1986 Toyota Land Cruiser 70-Series for Slow Exploration

More small steps were accomplished today. I added rivnuts and fitted the aluminum license plate adapter bracket I built. I will probably paint or powdercoat it, but it doesn't look too bad with the aluminumy-looking light bracket above it that is fairly similar.

I replaced the rubber grip on the swing away for the spare tire. I definitely needed a bit of the old rubbing alcohol trick to get this one on.

I also put the refreshed stop pin back on the swingarm. Since the whole thing had a nice bit of surface rust, and was also serviceable, I just cleaned it up and POR15'd it.

I also saw this cool photo from Paris-Dakar 1988 and figured I would channel this energy. 😁

A couple small tweaks today.

I looked into the brake lights sticking on. The contact switch isn't obviously out of adjustment. It is adjusted such that it goes on almost immediately upon pressing the pedal, but I wouldn't call it misadjusted. I pulled the clevis pin, and the pedal pivot has zero resistance/stickiness that I can feel. I fiddled with the pad for the contact switch a bit, and greased the clevis pin before reinstalling it. 🤞

While I was down in the driver door opening, I cleaned the weep holes in the bottom corner of the doors.

Good news: the restoration shop did new seam sealer on the door skin seams before repainting. I can tell because they used a sealer that is black and the original Toyota sealer is white.

Bad news: they were generous to a fault, and the excess sealer almost completely filled one weep hole. It wasn't closed off, but also wasn't draining well. I got a razor blade and some little picking tools, and ended up pulling this booger out:

And yes, it was just as gratifying as you can imagine to yank it out and see the nice clear drain hole! 😆

A little bit more progress today. I turned my attention to the chips and rust spots on the swing away handle. Now that it has a new rubber grip, the metal was looking shabby.

I knocked back anything loose, cleaned it, and POR15'd the rusty spots. I chuckled to myself thinking of the infamous "Don't get it on your hootus" thread! 😂 I took fine steel wool to the stainless parts to remove the rust reside transferred from the mild steel parts. Once the paint is dried I think it will look a lot better.

I also received the used inclinometer from Pakistan. The fancier specs of these had central dash-top gauge pods with altimeter/inclinometer, or altimeter/temperature, or dual-tank fuel level and clock. My truck was basic, so it had none of these when new, but I figured it would be fun, plus I thought it was one of the coolest things about these and 80's 4Runners when I was young. The longitudinal indicator was obviously out of calibration and couldn't be remedied with the adjustment knobs. Must have had a rough trip, possibly prior to being parted out, or possibly on the way halfway around the world.

I have no idea how it comes apart, or how to service it, but how hard can it be?

A little bit of Googling was futile because Google searches for technical information from other human DIYers are becoming more and more useless by the day. All the results are links to shop for 2025 Land Cruisers/2025 Land Cruiser accessories, or carpentry/construction levels and tools, or to some useless pop song or social media trend having to do with angles or inclines or Toyotas, or something similar. Getting more specific with the search terms/parameters results in no search results, so I went back to the way we did it before the internet was widespread; take it apart slowly and carefully! 😆

A little bit like working on a watch! Gears, clock springs, weights, and little machine screws.

It has adjusters on the face, but they have a limited range, and even with the adjuster maxed, the longitudinal one was obviously not right. When moving it manually against the built in weight, it would snap all the way to the stop really quickly at one end of the adjustment range, and snap all the way to the same stop slightly-less quickly at the other end of the range of adjustment. Meanwhile the indicator on the face was upside down. 😂

The longitudinal indicator was one full turn out of adjustment on the clock spring. I have no idea how it got that way unless someone was in there before. There's a stop I just cannot fathom the wheel slipping past. I partially disassembled it, moved it past the stop, and got it back together. The stop was a long clear plastic arm that looked potentially brittle but I flexed it gently with breath held, and 40-year-old plastic was kind to me and didn't break. One of the knobs was missing hardware; it was glued on, thankfully not very well so I got it off easily…off to McMaster-Carr to shop M1.6x0.3 machine screws! I’m not sure how well I will fare at getting the cigarette smoke (?) or other mystery yellowish-grey residue off everything, though. 🤢

While I'm in there I can verify if the bulbs are 12V or 24V, plus if they are good, and replace them if needed. Apparently they connect to the dimmer on the trucks so equipped, so I'll have to dive under the dash and see if I can find the wiring. If I'm lucky and the norm for 80's Toyotas holds, there's likely to be an unused connector in the harness. I'll probably do it when I'm in there anyway doing the 12V converter wiring.

Spare tire swingarm handle reinstalled after tidying up.

It looks like my custom seats might arrive later this week! With international shipments, I find the ETA provided with the tracking information sometimes changes by a day or two depending on customs, etc. so I'm not holding my breath, but I am excited!

I think I'll probably dive into the interior and tackle a bunch of stuff at once, even if it means having it off the road for a while. Tasks could include sound deadening, wiring in the 12V converter, finishing the door vapor barrier/door card job, installing the inclinometer, touching up some paint and upholstery, getting the seatbelts re-webbed, maybe carpet, maybe cargo tie-downs in the back.