LJ70 Build Thread!

[Scott]

That's an excellent body restoration Ben, very well done indeed. She's really taking shape now.

Good luck with the deadline and the pending arrival.

 

[Ben]

Apart from being disheartened, it's a great feeling to see all that new metal going in and knowing you've hit 99% of the lurking rust.

I'm always a bit concerned with those lower quarters collecting more water and condensation. I'm presuming you've made adequate provision for drain escape holes. Protecting them with paint is no easy feat either, after you've formed them in a seam or drilled them out.

Great work as ever Ben, keep at it, 'cos you really have achieved a major milestone on the project.

Thanks mate.

I havent added drain holes yet but it is something I've been thinking about and I'm still un-decided.

This will be a fair weather only vehicle as it will be a permanent soft top and will be garaged, so I'm hoping I wont get any moisture in the rear quarters.

It also wont be getting a snorkel, so deep water crossings will be out.

Having said that, I will make an emergency snorkel (piece of hose) that I can fit to the airbox for the odd occasion when there is no choice but to do a deep river crossing.

Hey Ben,

I know this isn't the right thread, but whilst I remember I saw an ad for Outback Drawers and they have the ADR approved child seat tethers on them for the Land Cruiser Wagon, and they mount them on the front of the drawers, not the top.

Thanks mate, something I still need to sort before he gets here.

I've been trying to find a 76 series in a wreckers yard so I can buy the child restraint point from them, which mounts above the rear doors but I havent been able to find one.

Well impressive
I would have thrown the toys out of pram and been reduced to tears by the enormity of the dealing with the rot

Thanks mate.

Believe me I came close a few times.

I even tried sourcing another soft top body before I decided to buy the new bulkhead for it.

In hindsight I probably shouldnt have bought this body/that RJ70, but the money I have made back selling all the parts it came with and then selling the chassis, with the engine out of my LJ78 and my old LJ70 body, I've actually made money and the soft top body and V8 engine dont owe me anything, apart from a lot of my time. So I'm pretty happy with how things have worked out.

I'm going to keep an eye out for another soft top 70 though and if I find one in good condition I will get it and mothball it for the future.

Looking great Ben.
Something you might already have thought to do, after you've finished with the primer use a black aerosol and dust coat the body, when you wet flat it any low/high spots show up, when the black has gone the surface should be nice and smooth.

Thanks mate.

Yeah first saw that technique used many years ago on LJ's original body got repaired with new arches welded on. Worked well so definitely using it on this one.

I have to agree. It feels sooo much better once the paint goes on. It's the transition between dirty work and clean careful work.

Definitely!

Also a big sense of relief as the amount of prep work needed before painting is huge!

But it will be short lived as then I need to go onto all the doors, bonnet, wings etc. etc.

That's an excellent body restoration Ben, very well done indeed. She's really taking shape now.

Good luck with the deadline and the pending arrival.

Thanks mate, Its going to look awesome once its done!

Thanks, less than 3 weeks until hes due now!

We're both very excited, but I just want to get this project some where near finished first!

 

[Iwan]

Great work there Ben! It amazes me where the time goes with these rebuilds! Looking forward to see the paint job and the body being bolted down. Good work mate

 

[Bund]

Ben thats some real love gone into that. Well done.

 

[bobo2]

We are waiting for you Ben

 

[Ben]

Thanks guys.

I will get an update up this week some time.

Been working flat out on it, yesterday was another 14 hour day on it.

But I'm making good progress. I've now got the body painted and fitted to the chassis, half the interior back in and all the doors and roof hoop section in primer and getting painted blue tomorrow.

Hoping by this weekend to have all the doors back on and the interior all in and then I can start repairing and painting the windscreen surround and then all the body panels for the front end.

My son is due 2 weeks tomorrow, so I need to keep up the pressure if I am to have it finished before he comes.

 

[bobo2]

I cant wait to see how that V8 beast will do a job!!!

 

[Ben]

Ive been thinking about the front bar I will have to build for the front of this and I quite like the look of the front bar on this 70, this is kind of the sort of look I'm thinking of going for with this build.



Anyway back to the build..................

After a bit more filling and sanding it was looking like this.

