LJ70 Build Thread!

[Pat]

Thanks for your ideas Ben.I have just rebuilt a fence and put double gates in and I am adapting your locking mechanism for it.Pat

 

[Ben]

Glad its been of inspiration.

I'd be interested in seeing some pics of your design when you've built it.

 

[Ben]

I had the other brand new Jimny in this week for the same treatment as the one last week.



I fitted the suspension lift kit first then set about cutting the guards to clear the new tyres.





Marked ready for cutting.













All done and ready to be tested for clearance using the forklift.









Back to the new center console for LJ.........................

I marked some alluminium.



Cut it out using a jigsaw.



Cleaned it up with a file.



Folded it.



Cut and folded some more alluminium.



The 2 pieces fitted together quite nicely.



Drilled some 29mm holes using a step drill for the 12v cig socket and double USB socket, and welded it all together.









I could then join the 2 sections together.













Test fitting in LJ.



It bolts down using 3 existing M6 captive nuts in the body.







I cut some rubber trim to fit around the top, this will be siliconed in place once its been powdercoated.





I cut and folded some alluminium for the top.





I wanted the arm rest to be quite long, but I also wanted to ensure it didnt extend too far as I want to be able to keep a bottle of water in the front.









I cut some stainless steel piano hinge and found some suitable M4 bolts and nylon lock nuts.



Bolted it to the center console.



And bolted the lid on.







I sourced a lock.





Made a hole using a step drill and bolted it in place.







Fitted the snib which would need modifying to work in this configuration.





I cut and bent a piece of 8mm steel rod and clamped it to the snib ready for welding.











Cut a piece of 10mm thick alluminium.



Marked where it needed drilling.



Drilled.



Clamped in place ready for welding.





The lock will be useful for if I want to lock valuables inside but for normal day to day use I decided to fit a spring latch.



Drilled, countersunk and bolted it in place.





Drilled, countersunk and bolted the other piece on to the underside of the lid.











More test fitting in LJ.











Tomorrow I'm hoping to source some foam and grey leather or viynl material to cover the arm rest with.

Then it can go to be powdercoated grey to match the rest of the 70 series dash.

Then I can wire up the 12v sockets and finally get it fitted and that will be that little project finished.

 

[hairyguy4]

That centre console is fawking awesome B) would hate to think what someone would charge to make that

 

[Chris]

Jeez, Ben. You're rockin' now. TIG rules.

 

[Olazz]

Continue to be impressed with your ingenuity and design skills Ben !

As for the Jimmy's... who buys those vehicles???? They alway strike me as toys, but am amazed at the following they have. Obviously more to them than meets the eye!

 

[wobbly]

I've missed the last 100 or so pages, will need to catch up......

 

[clivehorridge]

Aha, a cubby without a tailgate plate! Brilliant Ben

 

[Ben]

Thanks guys.

I think now I can weld and fabricate in alluminium as well as steel it means I'm less restricted in what I can design and build, which has got to be a good thing!

I still need lots of practice on the TIG and I still haven't done much stainless steel welding, thats my next metal to experiment with.

Continue to be impressed with your ingenuity and design skills Ben !

As for the Jimmy's... who buys those vehicles???? They alway strike me as toys, but am amazed at the following they have. Obviously more to them than meets the eye!

Thanks mate.

Yes this Jimny like the last one have been purchased as a toy. With a few mods they are almost un-stoppable off road!

Their secret is their size and super light weight, live axles and coil suspension. Give one a suspension lift, bigger tyres, lockers, winch and lower transferbox gears and off road they will out drive most things!

Their pretty cheap at 1/5th the price of a new cruiser and they've also got a bit of a cult following!

Its just a shame the USA never got the Jimny, as if they had there would be a lot of companies over there making some really cool aftermarket parts!

I will have one at some point, ideally a diesel!

Aha, a cubby without a tailgate plate! Brilliant Ben

Don't go their Clive!

 

[Gary820]

Awesome work, good to see the tig is paying its way.

 

[Ben]

Thanks Gary.

Had a busy weekend sorting our new aquarium out!







I did manage to find some time to do some more on the center console project though.

I wanted to avoid the vinyl upholstery on the top wearing through on the edges where it wraps over the edge of the ply wood, which had happened on the old one.





