LJ80 Recommissioning.

[mk1joe]

Im Back!
I have been away from suzukis and this forum for a while now, so I wont be surprised if few people remember me. But I always remembered what a good forum this was with friendly, decent people. I've joined forums for other marques throughout the years (Porsche-morris-ect...) but never enjoyed being a part of them and usually ended up not bothering with them. so with the perches of my latest project I was quite excited with the idea of coming back here.

here are some before and after pictures of my previous suzukis.

And here is what ive collected last Saturday.

Ive always wanted an LJ ever since I had the 410 but obviously there quite hard to find. This one is absolutely solid and ive yet to find any rust on it, although it has had some metalwork carried out in the past. The previous metalwork looks like it has been carried out very well but it hasn't been done to original spec, especially around the rear quarters. so I have yet to decide whether to leave it as is or rebuild it back closer to original (at the moment im leaning towards leaving it.) I will deffinately be doing a lot of metalwork around the front to reinstate the wings though.
anyway, its great to be a Suzuki owner again and back on this forum.
Joe

[Anton]

Welcome back!

I've always wanted an LJ, they're the coolest of the Zuks. Never gonna happen, but glad to see an LJ in good hands, not rotting somewhere!

[lundigee]

Hi, I am glad to see that the LJ has gone to the right home. I had seen it on eBay and I believe the person you acquired her from has 'Tonka' (LJ80). Looking at your previous SJ's you will do her proud, well done.

[Rabid Rhino]

Love the RHINO bumper.

Things are looking up for this car.
I hope you restomod it. Maybe bore the block to keep the engine number then fit a 410 bottom end and head. Does give them some pep. I got my ported 410 head and cam for my LJ80 from Rhino Ray. He gets some good stuff.

PS
Welcome to the hardcore elite club.

[mk1joe]

Thanks for the warm welcome back guys. I did indeed buy this from Carl who had two, and this was the lesser of the two. I don't have any plans set in stone yet, but I suppose 'resto-mod' sums up my intentions quite well. If the current engine turns out to be OK I will use that for a while, but maybe just swap a complete 410 engine in it later and keep the original safe to one side.
Progress has been slow so far. Firstly I dug out everything that was inside, boxed inventoried, and took note of everything I had then gave the inside a bit of a clean and scraped out all the mud and filth.
I've seen it running once but the carburetor had a bad leak at that time, so I didn't want to run it again before fixing that. I pulled the carb off and found that one of the gaskets had been fitted folded over... The springs in the accelerator pump had been fitted backwards, so wouldn't have worked at all. And worst of all, the butterfly spindle was completely bent!

So on failing to find replacements available to buy, I set to making my own from scratch out of silver steel.

Test fit

So it's mostly finished now, it just needs a little deburring to finish of and then a bit of time to make it fit and work nice.

[lundigee]

That is an amazing bit of engineering, how long did it take to cut the slot? and did you break any cutters? Could you have achieved the same with a slitting saw?
By coincidence in my box of bits I have a spare 'something', that I think you are missing. I would not get too excited but I will get a camera and post a picture of the 'something' later.

[mk1joe]

Why thank you! It took absolutely forever!! A slitting saw may have been a good idea, I think the original was probably cut like that. But I didn't have any to hand and a friend gave me two 1.5mm milling bits. I broke the first one within about 30 seconds trying to do a 0.5mm deep cut. I then realised they where end cutting bits and not side cutting. So not wanting to give up I persevered cutting 0.2mm at a time. It took forever...

And its too late now. I'm excited!!!

[lundigee]

As I said a brilliantly executed piece of engineering.

Now I may have 'bigged' up the something, but I believe you are missing one, and it looks like it was your colour at some stage.
The photos do not do it justice, it is still solid and would be an easy clean up.
It may not have been your first item on your Christmas list, but if you are able to use it private message your address and I will stick it in the post.

[mk1joe]

Excellent! I absolutely wasn't expecting that as its quite an obscure piece of the puzzle. But you're right, I am missing one and I'd absolutely appreciate this, so ill send you over a pm:)

[lundigee]

Photos for the spare wheel hinge bracket, showing how it attaches as well as the panel joins. Mine joins look a bit splurged with filler but should give you an idea.