My Hilux Story - The Good, Bad and Rebuild

[Qlab]

Hi guys.

This is my Hilux History from the Good, the Bad to the rebuild.
I will add photo's and explanations.

The Good:
I have been a happy Hilux driver from 2007.
My first hilux was a new 2007 3.0D-4D d/c manual 4xdifflock. This bakkie impressed me allot. My first real off road adventure was in Mos, Beline, in the sand where I did not got stuck once.
In 2010 traveling back from Patrysvlei (Corrie Sanders game farm), I got stuck in the muddy farm roads and struggled for hours to get out with only a difflock and allot of patients. I deflated the highway tires to 0.8 bar and got free. I had to drive the 90km tar road back to town on the deflated tires. I made it to town and back home. The next day I sold the Lux with 230000km and bought a 2010 3.0D-4D 4X4 Auto d/c. I didn't do to much mods on the new lux. I changed the tires, did a suspension lift, canvas canopy and (please don't laugh) installed three cameras, one behind, one below and one in front. The bakkie gave me 70000 worry free km's. I sold it last year when I moved back to Secunda from Hartebeespoort.

July 2011, I bought a Beige 1989 2.2 SFA d/c Hilux in Pretoria. I drove it home from Pta to Secunda with a "workers" frame and canopy on top of that. I have since traveled around 16000km with the bakkie, testing everything. Fuel consumption is great, ride not to hard but the non power steering is hard on the arms, especially in town.
One Saturday morning being frustrated with my builders not turning up, I decided I had enough of the grease/oil leak from the front hubs. Something must be done..... Front axle rebuild.....
So I started a "Hilux Overall Project" with allot of surprises. To be continued.....

[Mud Dog]

Looking forward to the 'contination'.

[CasKru]

Thanks for sharing... looking forward to the rest of the story

[Rider]

lol bump!

[Qlab]

My First 4X4

First 4X4

IMG_1679 (Small).JPG (44.49 KiB) Viewed 4790 times

First 4X4

IMG_0372 (Small).JPG (41.95 KiB) Viewed 4790 times

[Qlab]

My First 2.2 SFA

SFA

SFA Front.JPG (66.04 KiB) Viewed 4786 times

SFA Back

SFA Back.JPG (66.37 KiB) Viewed 4786 times

[Qlab]

The Bad:
With the decision made to rebuild the axles, I decided the bakkie needed a respray as well. The current beige is fading. Started by removing the doors, back and front windows and all trim pieces. Then started to strip the paint from the bakkie with sanding paper and wire brushes. What a long and painstaking job this was. It took me and a helper almost three months to do. There was a lot of body putty on the roof section of the C-pillar, rust on the A-pillar and it looked like a new roof skin was welded in. Both roof gutters was rusted badly but repairable.

F Hub Leak.JPG (40.95 KiB) Viewed 4784 times

A-Pillar(R) Rust.JPG (32.38 KiB) Viewed 4784 times

C-Pillar(L) Rust.JPG (34.13 KiB) Viewed 4784 times

C-Pillar(R) Rust.JPG (31.12 KiB) Viewed 4784 times

I treated the the entire body with rust converter and rust stop and left the chemicals to do it's job for three weeks. With time being a issue, I had a friend of mine spray the bakkie for me. He couldn't do it due to workload and we had to send the bakkie to another painter to have it painted. (I wanted to do it myself due to the Panel Beaters asking me between R27000 to R43000 to do the job, privately anything up to R10000) The Hilux was back in my yard after being away for four weeks.

Newly Painted Parts (Land cruiser beige 4E9)

Door Sprayed.jpg (13.39 KiB) Viewed 4784 times

Fender Srayed.jpg (24.85 KiB) Viewed 4784 times

[Family_Dog]

The LC 4E9 looks great on a SFA!

Please continue with the pics :)


-F_D

[Mud Dog]

Looking a 1000 times better already! Well done so far!

