LJ80 Project

[PuddleJumper]

Been looking for a LJ as a new project. I wanted one with a live rego and not completly rotted out so it took ages to finally get one. This came from Havelock North with a custom trailer. If anyone knows any history on it I'd been keen to know.




So its a 1980 LJ80 with a Datsun A15 motor and 4 speed. Some one has spent a lot of time on this - It has a integrated roll cage built in and Galvinised chassis hiding under the flaking paint, custom tray on the back with storage compartment underneath. Custom built windscreen frame and custom built removable roof with fold up soft-top! Oh and its fully certified
Plan is to give it a tidy up - Semi restore with a few upgrades along the way and get a WOF of course

[lincooln]

Cool as. Good to see you are keeping up with the Suzuki projects.

Look forward to seeing progress on this one,

[Drurban]

Nice one Scott, will be watching this thread.

[UBZ]

very cool little Zuk
hurry up and get it WoF'd
then we can have a LJ convoy

3 things I'd do to it .
- ditch the horrible indicator / park lights.
- upgrade the front drums to discs
- paint it some other color than lilpig rank pink.

[zukmeista]

- paint it some other color than lilpig rank pink.

X2, that colour scheme is puke-worthy! Will be cool to see another LJ put back on the road, by the looks of it this one will be a bit quicker than the rest.

[PuddleJumper]

Cool as. Good to see you are keeping up with the Suzuki projects.

Look forward to seeing progress on this one,

Yeah its a disease i have..

[PuddleJumper]

very cool little Zuk
hurry up and get it WoF'd
then we can have a LJ convoy

3 things I'd do to it .
- ditch the horrible indicator / park lights.
- upgrade the front drums to discs
- paint it some other color than lilpig rank pink.

LJ convoy - Now that would be cool.

Wanting to locate some original indicator and park lights but i think I'll need the whole assembly as they may not fit these aftermarket bases.

Also wanting some original door hinges too if anybody has some.

Will be painted a factory colour.. not sure yet but Ive always liked to the yellow they came out in.

[PuddleJumper]

What is it with LJ's and towel rails?!! UBZ's had one on the back of his and mine had been blessed with 3!


WHOOPS slipped with the angle grinder..


Also removed the vice.

Another thing to come off was the towbar that was welded to the chassis on the front.

Also had a weird little latch that used to hold the bonnet shut. This was removed to.


I picked up a mint grille on T/M so i chucked this on at the same time.


Amazing the difference a grille can make

[zukmeista]

Are those rims/tyres going to stay on it?

[UBZ]

haha towel rails
recovery points for an LJ .

the lens are still available , but the factory bases are hard to find

however having a closer look at your front clip , it doesn't look original or its been repaired . there should be recesses for the indicator / park lights to sit in . the mounting holes for the grill are missing , and the radiator mesh is not original .

I'd just look for some round factory style done lights to get the cool Suzuki look . side indicators are no factory either .

the bonnet rubbers are the standard way of holding The bonnet down , but they also have a Manual cab operated lock inside the front of the bonnet . I don't use mine as people always try and yank the bonnet open after popping off the rubbers

The hinge parts that are mounted to the cab look factory for Softtop style doors just mounted backwards.

I would stash the front bumper for safe keeping as its the first thing that gets smashed off road.

have a look on this page , bout half way down is the factory color charts , as well as heaps of brochures etc to drool over
http://www.offroadrunner.nl/

oh and make sure you pop over to LJ10.com and say hello to all the nutters

more interior and underneath pictures please.

I'm also interested in what rear diff it has . if its a later model LJ80-II or III it should have the bigger axle housing with a 65mm axle tube , 410 sized bearings and the good big axles .

[lilpigzuk]

- paint it some other color than lilpig rank pink.

Cool project Scott

[PuddleJumper]

more interior and underneath pictures please.

I'm also interested in what rear diff it has . if its a later model LJ80-II or III it should have the bigger axle housing with a 65mm axle tube , 410 sized bearings and the good big axles .

Had a look see over the weekend at the diff tube. Measures 60mm Diameter.

Heres a pic of the interior - It came with this bangin hitech tape player! I couldn't work out how the speakers had been mounted (these were up under the dash) They seemed to move around when i pulled on them but i couldn't see any bolts - So i gave a big yank..... Turns out they were held on by lots of bluetack

Heres another with the radio removed, Dash binnacle tidied up and a 413 steering wheel attached - Think I'll put the original wheel back on.

[jervisad]

this is gonna be another cool little lj keep it up mate good luck

[PuddleJumper]

this is gonna be another cool little lj keep it up mate good luck

Thanks. They are cool little trucks

[PuddleJumper]

First proper mod - Disk brake front end.

Had a spare SJ410 front end lying in the parts dept... Stole some parts from it.


Had bought a bunch of new parts including Bearings, CV's, seals, Brake caliper rebuild kits etc.


Stripped down with the axle out. Everything came apart easily with nice grease and fresh oil in it by the looks.


Here is the LJ80 axle with the new SJ410 CV attached


Had already rebuilt some bits ready to go.


Rebuilt Caliper


All back together


Better brakes and less maintenence

[PuddleJumper]

Roommates


Did'nt like the Mitsi Cordia bonnet scoop and also the bonnet was missing the factory vents. - Many hours later... The vents could do with being enlarged a bit more, will address this in the future.


Someone had put these horrible blinker lights on with a alloy plate to cover the factor hole.



Found some LED blinkers which are closer to than the original shape than the old ones


Forgot to take a pic but i welded a small plate to the inside of the factory hole then filled and sanded.