I needed to do a load of seam sealing next.





I used masking tape to help give me some neat lines of sealant.























I then gave it another coat of 2k primer.



And then sprayed on some cheap spray paint, which I could then sand off, revealing any low spots.





I decided I wasnt happy with the finish on the tops of the rear quarters or with the captive nut holes on the tops of the C pillars, so I decided to fill and seam seal it all.











Meanwhile the orange paint had revealed a few small areas that needed filling.





For these smaller imperfections I chose to use some fine surface filler, rather than normal 2k body filler.





I used my masking tape trick to seam-seal along the tops of the rear quarters.





I also decided to improve upon Toyota's original work building this body and seam-seal a lot of seams that wernt originally sealed, just to give a nicer finish.









Followed by another little coat of 2k primer.







I gave it all a sand over with 1000 grit wet n dry paper.



Then removed the polythene from the car floor pan, as it was covered in flaking primer and I didnt want to risk anything going on the new paint.





Re-masked it all off ready for paint.



And started mixing some paint.






*Due to the fact Photobucket is playing up and is due to be switched off soon anyway (as I'm not prepared to pay their extortionate figure over over £200 per year)

I will be uploading my pics directly to the forum, like the ones above. But I'm limited to 50 pics at a time, so this update might take a while, but theres lots more pics to come.

 

[Ben]

Toyota Mid Night Blue, a colour Toyota originally painted LJ almost 25 years ago and a colour still offered on the 70 series range to this day!





These mixing cups with the different ratios on the inside are a really clever idea!

I would be using 2 parts paint to 1 part hardener +10% thinners.





So I went up to the 4 in the 2:1 column with my paint then poured hardener in up to the next 4 and then thinner in after that and gave it a good stir.



I then got fully suited up and put my fancy new respirator on and got painting!

Things didnt go entirely to plan as I had problems with the gun and stupidly didnt test it on something other than the car when I first started painting.

This resulted in the paint coming out far too thick to start with, until I got the gun adjusted properly.

I then did something really really stupid and wiped the runs. I've since learned I should have left the runs and they could have been sanded out afterward with 2000 grit wet n dry paper.

Anyway, it was only in a couple of areas and they can be fixed up afterwards.

The next morning I took the make shift booth down to reveal LJ's new body!







My dodgy wipe marks in the paint.



With the body painted, it was time to fix the doors up.

I started off by removing the door trims.







This really didnt look good!





On to the back doors.





This whole area was clearly made of filler.



At this point I decided that rather than mess around with these doors that are clearly a bit rotten I would be better using my spare set of doors as overall they were in better condition, even if the one was a bit dented.







This would need some attention.



Unbolted the top glazed sections.

















Cleaned the paint off the dented area.





Got out my home made dent puller.



Welded some studs on and started pulling the dent out.



With that done, I got it outside so I could mark where it would need drilling for the rear number plate light, as this door didnt have a rear door mounted number plate previously.

The original blue one did and you can even see the 2 raised square sections which have captive nuts welded to the other side for the number plate to bolt to.







That done it was time to tackle the rotten passenger side front door.



Hit it with a wire wheel in the grinder to reveal the extent of the rot.









Luckily the bent doors that came on the 75 series body had almost identical doors.

Their not quite the same as the 75 door tops arnt removable like my soft top ones, but externally they are identical in measurements.



And the profile for the bits I wanted to cut off the 75 door were identical!



Marked where to start cutting.







And began cutting!

 

[Ben]

I kept cutting more and more metal away until I thought I'd finally got it all!











I cut a section off the donor 75 series door and then drilled the spot welds out and separated the 2 sections.



Cut the inner rotten sections off my door, being careful to ensure the edge of the cut would be behind the top section, for an invisible weld once its all finished.







Trimmed my donor pieces to size.





And welded them in.





Got the door outside to grind the welds down flush.





I then gave the repaired inner section a coat of the weld through zinc paint and got the door back into the garage to weld the outer section on.








I then got the doors outside for a sand down and to grind all my welds down.







I needed to repair a slight crack in the drivers door.





I TIG'd it up and then smoothed the weld down with the die grinder.




I set the gazebo up as my make shift spray booth and started hanging things up ready for paint.







