Rusty HJ60 Restoration and Overland Build

[OverlandMark]

Im very sorry to say that a few things have progressed a little and i just have not had time to update this thread, literally no time at all between work and restoring the truck.. i worked on the 60 every evening and every weekend except 2 in December with many gone midnight and the last two being nearer 2am, (averaged 4.5 hours a day, 7 days a week ) as i i had promised myself i would try at any cost to get it on the road for Christmas...anyway accept my apologies and i will back date the thread to get it uptodate.....

Anyway the upshot was that on top of the welding , a little wiring and a total rebuild of the brakes, lines, hoses and countless other jobs, some very nervous times this morning as i waited to hear what had happened and im glad to say the 60 passed its MOT this morning.

As you can imagine im over the moon and after taxing it this afternoon i took it for its first run on around 20 miles, which it performed perfectly, a great omen for what we have planned for it.
Now starts the real fun and building

Right time for a beer and then some sleep for a change

 

[Ben]

Thats awesome news that its finally back on the road Mark!

Looking forward to seeing the pics when youve had some time to stick them up.

 

[Neil Stone]

Thats great news Mark, well done.
I look forward to seeing some pics of the work if you get a chance after the turkey.

Have a good Christmas.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Well done, looks like you've been doing an amazing job of turning a real rust bucket into a very nice truck

 

[OverlandMark]

Thanks Gents, yeh im real pleased with it.

Not all the jobs got finished as i was out of time, drivers door still needs to come off to finish the new lower i grafted off the other door. That door had rotted out corners but the rest was better than i had so i swapped the bottom on to mine. I repaired the outer corner but i need to take it off to repair the inner corner and get it realigned up as its had something odd happen to it which i can quite work out but i will fix it, oh and a few other (million) small jobs.

I borrowed my friends ramp to do the brakes and with no time to try the freshly installed and bled brakes or bed them in i decided to put it on axle stands on the ramp, put the 4wd on and lock the hubs and ran it for ten mins with my foot lightly on the brakes to bed all the disks and pads in. Worked a treat..



This is the last pic i took before the MOT 1.15am yesterday morning. Anyway with it being sat tomorrow, im going to run the fuel lines to the eberspacher tomorrow and have more of a play and take some fresh pics outside



Cheers

 

[OverlandMark]

Sorry to answer Bens question, staying the same colour. im going to do the final bodywork on the bits i have repaired as its just red oxide over steel at the moment so i need to do it soon and then just blow those parts in. The landcruiser has been painted in parts everywhere as part of old poor rust repairs which i have cut out and redone them all now anyway so its all shades of grey if you look at it closely so i will just repaint it locally and add to that. The great thing with the side stickers is they really break it up and give you something to paint upto. Its not going to be the the prettiest truck ever and its not intended to be but as long as its solid and mechanically right thats all im really worried about.
cheers

 

[karl webster]

Credit to you Mark.

Its great to see something like that have a couple of hours graft put into it to get it through a mot.

Are you a panel beater/weilder by trade then?

 

[AndycruiserguyLomas]

Well Mark, I gotta take my hat off to you. The tenacity which you have shown on this rebuild has put us all to shame. When I sold it you I didn't think it was unrestorable by any means but would be time consuming but to have the body work done and mechanically ready to pass an MOT in two months of spare time is nothing short of remarkable.
I am pleased that a fairly rare truck has made it back to the UK roads and did not disappear as an export never to be seen again.

Andy

 

[OverlandMark]

Well Mark, I gotta take my hat off to you. The tenacity which you have shown on this rebuild has put us all to shame. When I sold it you I didn't think it was unrestorable by any means but would be time consuming but to have the body work done and mechanically ready to pass an MOT in two months of spare time is nothing short of remarkable.
I am pleased that a fairly rare truck has made it back to the UK roads and did not disappear as an export never to be seen again.

