LJ78 Build Thread

[tonytoyota]

Hi Ben you r boing a good job of it I bet I have got to get on with my one day good look with it from Tony

 

[Ben]

A few months ago I went out for a day drive on my own in search if snow.

I found a bit and also got a load of fire wood so it was a great day.



After that I had a day trip with one of the 4wd clubs I'm in, to Mount Disappointment.













This is called Triton hill because at the bottom is a rolled Triton.

This is the hill that Danny from Your4x4/4WDTV nearly rolled his red 80 on recently.























This was my favourite track of the day, the infamous Jacobs Ladder track.





























It was a great day, with an awesome bunch of guys!

I must get back there again soon.

Pie Oven Number 1

I got given a second hand 12v oven so set about adjusting my interior setup so I could fit it before a 3 day High Country trip.

Made a shelf.





Carpeted it.





Added a merit socket and a tie down rail.



Screwed it into position.



It means my table and BBQ plate still fit underneath and the oven goes on top.

 

[Ben]

High Country Trip

I went on a High Country trip with one of the other clubs I'm in, for their annual Boys Weekend. After having spent the last year or 2 having girls along for most of the trips it was nice to have a weekend without any!

We base camped at a bush block that one of the members owns near Briagalong.

Tent up and a few beers around the fire Friday night.







Followed by a good breakfast the next day.

The metal tube you can see on the fire with a can on it is their can smelter. All night people feed their empty cans into it and when its full of molten alluminium they pore it out into a piece of angle iron and it cools to form a rough ingot.



Then we hit the tracks!











We stopped for pies. (every car had a pie oven)

















The only bit of snow we would find all weekend.













Back at camp and in the background is the hut on the property.








You cant beat these cordless blowers for getting a fire roaring!



Breakfast the next morning.



We hit the tracks again.









A black and burnt landscape from last years bush fires.









A bit of track clearing was necessary.





We stopped to air up and say our goodbyes.

Another fantastic trip!

I love the High Country, its my happy place!

 

[Ben]

Fire Wood

With our supply of fire wood getting low and a few months of cold weather ahead we headed back to the forest to get some more wood.









Panel Work.

On the previous High Country trip I stupidly reversed into a tree, which dented my bumper and pushed it into the body a bit.



So it needed to go into the panel shop to be repaired.

I needed to get some other bits repaired at the same time from where the dodgy guy who did my cheap re-spray a few years ago had applied the paint too thick and it had cracked.



I put duct tape over this bit a while ago after a big piece of paint flaked off when the jet wash touched it.







I recently spotted this rust bubble near the windscreen.



Which turned into a hole when I cleaned it up.



The annoying thing is that I wanted to sand the entire car down and had made a good start on it, when the dodgy painter had a look and stupidly convinced me to leave it and they would sand it all down, I dont think they sanded it at all and if I hadnt of listened to them I could have caught that surface rust before it turned into rot.

Anyway in a few years time I'm going to sand the whole car down and get a decent paint job done on it, for now I just wanted it tidying up and making good.

The hole near the windscreen will have to wait a few more months for the weather to warm up and then I will pull the screen out and repair it. Until then I've put some tape over it.

My paint guy here did a great job.





While it was in the panel shop I pushed the dent out of the bumper on the press at work and then got it electro plated and then powder coated.









Pie Oven Number 2.

On my last High Country trip I was really impressed with the 12v oven I'd fitted but everyone else on the trip had the bigger one which you can adjust the temperature on and obviously fit more in it, so I decided to buy the bigger one.







Fitted it.





Then it was time for one of my clubs annual High Country snow trip!

We left Friday morning and after eating an amazing breakfast at my favourite bakery, we stopped at The Paps as Bec had never seen it before.













We stayed at my bosses farm that night and dined on the most amazing steak!

The next morning we met up with the rest of the guys in Jameson and then made our way up Mount Skene.











I stopped to take a pic.



Then I found I was bogged!



A quickwinch pull back and we were out and moving again.

Neither Lexi or Sam had ever seen snow before as they're both Queenslanders.

Lexi loved it.



Sam wasnt too sure at first, he didnt like the feel of his feet sinking into it.















After having a play we hit the tracks again.











It was an amazing weekend and so nice for my family to join me!

 

[clivehorridge]

Great to see Sam along with you Ben... don’t eat all the pies though

 

[Rosas]

Fantastic pictures Ben.

Love this track.

 

[oldcarsmaniac]

Beautiful places + nice rig = great adventure!

 

[StarCruiser]

Fantastic stuff as usual Ben. Sorry to hear about that rust spot and your dodgy painter. If it’s any consolation I’ve done exactly the same sort of thing (employing the wrong guy) with the same result so knowing it’s not just me makes me feel a whole lot better.

Great to see Sam and Bec coming along with you again. It’s been a while.

