top of page

Blog

Photo Gallery | Photographer, Takashi Iwamoto / Video / Photography | Africa

takashi iwamoto rogo whtie wide
Writer's pictureTakashi Iwamoto

Land Cruiser 17th year major repair! Part 1, Preparation roll

Updated: Aug 12, 2022


Continuing from the blog I covered earlier, I will cover the repairs and repairs of my Land Cruiser HZJ-75 in several parts.


Not long ago, I also talked about replacing the brush of the starter motor after repairing the body.


 


The real thrill of repair


When a car gets better after repairs, things that you haven't noticed before become anxious.


The repairs we made made the car look confusingly clean, and at the same time, the environment inside the car was surprisingly quiet while driving.

As a result, I can hear small noises that I couldn't hear before.

Audio and other cables are swaying, door wires are swaying and hitting the door, and so on.


Completed car



As a measure against noise in the car, pass a goldfish pipe through the wire of the door handle, wrap urethane around the cables, and fix it firmly with a cable tie.

You can lay an unused tire tube under the floor mat to further attenuate the vibration.

I tried various tasks that I could do without spending money.


The effect is greater than I expected, but the more I do it, the less noise I hear.


Now that the repairs are almost complete, it is the quietest and most comfortable interior environment since it was purchased 17 years ago. An environment where you can listen to audio even at high speeds.

How noisy it used to be.


Before repair, wind noise coming in through the gaps in the hatch and body, engine and gear turning noise, tire squeaking noise, and even the noise coming out of the holes in the muffler. After all, the floor was corroded and there were holes. Naturally, it was not an environment where I could listen to audio at high speeds.


The engine is in very good shape, and the last Caltex engine oil I put in seems to be the best match for this 1HZ engine. Of course mineral oil.


The starter motor was also repaired, and the engine started with a single blow.


However, it is also a fact that the environment inside the car became too quiet (administrator standard), and this time I could not hear the comfortable sound and vibration of the engine, and I became a little lonely.

Overdoing also seems to be dull. I wonder if it was noisy because it was also tasty


It is said that some recent cars play the sound of the engine from the speaker.

I don't want to do such a fake.

It's embarrassing, maybe because it's too bland.

I feel like a child is running a toy car while saying "Boo, Boo".


By the way, I will introduce in this blog how the Land Cruiser of my car came to a comfortable environment as it is now, and the contents of the restoration of that car.


Preparation for repair


 

First, I started preparing for repairs and removed all the chairs with 6 seats behind.

This chair can be put on or taken off depending on the situation.

Usually, it has 4 seats.


When entering a national park in Kenya, the entrance fee for a car with up to 5 seats is 300 shillings, and more than 1000 shillings. The difference is 700 shillings, about 800 yen in Japanese yen.

So don't forget to put only 3 chairs in the back so that you have a total of 5 seats when you enter the national park. Even if the car is the same, the admission fee changes depending on the number of seats.

The same rate applies to Masai Mara Nature Reserve, which is not a national park.



There is a board (thick veneer) on the floor.

Of course, this board must be removed to do the work.

This board hasn't been removed for 17 years.

Below this, dust that has continued to fall during that time is piled up.


"Yokorasho!" And drags the board back by himself.

This board is about 1 cm thick, so it's quite heavy.

The idea that if you don't lay a board, you can reduce the weight considerably, that kind of idea comes to mind.


When I peel off the board.


Dirt accumulated for 17 years


It looks as I expected.

For the time being, before I bring my car into the garage, I'll wash away the dirt that has accumulated over the last 17 years.




The floor was unexpectedly clean, despite some rust when washed.

I remembered 17 years ago when I had only the floor painted. Probably the effect.


Even when washing the car, the inside of the car was not washed with water, and it seems that it was also successful to have a rag.


The story would change if it were at the beach, but here is Nairobi, 500 kilometers away from the sea.

You shouldn't wash it with water more than necessary.


When brought to the car wash on the stand, the car washer, as usual, first used a routine to blow off the dust with a blower.

Then, a tremendous amount of dust flew up, turning the area into a sea of ​​dust.

When I said "Oy! Oy!" And "Water!", I immediately stopped blowing dust off with a blower and started washing with water.

A thick layer of dust was piled up inside the car due to the dust that soared up.

All the chairs and everything will be removed from now on, and the cloth will be replaced.


