26 May 2002
I have got the cruiser back from TJM. I now have:
4 rancho RS 9000 shocks.
4 custom made Dobinsons springs
4 TJM greasable shackles
2 fibreglass front mud guards by FRP
2 fibreglass sport's doors also by FRP
1 steering wheel and boss kit by SAAS
The in cab adjuster for the ranchos should be here in 2 week's
I
have yet to fit the door handles and front indicators, the windscreen is to be replaced and there is a bit of rust to cut out. I hope to get around most of the rust repairs by running a piece of alloy check plate under the doors. I will also have to cut out the rear wheel arch to fit the 33' mud tire's I have planed.
I still have about 2 more weeks off work so I hope to get all this done in that time.
6 June 2002
Well I started badly today slept in till 1030am (hey it's winter here!) then when I did get moving it took me ages to get the bull bar off. All the bolts were rusted so I had to cut them off. No problem right? Wrong the grinder died after the first bolt, so off I went to pinch my Dad's as any good son would. Anyway when I did get it off this is what I found. So it was out with dad's trusty grinder this time with wire brush connection and I did what I could. I suppose this is the price I pay for living in a place where beach driving is such an easy thing to do. Once this was cleaned up I found that the front body mounting bolts were stuffed too. So it was rip em off and clean em up. After that I sprayed fish oil onto all the mounting bolts on the inside of my new front mud guards (I had rust on the brain).
7 June 2002
I saw something on the net once about cutting out the rear wheel arches. I thought it looked like a good idea. (1) It look's cool (2) it gives the tyres more room to move and (3) it help's stop mud building up too much. So I looked at it for a long time. Thought about how to very carefully mark and then cut the bits I did not want out. Then data dumped all that put a metal blade on my jigsaw and went to town. This is what I came up with.
13 June 2002
O
ver the weekend I conned a mate of mine to come over and help me with the welding that I had to do. All went well with the exception of some panel warping but I'm not too worried about that as this is a bush rig not a show pony! That is until I tilted the windscreen panel forward. I knew it had some rust but I was in for a shock. The bottom of it is totally shot. I have patched it up a bit for now
I will get a fibreglass one (A$ 319.00 from FRP) when funds permit. I also had a bit of a fire in the glove box while I was welding up some holes in the dash that the last owner put there. This was annoying as I burnt my favourite map!
I have just about got the main part of the body undercoated now. But I still have to get 2x door catches & handles, 2x front indicators and 1x bonnet hinge before I can put the colour on.
June 14, 2002
Not a lot to report today. Tried to get the paint off the dash but only succeeded in burning out my dad's grinder. I knew I should have just brought my own,
July 13,2002
Well everything has sort of come to a screaming stop. There are 2 reasons for this,
1 I have run out of cash.
2. I went back to work.
However I am expecting another cash injection next week so maybe I can finally get some paint on this thing.
The good news is the whole truck is undercoated.
After much spirited discussion between myself and my better half about what shade of paint the 40 should be. I have decided to paint it yellow. Note I say I not we. She wanted green but I drive green trucks all day at work and I'll be stuffed if I want to drive on the weekends as well.
I came up with yellow to witch she says just screams " Look at me! ". To this I say " Dam straight look at me!" Gota go now I hope to have some more work to show off by next weekend.
December 11, 2002
W
ell I have been a bit of a slack bastard haven't I. The good news is that I'm very close to rego. A lot of work has gone into the truck in the last month. I say the last month because from July till late November I was just too busy with work to get anything done. But I'm on holidays again and it's all happening. Well it's all happening in the afternoon! You see as I have no shed to work in everything has to be done in the front yard of my house, At the start of each day's work I push the old girl out from under the house and at the end push her back in. In the afternoon I have shade but in the morning the whole front yard is in the sun. So it's just too bloody hot to get anything done before 3 in the afternoon. I spend my morning's driving all around town buying parts and bits and pieces I need (well want to be honest). Note to self GET A SHED
First up the painting. I brought a cheep 2
HP compressor BIG MISTAKE. Too frigin small for spray painting. Putting the yellow on was an exercise in self control to the extreme it just can not keep up the pressure to the gun. But I got it done anyway, just took a lot longer than it should. Next I brought new indicators for all 4 corners. I have them in but getting them working has got me vexed. I think I will get the mechanic to fix them when I put it in for the roadworthy, along with the transfer case that wont go into 4wd.
Then came the door handles and catches. Well hmmm how can I put this
Bloody hell!!!! Mate the doors look like they are about 25mm to short for a start they had no hope of closing no mater what I did to the hinges. After about 2 day's worth of stuffing around I put 2 door catches on from a 75 series cruiser on, as they are longer and at least let the door close. Then I went and brought new door handles and latch mech's for her. The linkages were a total nightmare I had to bend the hell out of them just to get them in the door. That took 2 days as well. (You should have seen me! I almost lost it). But wait there is more. Then I had to make up some new trims for the doors from hell. All went well until I went to put them on the doors. There is not enough surface on the door's to put the trim clips on! The left door has only got 3 clips holding the bloody thing on. So don't ask me what I think about FRP's half doors.
