JJCRU23R

Plastic welded headlight. Not very clean, but functional. $0, used soldering iron, mesh, and plastic from old Rav4 headlight I previously replaced.

First time to come across this thread, just saw the progress from beginning up to this point... Hope all this effort works out for you man!

Pics coming up when I've got the time guys. Anyway, after reconnecting the broken plastics which took much longer than anticipated, I began working on tapping out the dents in the front fenders, applied body filler and sanded down with whatever sandpaper I had left. Cleaned up the dust and rushed to prime over the filler to prevent rusting because I needed to drive the car at short notice. The front end looks straighter overall, (less noticeable front end damage, gaps between the front fenders and the hood doesn't rub against the passenger side fender when it's lifted), however the fenders need to be sanded down again because the filling and sanding is far from over. Pics coming up soonish..

Hey guys, just a quick update about the 4.1 - Ive been balancing doing homework with family commitments during these school holidays with fixing up the 4.1, specifically dents on the front fenders and other panels as well as some other bits of damage that I had not previously noticed. The previously unseen damage as actually "fixed" by the previous owner, not done very well. Previously I forked out 100+ on replacing the passenger side headlight because the plastic tabs that the mounting screws were attached to broke off the headlight, so the headlight wasnt properly secured. I thought the drivers side wasnt that bad, however, after removing the drivers side headlight I realised that this other headlight was just as bad, however, the previous owner tried to fix it by using a soldering iron to patch the broken bits of plastic back together. It worked to some degree, however, when i put the headlight on the floor, the repaired plastic tabs were not able to support its own weight and snapped off. I youtubed DIY PLASTIC WELDING and saw that I could repair the tabs if I only had some extra bits of the same type of plastic (i kept the old headlight I replaced - win!), metal mesh normally used in making 3d models/art projects (had some left around) and a soldering iron with the tip pounded flat, almost like a spoon shape.. I just took a hammer to the soldering tip until I was happy with the flatness.. Step 1: heat up solder, line up 2 broken bits of plastic and melt along the crack. Step 2: Cut appropriate size of mesh and melt the mesh INTO the plastic for extra support step 3: Cover the mesh by melting extra peices of plastic. Overall I was happy with how it turned out, although I didnt want to test the breaking point of the fix, just a few wiggles of the plastic tabs was enough for me to know that it was quite rigid, strong enough for me! to be continued...

hmm.. were those last few meet pics at the usual place in bunnings villawood? did it close down?

Heres a few pics of other places weve swum in so far this trip.. Me staring deep into the blue.. at that time I didnt think it was that impressive, just painted blue?! Can you see the size of the fish in there? I was thinking pretty cool scenery, treating the "enchanted river" like a swimming pool... that was until the attendant threw me some goggles and I looked down.. The blue part of the water was 85foot deep! At another resort.. throwing my kid around while I can still lift him above my head and throw him (its a lot better when your kid can already swim :P) Me + the kids..

Heres a pic of the car last night.. Glamour shot outside the Philippines favourite TakeAway... McDonalds! Jollibee! Now for today's adventure... after driving back to this store I went to yesterday because I thought I got ripped off (and I was.. paid 600Pesos when the pricetag on the box clearly said 400! Whats worse is the handwritten reciept said I paid 500! DAMn asians trying to rip me off! lol!!) I drove back home and helped the wife fix up the joint and do some laundry (by hand.. who uses washing "machines" nowadays anyway!? lol).. anyways, we were just about to head off and spend the afternoon with the kids and the relo's swimming at this resort when after just a few minutes warming up the car... the engine stopped. Pretty clear what had happened. Since we had been driving around a fair bit and I only put in 300Pesos of fuel as advised by my wife... WE JUST RAN OUT OF GAS. Considering the petrol gauge isnt working and the amount of driving weve been doing getting around from place to place especially in the last few days.. it had to happen sometime! Just fortunate the incident occured at home instead of on the road! Heres a few pictures of how you probebly shouldnt fill up in an emergancy... Two 1.5L plastic bottles of Sprite gasoline later and various attempts at trying to start the car by choking the engine of air by taking off the air filter and putting our hands over the carby while turning the key... (and failing) a short push start and a good long turn of the key was enough to get the Lambada moving again! Thanks to my father in law (pictured above) We did eventually make it to the swimming pool/resort... Thats me with the donut around my head near the centre of the image

That would make a helluva lot more sense except there aren't any rental car dealers to speak of here. Life's a lot different here, the town of Butuan has some historical significance but it's like Wagga Wagga compared to Sydney..not huge at all. if you can't afford to buy a car it's a much more easier option to hop on a "motorcycad".. Modified motorbikes with carts built around em, used as taxi's and they're only 8pesos to get around in.. Seats at least6 passengers not including the driver.. Public transport is so much more depended on here that there no market for a budget rentacar service. ANYWAY, BIG UPDATE, THE LAMBADA IS ON THE MOVE AGAIN! Paid a mate of my father inlaws, the same mechanic who got it up and running in the first place to drive the car to his garage this morning, by the afternoon and 300 pesos later, the brakes are fixed and the steering needed oil or something.. But the car is back to a more safer dependable driving condition! IM USINg free wifi at this pizza place now.. Drove the car here no probz!