[PuddleJumper]

Back in the day when LJ's got there factory lights broken it was much cheaper/easier to go down to the local Repco and buy some trailer lights as they were a similar size apart from there height. I had no joy with finding some original ones so i bought some new trailer ones. So they didnt stick out so far i did a bit of body work.

Here they are before...


Stripped front end and tidied stuff up.


Starting point.


Had some panel steel so made some discs and some stripes - Welded together to make cups


Cut a hole


Sat cup in and angled it a bit to square the angle up


Spot welded - then ground of the excess steel.


A small amount of filling then sanded.


One done three to go!


Hey PRESTO! - Left a small slot on the bottom for the water to drain.


Looks much better now with the lights in

[Dr_PC]

Shit Scottie, You're such a sad individual, You really really gotta get help with this illness of yours.
Keep the posts coming always like to see what you're got planned next

[Dirtydog]

I love seing these little trucks being done up. theyre soo awesome.

great work on the panelwork an lights etc, looks quite good, and are a little bit more tucked away so wont get damaged as much i bet.

[PuddleJumper]

Time for a update. I've done loads of work to this but forget to update here.

First up I wanted to change the windscreen back to a original unit as the one on here looked horrible.

Dieselboy came to the rescue here he had a couple at his place kicking around so I zipped down and grabbed them. While i was there i also got some factory seats which were in ok condition.

Below are some pics

x2 windscreens back home.


Got rust..


The other screen was broken



Dieselboy suggested making one good screen out of the two as the top half was good on one and the bottom good on the other so thats what i did.

Cut


Bent



Only way to get in to straighten it out



Bang with hammer on straight bit of steel..


Weld back together


Better


Attach to bottom half


Used 3mm thick angle up inside with plug welds to for some strenght.


This is where i forgot to get pics... So jump forward a weekend or two and this is the final result.




A LOT of work went into that to make sure the glass still fitted and was straight.

[UBZ]

Awesome Work!
Labour of love .

Are you aware there are differences between the LJ50 and LJ80 windscreens?
the way the support brackets mount to the cab and the soft rail attachment are different .
from what I can see in the pics looks like you have 2 lj80 ones to work with , but worth checking .

what's happening with the rear tub?

[PuddleJumper]

Awesome Work!
Labour of love .

Are you aware there are differences between the LJ50 and LJ80 windscreens?
the way the support brackets mount to the cab and the soft rail attachment are different .
from what I can see in the pics looks like you have 2 lj80 ones to work with , but worth checking .

what's happening with the rear tub?

Yes was aware of the brackets and mounting points were different - Got those off DB as well

Rear tub coming up...

[PuddleJumper]

So whilst at DB's collecting the above items i saw the original tub he had been working on for 'Project Wombat'

http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/Forums/ ... 23&t=26140

I love the shape of the original LJ's so a week or so later I went back down and dragged it home

Although it had had some major work done to it already it was still in need of quite abit more. I got a few other bits i needed while i was there - Pics to explain.

Day i got it home.


Munted rear corner



Drivers floor where rust had been cut out


Passenger side


Previous owner (not DB) must have used a angle grinder to cut into this


Inner wheel arch - Both side where like this




The other bits i needed - Rear lights and the relativly straight tailgate.

[Drurban]

Nice work there Scott, you are going to get quite a collection of Suzuki's.

[DieselBoy]

Scott, your a whole new level of mad!!!!!

Awesome work, so cool to see stuff that was handed on to me from Lilpigzuk and Rotazuk finally finding its way to a guy that's restoring them. I would say all of us are equally as stoked of you!!!!

Now, where are they tub pics, you tease

[PuddleJumper]

With the new body at home I rigged up chain block to get the old tub off.


Once high enough i just pulled the chassis out


Naked LJ


Moved the chain block inside so i could test fit the body


Lookin so much better already



Cute ass!

Ok so this is where i got lazy with the camera....

Needed some brackets for the seats to sit on so made these up.


This is the passenger side seat mount.


The drivers side one had been removed


So i made one up close to the original (out of a piece of SJ410 bonnet no less)


Stuck it on


Now just forward abit and heres the passenger floor repaired the the new seat mount.




Then i did the other side and the tray.



Dash had had some aftermaket gauges fitting which left big holes in the so a plate was welded in (along with welding some small cracks)


All was going along fine then this thing turned up





All stock standard apart from the F10A in it - Even better


So the motor and box will be removed from this and also the dashboard buttons and controls - You can never have too many spares

Picked up these good doors.. I used some cutting compound on them to bring em back to life.



So now we're prity much upto date - This is how it stands ATM. I made my own door striker brackets.




Since these pics were taken the tailgate and rear lower (skirt?) have be fixed and primed. Next big job once body work is done is to do the engine/Gbox swap.

[UBZ]

it just keeps getting better and better

Can I please have the factory Radio out of the Blue one
been looking for one for ages

[lilpigzuk]

Awesome Scott!

[Dr_PC]

There is quite a gap between posts, but after this update I think we'll let you off, as you appear to have been hard at it, good on you dude

[PuddleJumper]

Update time again... Am I sick of doing body work!!!

Bought some paint - An original factory colour called Grecian Ochra (I think that spelt right?)
So spent this weekend painting - Came out ok.. Pics

Did the front clip seperatly along with the bonnet, windscreen frame and hinges.


Interior


Could'nt resist adding the checker plate on the sills.



1000cc of power


I'll let it sit for till next weekend then I'll start putting it all back together.

Getting closer now