So my plan was to make the ply smaller than it needed to be, and ensure it had foam padding on the edges. I allowed 10mm on all 4 edges and in hindsight this was too much as the finished upholstered top is a bit smaller than I'd have liked.

But it might look OK after powdercoating and if it doesn't I've got enough materials left to make another.

OK this is what I did................................

Cut the ply to size.



Smoothed and chamfered the edges using a block plane.



The foam and grey vinyl.





The foam cut quite nicely with a straight edge and a sharp saw.





The foam is 10mm bigger than the ply to allow for the foam to wrap over the edges of the ply.



Used a glue-gun to stick the ply onto the foam.







The foam started off being 100mm thick but it would compress down a lot.





I cut a piece of vinyl and laid it under the foam.



Marked around it.



Glued the foam to the vinyl.





I could then glue and staple the vinyl in place.



I compressed the foam.



The corners are the trickiest bit and I left them till last.







Not as neat as I'd have liked but as this side wont be seen it should be OK.



The bits that will be seen.



Done!



The grey vinyl isnt a perfect match to the 70 series interior but its not bad.





Sat roughly in position.



You can see ideally the upholstered top could have been a bit wider. I will see what it looks like after powdercoating and as I mentioned above, I may make a new one for it.



Drilled through the alluminium where the screws would come through to attach the ply upholstered top.



I found some nice black screws.



And screwed it on.







Removed it ready to be stripped down and powdercoated.





I removed a piece of metal trim from the dashboard.



I will take this with me to the powdercoaters so he can try and match the colour.



I will drop it off at the powdercoaters tomorrow morning and should have it back within a few days, maybe even the same day.

The 12v sockets I've ordered should be here tomorrow, then it can all be put together and fitted.

After this I'm designing and building a trolley for my welder, then that can start coming home. I'm also designing and building an adapter for my trolley jack to enable me to lift even higher with it.

Then I need to crack on with LJ's rear suspension improvements.

I'm now seriously thinking of 3 or 4 linking the rear!

I've got a spare pair of trailing arms I can cut the end mount off to give me my 2 bottom links.

I'm quite happy to weld a mount onto my rear axle to mount a rose joint to.

Its just where the top links/A arms mount to the chassis which I want to have as a bolt on system rather than welding to my chassis which I dont want to do as I want to keep it so I can easily put LJ back to standard if/when I need to.

 

[Gary820]

I'll take a drawer unit with 3 drawers for the 80 when you've got a minute to pop over

Like the arm rest, the pad being that bit smaller might help to stop the edges wearing? i bet if LJ had a good scrub inside the colours would match

 

[Ben]

Popping over in July mate.

Yeah true, might stop the edges getting scuffed as easily.



The interior was last cleaned over 2 years ago when I cleaned it ready for Australian quarantine inspection.

I was hoping to get the console back from the powdercoaters tonight but it wasnt ready, but should be tomorrow morning.

 

[Craigmorley]

Hi Ben I've got issues with my 2.4 lj70 over heats by air lock. What's ur opinion got few good ideas of cause maybe faulty water pump and rad does seep alittle but not much at all tbh it's always ok at 50 - 60 mph and wen go offroading but minute I go 65mph on motorway for work journeys the temp rises a lot just under the red could it be a crack or head gasket but only under a certain pressure or strain? Also what is the best conversion a 2.8 hilux/Hiace engine or the 1kzt from 4runner. As I've got the chance of one but need more info on fitting and also reliability do they have head probs?? Thanks

 

[Craigmorley]

I under stand the 2.8 bolts straight in where as the 1kzt need slight alterations... What about bell housing for 1kzt is it same as 2.4 or do I need 4rumner one if so does that for my 2.4 gear box??

 

[Ben]

Hi Craig,

It could be a cracked head but it could also be your rad, especially if its leaking slightly. It could also be your rad cap and/or thermostat.

Really you need to get your cooling system pressure tested, but you cant really do that with a leaking radiator.

IMHO to fix what you've got, I'd fit a new rad or get yours re-cored, if the core is good and its just leaking on the top or bottom then you could just get it re-soldered at a radiator specialist.

Once the rad is replaced or fixed you can get the cooling system pressure tested, this should show if there are any leaks in the system, including head gasket and cracked head.