 

[Jasper Kotze]

Hey Ben,
I just spent like 3 days working through this thread! What a transformation, you did an amazing job rebuilding this cruiser, truly you have! You are such an inspiration for me as I am working on my JL78 as well. I just want to say thank you!! for sharing this with us, you have given me hope! lol I purchased my JL78 from my mother as my father passed away in December last year, and he only had this land cruiser for 3 months before he lost his fight with cancer, he inspired me to start 4x4 'ing and overlanding myself.

 

[StarCruiser]

Hi Jasper, sorry to hear about your pop. Would be a great tribute to him to build and run his Cruiser. You’ve found the right spot here for any help or advice you need.

Good luck with it.

 

[clivehorridge]

Second that Rich

 

[jozefwright1]

Hi Ben, longtime reader of this thread!
I have an LJ78 too and love seeing what you have done. I am currently trying to install a dual battery system into my truck and am wondering where you got the secondary battery tray from in this photo below? I am having a lot of trouble finding the correct part. Would be awesome if you could point me in the right direction?
Cheers

I

 

[Ben]

Hi Jozef, Thanks. I must get another update up soon as I’ve done a few bits on my LJ78 lately.

That second tray is standard on 70’s that got the winter pack which included 2 starting batteries, heated fuel filter and headlight washers.

There’s quite a few LJ and KZJ 70’s in NZ so I’d imagine you would find one over there without too much difficulty.

If not let me know as I may have one spare, I spotted it the other day but haven’t had chance to compare it to the ones on my LJ78 to work out which tray it is.

 

[jozefwright1]

Hi Ben, thanks for the reply. Look forward to seeing you latest work!

I had a feeling it might be that. Unfortunately my truck didn't come with one.
I have put out some calls on the local parts fb pages and will see how I go.

Just out of curiosity does the area below your secondary tray have this hump?

If I have no luck I may take you up on your offer!

Cheers

 

[Tractionman]

Hey Ben, good to hear your back on the many projects you always seem to take on,
Stay well mate.
John

 

[Ben]

Hi Ben, thanks for the reply. Look forward to seeing you latest work!

I had a feeling it might be that. Unfortunately my truck didn't come with one.
I have put out some calls on the local parts fb pages and will see how I go.

Just out of curiosity does the area below your secondary tray have this hump?

View attachment 165279View attachment 165280

If I have no luck I may take you up on your offer!

Cheers

Hi Jozef, I can confirm that all the inner aches have those humps, the ones with and without dual batteries.

Fingers crossed you can find a battery tray.

Hey Ben, good to hear your back on the many projects you always seem to take on,
Stay well mate.
John

Thanks John, you too mate.

 

[Ben]

Radiator Cowl and Viscous Fan.

So years ago I stupidly sold the genuine KZJ70 radiator cowl I had as I was running a body lift and so it wouldnt fit (radiator mounts to body and so goes up with a body lift).


I'd been running an alluminium cowl I knocked together years ago but I was never really happy with it. My fan had also hit it a few times which had damaged the fan.







So at great expense I got radiator cowl sent from Europe (as they are now discontinued so cant be bought new) and I bought a nee genuine KZJ70 fan blades and some bottles of genuine Toyota viscous fan oil which I got from my local Toyota dealer.





I know some people buy viscous fan oil from remote control shops, but this is the correct stuff for the job and it was cheap at less than $5 a bottle.



The screws holding my 25 year old viscous fan hub together were really tight so I used the impact driver to get them all out.



I found one bottle of oil was enough to top it up.



New fan blades on next.



All fitted.





Air Filter.

I gave my life time filter a service.







Rust Repair.

I repaired the rust spot next to the windscreen.

It was just a bubbling scab of rust but turned into this when I hit it with the wire wheel.



Cut the rot out.



After rust killing and painting the area I cut a patch out of proper 1.6mm zinc coated body work repair steel (never just use plain mild steel for body repairs).



You can see the weld through zinc paint that I painted the inside of the body with.



Welded it in position with the MIG.



Ground the welds down with a flap wheel disc and then gave it a coat of primer.



I did then sand it down with wet n dry paper and then gave it 4 coats of top coat in the metallic blue grey, but I must have forgotten to take a pic of the finished repair.

I will grab a pic for the next update.

What I was most happy about though was the fact I managed to remove and refit the screen without breaking it!

With Covid restrictions now lifted for day 4wd trips and camping allowed from 1st June, I'm keen to get out on some family High Country camping trips very soon!

 

[Tractionman]

Great to see you back on the blog again Ben, always interesting pics and info.
Good news too when you can get out camping again. Take care.

 

[Tractionman]

Just had a message my last post was edited, with a question mark for senders identity, is it a secret? Unneccessary use of quote/reply button was reason given, someone else had these recently from Chris.
Never used quote and been a member approx 12 years and always used reply, no one said anything before.
As it appears to be my fault, where am I going wrong, and why has it taken 12 years to notify me from an undisclosed source ??

 

[Chris]

TM please check your PMs for an answer. For those wondering, the reply option seen at the bottom right of the previous post, next to like and quote, repeats the entire previous message. All you need to do is type directly in to the open text box that appear automatically at the bottom of the page.

Any further questions please ask but not in Ben's build thread, eh?