To avoid overspray going absolutely everywhere, I filled the sides in with polythene.





And got some primer on the rear doors and all the hinges.



I then got the doors outside and on stands to sand down the primer.





My mate came round and helped me lift LJ's new body onto the chassis!











I could then, much to my wifes delight start emptying the single suite of car parts and start bolting them back on!

Starting with the seats!

I have been carrying LJ's rear seats around with me for the past 6-7 years since I removed them and finally they have gone back in!





The area behind the rear seats will house a set of light weight drawers that will contain all the recovery gear, with a set of waffles and a Hi-lift jack mounted on the top.



Fire wall insulation went on next.



Followed by the wiring loom.





Followed by the peddles.



And steering column.

 

[Ben]

Back to the body work..............

I hung all the doors and the roll hoop roof section up got them all painted in primer.







As I then intended to bring them into the garage to sand the primer down, I invested in a decent car cover to keep the dust off the interior.

I wanted one anyway encase LJ ever has to spend anytime parked outside overnight or if rain is forecast.









With LJ safely tucked up under the cover I began sanding all the doors down.





Some of them needed a bit more filling.





Then they went back into the spray booth for the top coat!







This time I got to do what I had intended to do with the body, which is do a very light mist coat to start with and then 10 minutes later give it a thicker coat, so as to avoid runs.



A nice thin coat to start with and as a result, no runs.









Then a thicker coat to cover it fully.





I did that first thing in the morning before going to work.

Then in the afternoon my wife called to say the polythene had all blown off the gazebo and some of it was stuck to my new paintwork.

This is what I came home to.




Thankfully the only bit of damage was this tiny bit on the top of the roof hoop section.



Put it on the list with the other bits that need fixing up.

I brought all the hinges in along with 2 dash brackets.



And as a storm was forecast (were in storm season now) I brought the rest of the doors in.

The front doors look amazing!





But annoyingly I missed a small dent on this little back door.



And as I sprayed first thing in the morning, the inside of the gazebo must have had some condensation on it as the bigger rear door had a few water drops on it!





My mate came back around so I got him to give me a hand to lift the roof hoop section on.





The following morning I bolted all the doors on.



The hinges are also a little patchy in places but I think the plastic covers should cover any bits where the primer is showing through, although I will probably have to repaint this rear door so will do the hinges at the same time.











The HVAC parts all went in next and I've decided I will fit con, even though this car will be a permanent soft top, it will still be nice to have ice cold air blasting you in the face on those hot days rock crawling.



I mounted the brake booster, master cylinder, heater tap and 4wd high range solenoids to the bulk head.







And then bolted the dash in.





And center console with cup holders!

Even the brand new 70's dont come with a center console or cup holders!







ATTACH]136190[/ATTACH]

 

[Ben]

OK, thats it for today guys. I will get another update up soon.

10 days until the baby is due and I'm confident I will meet my target of having LJ assembled and to a point where I can roll it into a shipping container ready for the big move South.

Busy working on all the front end panels at the moment. I did 10 hours on Saturday and 11 hours yesterday (Sunday)

Hoping to have them finished this week ready to refit this weekend.

 

[AndyCook]

Good progress

 

[StarCruiser]

Well done Ben. Amazing determination and progress.

 

[Pat]

You are a very talented man,Ben.I follow your progress with great interest.

 

[Ben Stratford]

Superb job Ben
The end is now in sight. It looks like its going to be great fun driving it.
Great quality work as usual

 

[doyle61]

Excellent job Ben. I'm getting tempted to give the painting a go myself after reading that.

 

[Beau]

Nice work Ben, do you not use any lacquer on the paintwork?

 

[Gary820]

Looking really good mate, little bits of paint to sort aren't too bad, finish looks good. The more paint you get on the more you can wet flat and polish it after, that sorts the imperfections out.

 

[Ben]

Thanks guys.

Putting some crazy hours into this project, I really don't know where the time goes.

I'm really happy with how its coming together though!

Nice work Ben, do you not use any lacquer on the paintwork?

No this paint is just one solid colour.

I did have the option of getting a 2k base coat with clear coat, but decided that not having clear coat would make the job easier.