Andy

Very Kind Andy and without doubt i would not have got it done if you hadnt been so kind in letting me chop sections of the scrap 60. So thanks again!
Its been extremely hard to get it done to be honest. Half killed me if im honest... i have to travel a 130 miles round trip to work and the truck and home as well which didnt help. The unit had no heating and recently its been -6 when i came out, i got flu and carried on just to get it finished. Stupid really.

Anyway i managed it and should have some fun in it over the break

I worked on it all today too trying to get the Eberspacher up and running, cleaning the truck inside getting it nice and scratch building a quick roof rack and tent holder so we could get away in it over the break. It also developed a monster fuel leak and i thought all my plans were scuppered, after spending 2 hours searching for a leak which followed me everywhere but did not drip at all when running stationary i found one of the inner tank baffles had broken its weld just above one of the tank straps, causing a small hole... when moving it leaked. Anyway a quick temp repair till i strip the tank out will hopefully hold for Christmas.
Took a couple of shots today, still a few bits of welding to finish off, door, under the front light but its mostly done. Old bent bumper went back on so no sharp edges



back dates and updates soon.

Right i have to drive it up the motorway for about a 100 miles so im fingers crossed for first "long" trip

Oh and a very Happy Christmas to Everyone

Mark

 

[Ben]

Very impressive Mark.

Cant wait to see it all finished!

 

[OverlandMark]

On Sat i made a couple of temporary brackets for the roof tent so we could use it over the break, i will replace with a full length roof rack soon enough i hope..
Quick Christmas day checking it out

 

[Graham]

Excellent work progress Mark,

Now time to take a short break may be.

Gra.

 

[clivehorridge]

Mark, what a wonderful transformation!

It's an absolute credit to you but I hope you won't be ill over it. The flu isn't something you should ignore so I trust you'll let up a little and get some rest.

The car's looking just fine, well done!



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[paul c]

Just read this thread from begining to end. WOW! Well done. I took one look at the first pictures and thought it was too far gone. All that hard work looks fantastic. I hope all your other plans come together as well.

 

[OverlandMark]

Thanks Gents..

Well been working on the truck now and then, mainly bits of paint here and there. Started on a roll bar for the inside, very basic just to prevent the roof coming down in a low speed turn over but while its installed (see pic below) its far from finished.

I borrowed a pipe bender from a guy at work and was given a whole lot of pipe so the new roof rack i designed as i went along is not far off ready and also the painted the rear boot and a few other little bits and bobs but will start again more on it very soon once the weather gets a little nicer for painting.

Meanwhile we thought we would get out and use it even more, only way to proove it is to use it!!So while the country collapsed under a tiny bit of snow we decided to head off to Exmoor and go camping.

It was funny, having never had a 4x4 before , no idea what the 60 will do i was taking it extremely easy on the sat. Carefully considering what we went down and if we may be able to get back up. With Exmoor deserted and it still snowing i was really taking it steady... by Sunday i realised that it would pretty much do anything and we took off down and up anything with out too many problems.

Anyway few pics...


Not sure how cold it was but i guess around - 5 and to be honest we were warm up there..A 2 litre bottle of water froze almost solid over night
Breakfast in the basic setup we have so far



Back to welding pics and making stuff pics soon!!
Cheers

Mark

 

[tonytoyota]

Hi Mark looking good a lot of work top man from tonytoyota.

 

[Ben]

Looking good.

Any pics of the roll bar/cage?

I want to build one for mine soon.

 

[OverlandMark]

Thanks Tony

Here we go Ben,its really not much to look at so far and just has ankor points on the floor so far. Scafold bar really took some bending...

Quick preview of the roof rack im building for our stuff and the roof tent and the "new" 1945 fuel drum some one gave me as i loved those old logos (its not rusty inside)....






cheers

 

[Ben]

Scaffold tube is good stuff. Made my bull bar out of it.

Never seen a Shell jerry can before.

 

[James TLC]

Hi friend. You really have done an excellent job. The TLC's serie 60 are wonderfull cars. I really like that serie