[Bugzy]

Quintin, dit lyk baie goed - wat het jy met die dak gedoen?

[Qlab]

Die "Spuit verwer" het die dak opgevul met n nuwe tipe body putty en toe gespuit. Sal meer uitvind daaroor.

[Qlab]

The Bad Continues.....

When I started stripping the interior, I realized that there was a lot of surprises waiting for me. The previous owner converted the cab from single to double.

Roof.JPG (21.45 KiB) Viewed 4703 times

Roof B-pillar.JPG (23.74 KiB) Viewed 4703 times

Roof C-Pillar.JPG (24.48 KiB) Viewed 4703 times

The joints was done badly, the back was welded poorly and is rusting badly.

Back Floor.JPG (10.3 KiB) Viewed 4703 times

Back Rust..JPG (9.41 KiB) Viewed 4703 times

I bought the bakkie with not allot of knowledge, but one thing that was standing out was the position of the fuel filler. It was not on the cab but on the load bin, I was told it is an import......

Fuel Filler.JPG (5.78 KiB) Viewed 4703 times

If only had had done my homework prior to buying the bakkie.

[legend]

The Bad Continues.....

When I started stripping the interior, I realized that there was a lot of surprises waiting for me. The previous owner converted the cab from single to double.

Roof.JPG

Roof B-pillar.JPG

Roof C-Pillar.JPG

The joints was done badly, the back was welded poorly and is rusting badly.

Back Floor.JPG

Back Rust..JPG

I bought the bakkie with not allot of knowledge, but one thing that was standing out was the position of the fuel filler. It was not on the cab but on the load bin, I was told it is an import......

Fuel Filler.JPG

If only had had done my homework prior to buying the bakkie.

Yea Quintin! I think we all have made mistakes in the past ...but no you know what has been done right

[Mud Dog]

When I started stripping the interior, I realized that there was a lot of surprises waiting for me. The previous owner converted the cab from single to double.

Yoh!!

[Qlab]

I decided to make the best of a bad situation. I took the bakkie to a local dent remover to have it looked at and to "fix" any bad welding, joints and to ensure the cab's alignment is correct. When it came back, I treated the entire inside cab with rust converter and rust stop. I sprayed it with black stone chip and then white rust stop paint then started to lay it out with sound deadening material.
I fitted self made brackets to fit Polo seats in the front, added under felt carpets and a hard plastic floor.
I started to refit the doors with new panels and vinyl, then fitted the doors.
I went away for three days on business, on my return, couldn't wait to see how the doors looked like in daylight. What a disappointment, the back door started "sagging" The doors didn't align at all. I couldn't open the back door without it catching on the front. I asked the panel beater who worked on the bakkie to come and look at the problem. He took allot of measurements and scanned the bakkie with a laser. We found out later that the bakkie was 0.7mm shorter than a standard hilux back door opening.
Next came the quote to fix or extend the bakkie with the 0.7mm. I was quoted R17000 for the extension, primer and paint..... :alvarin:
I have decided to source a cab, (if I could find one) before the current cab is to be extended.

[Qlab]

Quintin, dit lyk baie goed - wat het jy met die dak gedoen?

Gaan die dak heelmoontlik weer vervang as die bakkie verleng moet word.
Sal maar sien wat die beste gaan wees en waar ek gaan regkom.

[Qlab]

Some Good news. I managed to source a Used 2.8D cab to replace my "extended" cab.
The bad news, I will need to have the cab sprayed again and will have to treat for rust. :wth:

The cab:
PS: look at the fuel filler position, where it belongs

IMG-20120702-00198 (Custom).jpg (16.84 KiB) Viewed 4623 times

[Qlab]

I am moving the "Rebuild" to the "Board index » Vehicle Chat » General Mods » Modifications » 1979 to late 1998 Hilux (Gen 3&4 aka SFA 4x4)" section, where it belongs