If that all comes back OK and theres no leaks but its still overheating I'd replace the thermostat and rad cap, although in all honesty I'd probably do that at the same time as fitting the replaced/repaired rad.

I dont believe it would be a faulty waterpump, they tend to leak when they fail on these engines and its quite obvious when they do as you can see coolant dripping off the sump!

Another thing it could be is the fan. Are you still using the viscous fan the engine came with or are you using an electric fan?

I found mine would always overheat using an electric fan and re-fitting the viscous fan fixed it.

Regarding which engine to fit......................................

Fitting a bigger engine like the 2.8 or 3litre will be a huge improvment! When I fitted the 1KZ-T into mine it totally transformed the truck!

It would be nice if you could fix/diagnose your old engine though as if its not knackered they go for good money! I got £500 for mine IIRC.

I may be wrong but I didnt think any UK Hi-lux's were sold with the 2.8 engine, we only got 2.4 same as the LJ70.

So a 4-Runner really is the best/only option for gaining a 1KZ-T!

You could get a 1KZ-TE out of a Surf but they have an electronic fuel pump and ECU so are a lot harder to get working where as the manual fuel pump 1KZ-T out of a 4-Runner is really easy to get running!

With the 1KZ-T 4-Runner engine you use the engine and bell housing. The bell housing bolts straight onto your LJ70 gearbox.

Below is a blog post I did which basically comprises of all my posts from much earlier in this thread about fitting a 1KZ-T into LJ.

http://www.landcruiserclub.net/foru...s-3-Litre-1KZT-Engine-Conversion-2-4TD-to-3TD

 

[Ben]

I got the center console back from the powder-coaters.





The 12v socket and USB socket I'd ordered got delivered.



Fitted the upholstered top.





I cut some rubber matting.





To fit inside the bottom of the center console.







I siliconed the rubber trim around the edges and used some masking tape to hold it in place while the silicon dried.





I put it in place in LJ but couldn't fit it as I forgot bring home my terminal crimp tool for the 12v sockets.







I made my extension adapter for my trolley jack.

M30 bolt, tube with an internal diameter of 30mm, 100mm x 6mm flat, cut, folded and with a 30mm hole, hole sawed in the middle and the piece off my trolley jack.



The tube was a nice tight fit over the piece off my jack and the M30 bolt fitted nicely inside the tube.





The piece of 6mm could then fit over the M30 bolt.



Welded the M30 bolt to the 6mm plate.





I could then flip it over and weld the other side.



Then fit the tube.



And weld it to the 6mm plate.





A coat of silver paint and it was ready for use. This adapter means I can lift 150mm higher as some times I found my jack didn't have enough height when say lifting under the diff pumpkin.





Along with my other trolley jack adapter I can now do all the lifting on LJ that I need to.



We had this duel cab 70 in work this week and I thought it looked cool!

Cant wait to buy one!



I'm getting ready to bring the welder home and have pretty much finished designing the trolley for it.

I wanted to add some extra lighting above the new bench.



The light I added above my woodworking bench works well, so I wanted to do something similar above the other bench.





Materials.





Decided to also have a 240 volt socket hanging above the bench which I can use for plugging a drill or grinder into.





It simply needs switching on at the plug socket when I want to use it. When I buy my land and build a workshop I will wire everything properly but for now this will work fine.



I bought some toys for the garden this week.

My first ever mower and line cutter!









I'm really pleased with them, they work well and the garden is looking great!

 

[Craigmorley]

Thanks Ben give me more to work with. I do like the idea of more power tho I've found an engine it's a uk spec one no elec pump all mechanical I've only ever seen two so far in 3 years I've managed to get him down to 750 and that's delivered to my work for I can get it all done there. Do I need to get all rad Aswell from 4runner And pas pipes, throttle cable ect. I've asked him for the bell housing Aswell as read all you post last night. Have you had any probs with ur engine atal?

 

[Ben]

Awesome!

I used the 4-Runner rad to start with, which with a bit of work fitted OK.

I then manged to get a proper KZJ70 one so fitted that!

No problems with the engine, its awesome!

You will absolutely love the power and torque!

I can out accelerate 12v diesel 80's up to about 50mph!

 

[Ben]

I've finally updated the thread about the project I'm building for the world record attempt.

http://www.landcruiserclub.net/foru...ness-World-Record-Attempt?p=419775#post419775