flipoff2:
Click to expand...

I have a friend who did a mounting plate swap, but a lot of the brackets for the heater/ac hoses and brake/fuel lines didn't mount
up very well and it looks a mess. Another friend did the same, but drilled out the spot welds and did a firewall swap with
everything still attached, and it looks incredible. BTW, the second guy had a 60 body like yours, and swapped on a high roof.
His ended up to be quite a truck.

BJ60 to HJ61 Body swap...the five year plan turned right now plan!
 
Got the body back from the blasters for the second time, now the metal work can really pick up some speed. Still not sure on how to go about the RHD to LHD conversion but i've got both body shells side by side for a comparison so i can make changes as i see fit with the resources i have.

It feels damn good to have them both next to each other though....



This is the "bad" LHD donor for reference



and this is the "Good" shell that will be used and converted

 
As soon as we got everything off the trailer, i got to have a good look at what i had to work with, second time around, the damage ain't that bad:

Here's the worst of it:

Right rear wheel well and quarter panel



Left rear wheel well and quarter panel



Left roof channel got bent while being put back on the ground, so that'll need some attention too as it showed some rust as well



Other than that, she's all metal, gonna have it sanded and primer'd so i don't need to worry about the humidity and surface rust getting to it while hashing out the steel work.
 
reminds me of my project, took two bodies and made one good cruiser out of them. Good top off of one and the good bottom half off of the other one.
 
hj 60 said:
Are you sure the engine is ok, had a compression test?
Click to expand...

Yea i drove it around before the resto for a solid hour hooning it around an industrial area. Had all sorts of RPM, got it sideways and even jumped :hillbilly:

The motor will get a full rebuild sometime soon after the body work is all sorted as i want to do everything in one shot.
 
Now onto the good stuff...

As you've all seen, my roof is destroyed, and i've tried thinking of ways to fix that issue until i got a lead on a set of new old stock land cruiser parts in Oman. So a few calls later and a trip to the border later and i tracked this down:

A brand new in the box roof skin for the 60/62



 
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