The next thing to be done was put some new seat's in. I already had 2 driver's seats in the front so what I did was measure the distance between the rails I think it was 450mm. I then went to a mate whose dad just happens to own wreckers (handy mate lol). And proceeded to stalk around the yard with my trusty tape measure. I was looking for a late model car with good seats that had rails 450mm apart and mounted flat. To my pleasant surprise the best match I found was a Holden VP commodore. So I hand over the bucks and drive off into the sunset with my new seats, totally dreading putting them in after the door debacle. I need not have stressed because after I cut off some spacers from the base to get the height right they went straight in. they sit a bit high but I can live with that.
Moving right along the next problem was that I tossed out my old bumper as it was bent to hell and had a useless tow ball mounted on it that destroyed the approach angle (the first thing I did when I brought the truck was toss the rear tow bar). The solution was to come from another mate who works at a 4wd accessory shop. See they get lots of new 78 series land cruisers come in for new bull bars to be fitted before they are even sold. I was talking to him one day when he mentioned this. So I asked what they do with the old ones. He offered to get me one so I accepted. A chrome one at that. While it did not bolt straight in it only took me to drill 4 holes and on it went. Mind you I will be pissing it off soon after it's registered and putting on a much smaller one.
I also have a new windscreen I got this auto glass mob to send around their mobile fitter, turns out this bloke went to school with my brother. He said if he had known who I was he cold have done it heaps cheaper after work. (Bugger!) As it was he had come out with one that did not fit. (Is their no end to my pain?).
And that is about where I am up to right now. On a side note I have decided to have a go at some mud events next year. I have a mate who is as keen as hell to be my co-driver and as every good mud racer has a name we put our heads together. Well the truth is because he comes from South Africa I asked him to come up with something-cool sounding from Africa. The result was Tagati it means bewitched and cursed all rolled into one.
Feb 5th 2003
Well here it is I finally got it painted and oh so close to getting on the road. My brother and I spent some time on Sunday putting on the alloy checker plate and the rubber wheel flairs (a legal requirement here in Queensland) It all went very well all things considered. I used roof screws for the rear and pot rivets with washers on the front flairs, as I was not sure how the screws would go on the fibreglass.Monday saw the yellow cruiser in at Bob Jane t-mart to get the new tires. I went with the 32 11.5R 15 Bridgestone Dueler M/T's. These are not as aggressive as I would like but money is getting short and these were only $1100 for 4. I have only driven about 10 km on these but was very surprised by the lack of road noise (not that road noise was any consideration in my tire choice but it is a nice bonus)
Tuesday and it's in the mechanics getting new hub's put on, the transfer case is getting fixed, and a safety certificate (needed for rego). I hope to get it on the road by this weekend so I can take it out for a run. I will be sure to take the digital camera and I will be putting something on the site about my adventures. Well anyway here are some pics It's good to see it out of my yard for the first time in a while enjoy.
Feb 7th 2003
Well It's friday afternoon and she is still in at the mechanics getting the work done. look's like no weekend blast in the bush. Oh well another weekend without the cruiser wont kill me............ or will it?
Apr 10th 2003
The day of carnage. what can I say Hmmmmmm how about Bloody hell not again? The damage was 1 cracked block and 1 dodgy alternator. I was going to put in a Holden V8 but it did not happen due to co$t. what I have done is put in a later model 2F, Its an unleaded model so at least I got something out of it. We had all sorts of problems with it until a wise old bloke looked at it and instead of trusting a timing light did the timing by ear. result It finally run's like it should. So at the end of the day it's all good. Still I would have liked a V8 but oh well it will just have to wait.
June 8th 2003
Ok so here it is I have known for a long time that the alternator was on it's way out so it finally died the other day. I have rung around and got prices ranging from $250 for a new one to $85 for a rebuilt one so now it's just a mater of waiting until I have got the cash for a new one. Till then it's look at her in the shed aint she pretty!
June 13th 2003
Friday the 13th Hmmm. well it's been a pretty good day for me I can tell you. See a few days ago I get this e-mail from a bloke in N.Z. Nice place N.Z went their a few years ago with the army. bloody cold! nice people and awesome scenery. It would be a great place for 4wding. His name is Guy Brown and he said I should pull the alternator apart and have a look at the brushes and bearings. now this thought had crossed my mind but having someone say I should do it gave me the giddy up I needed. So I rip the bugger apart and yep he was right the brushes were shot. so I brought a new set for a whole A$2.50 get a mate to solder them in and bham their you go 1 working fj40 alternator. For me this story high lights the awesome thing about the web. Not only can you get a stack of free p0rn, but it can help you fix your 4x4 too! what more can a bloke want? now if I can just work out how to get free beer from the net I'm set. Speaking of beer the next time I am over on the other side of the ditch (I will get back one day) I recon I owe a bloke called Guy Brown a beer or two, Thanks a heap for your help mate hope I can do the same one day.
This is an add for the Toyota Hilux duel cab ute. Well that is what we call em in Oz.
A "Tool" is slang for a stupid person.
Use this to see what time it is here
Minds corrupted since 2001