 

And to the garage

I also removed all the linings


Garage workers are familiar with removing windows, hoods, linings and parts one after another.


The paint on the corroded part was peeled off, and gas welding was already started at the same time.


Also remove the windshield


There were cracks running under the front glass on the left and right due to vibration.

This crack may cause noise while driving.



Also remove the dashboard


The dashboard is unlikely to be restored if left to others, so all the work was done by the caretaker himself.


It is very dangerous to tamper with the electrical system!


And here again, I'm off to a side street,

A story about 16 years ago when I just started riding this car.




When I turned on the switch, there was a line where the fuse was blown. Even if you change the fuse, it will last a little, but it will blow off immediately.

It's a tail lamp line. I asked a car electric repairman to fix this at that time.
At that time, I turned it on without any problems and thought that it had been fixed without any problems, but the repairman was doing something with tremendous danger.
I just bypassed the positive (+) that doesn't pass through the fuse and plugged in the cable directly, but it didn't fix the problem.

What happened was that while driving, it rained and fog came out, so I turned on the lights. Immediately, something burnt smelled. Definitely the smell of burning electrical cable coatings.

When I parked the car in a safe place and checked it, the film on the cable was burnt in most of it.

Fortunately, I turned off the switch immediately, so it didn't matter.

I searched for the root of the problem myself, and found a part where the body and the cable with the torn film would have come into contact and short-circuited.

That day, night after night, I rewired it with a new cable through the fuse.

Since then, I haven't messed with the wiring, and I've done everything myself.
By doing the work myself, I now understand all the wiring inside the car, including the audio.
Even if it is short-circuited with this, the fuse will blow, so it's okay.

This is possible because it is a simple and clear car that does not use a computer.
It gives us a sense of security that we can fix it anytime, anywhere in the electrical system.
A bundle of cables and a tester are always available in the car. Of course, with insulating tape.

In Africa, you need to be careful because there is a strong tendency to try to solve things that you cannot or do not understand, and even if you damage parts during work, you will not tell the owner about it.
Be careful not to cheat again! Not only this country, but every country is the same.

Why are you here I should add that there are also genius mechanics who can do it.


Returning to the story,


Almost ready for work.


Preparation for work progresses steadily



I made a big blunder here.

At this time, all the cloth on the ceiling of the car should have been peeled off at the same time.

There was a feeling in the corner of his heart, "Can I use this cloth as it is?", And he hesitated to peel it off.


The inside of this ceiling cloth is rusting more than I expected.

After painting, I peeled it off, but the body repair work had to be done again.


It has led to a large amount of labor, extra expense, and wasted time.

I will take up that matter at a later date.



Corrosion at the bottom left of the body, already shabby


When you hit the lower part of the body and the corroded part, it's so shabby!

The body is almost gone.

I felt that rust was scary for iron.


From now on, all the rust will be scraped off and the iron plate will be replaced to repair the body.


Repaired by partial partial gas welding


Half of the iron plate of this staircase was corroded and was already a large hole.

While driving from that hole, when the engine was blown uphill, the exhaust gas was entering the car through this hole, coupled with the hole in the middle of the muffler. (Muffler has been repaired)

This step also welded a new iron plate to completely close the hole.


The lower part of the door in the above photo was also rusted, and when I hit it with a flat-blade screwdriver, a big hole was made.


It is clear that after 17 years, when a car is left untouched, it becomes quite shabby, centering on iron parts.

If it were the beach, it wouldn't have been like this.


Repairs to this car have just begun.

The long road to restoration is yet to come.



I'm not a car expert myself.

I learned about repairs by myself while working with this HZJ75 for 17 years.

Is it better to mess around and remember than to learn?


I hope you will understand and read this blog as a non-trivial sentence from the perspective of such a car lover, or rather an old Land Cruiser lover.


Landcles before the 90's, the more you ride, the more you play with them, the more you become attached to them.

A car that doesn't use a computer, it can't be new, and it never gets old. After all, there are still plenty of parts.

To me, this car is more like a family member than a car, and my wife, too.

Children agree.


As for the body, I left it alone for a while.

With this restoration, I became more considerate of the car and became even more attached to it.

I hope to keep going with this car forever.




To be Continued


Until the end Thank you for reading.

 

Previous article

Next article

Commenti


takashi iwamoto rogo white wide
「このサイトはアフィリエイト広告(Amazonアソシエイト含む)を掲載しています。」
bottom of page