The forbidden dance has come to a stop! After the alternator cable fell off during a drive home @ night, all it took was for me to leave the headlights on, turned off the car and started it again to drain it enough that it didnt have enough charge to start up again... after that I tried to push the car up the driveway which was kinda crazy to begin with if you saw this driveway... (will take pics).. that didnt work, and in the process i somehow screwed up the steering. its really difficult to turn right.. theres a grinding noise and some real resistance when you turn the steering wheel right.. you really got to push the wheel to get it to turn.. turning left is much easier, but I still feel some minimal grinding.. the brakes seem to have weakened somewhat.. i gotta double pump the brakes to get it to stop without over shooting intersections. its become pretty unsafe to drive now.. I was told by my father in law that the car shouldnt cost too much.. less than $10 bucks to repair but Ill believe that when the mechanics check out the car (sometime today). so damn annoyed right now.. car = independance and now we gotta depend on other relo's to take us around.

youll need a couple good tools to take them off! hehe

Latest pics and latest mods.. probebly last I'll do on the car since I won't be driving the car much longer.. heading home soon! Finally.. pic of the foot pedals Another mod which I thought needed doing, since people round here like to name their cars, it was only fitting that this would be the Jeeps nickname :P stuff is so cheap here.. 2 foot of red tape = 60pesos.. basically $1.50 Aussie :P You can sorta see the side mirrors in the pic below.. kinda resembles a dog with only 1 ear up?! All I did was lay the masking tape over the top, picked a suitable font on microsoft word, drew it on with pencil, cut out with scissors and stanley knife, then wiped down the glass before applying the lettering! Considering it was raining earlier and then it was dry.. it quickly became quite hot sitting on the stainless steel hood! Kinda stuffed up the letter D but used some of the offcuts to cover over the wrinkles. I put that down to now realising how delicately thin the red sticker was, as well as how strong the masking tape was. The adhesive on the red sticker was so strong that if you needed to reposition the lettering, the sticker would tear. put that together with my ***** being fried sitting on the stainless steel hood.. gotta accept that the lettering werent positioned as well as i wanted. Havent tried the single windscreen wiper yes but since it doesnt really contact well up against the glass where the letters are situated, Im assuming the lettering is safe. bout 90 minute job done.

can you guys see where the loose cable is in the video? post up the time in the video above when you notice the cable is loose! I'll rate ya

Forgot to mention that last time I ran the battery down, it was after making a pitstop @ a late night convenience store.. after only 5 minutes with the lights on after turning off the engine there wasnt enough charge to kick the engine back on. luckily we were only about 100-140 metres from our house.. the car is so lightweight that I could push the car down the road pretty easily on my own.. (luckily there were 2 armed guards across the street from the convenience store who volunteered to push the car down the road (one stayed at his post, the other let me stay behind the wheeel and he pushed). I gave both of them 100 pesos for their trouble.. helps that the car doesnt have a roof or doors to weigh it down.. (or a handbreak, or airconditioning.. or stereo/speakers.. interior carpet.. ) :P

HERES A QUICK CLIP I MADE A FEW DAYS BACK, JUST BEFORE I PUT IN THE NEW FOOT PEDALS! Enjoy the sounds of the streets of Butuan City!

alternator cable keeps falling off.. explains why the battery isnt charging while driving... good news is i drove round last night and this morning with no issues :P Ive installed the $19.95 foot pedals from cash converters yesterday morning no probs and drove around by myself for the first time (without my wife or a local in the passenger seat).. The streets here dont always have clear street signs, stop signs or even working traffic lights. I always compared driving here to dancing.. everyone (but me) can hear the music and dance to its beat. It seems as though the general idea is either give way to the bigger/faster cars/trucks/buses and push your way past the smaller vehicles.

Around here the term jeep is used pretty loosely. There are cars driving round here with oversized mercedes badges on the front that have the chrome jeep front grille just like mine, with the soft tops much smaller/lower/have bits and peices from different cars and has a stainless steel body..(before my car was blue, ive seen and driven it when it was plain stainless steel outside). Theres a shop near my inlaws place where you can buy all the crap they normally put on a jeep to make it more "festive".. like the pic 01Vey posted earlier. youve got the PUJ (public use jeeps) which are the xl wheelbase type army surplus vehicles that travel around certain routes and they come around every 2-3 minutes (much more fun compared to sydneys public transport).. then you got the jeeps - the same types we have in Australia.. (willys,renegade ect). If you called either or any one of those jeeps.. you wouldnt be entirely wrong.

just found some foot pedal covers dad sent in the balikbayan box.. next mod coming up soon! ahaha it needs it too

so.... im driving a toyota forklift? lol! damn it this is getting even wierder.. anyways, I seem to keep forgetting to turn off the foggies (or at least the one that works) or the headlights off (which only seems to have high beam) whenever I drive at night, draining the battery so that theres not enough to start the car.. charged the thing at least 3 times already.. twice over nght, both of the times ive charged it overnight, the power goes out.. freakin brownouts! lol! so not so sure how charged up the car battery is when i put it back in. gotta get the speedo and the fuel gauges fixd coz they just arent working either. why is it the only thing working on this car is the toyota engine itself?!

That one was most probably used for public transport. most of those were leftover/surplus US army jeeps from WW2 which were converted to have bench seats along the back as a means of public transport back in the day, ive seen them loaded up with what looks like 40 people inside/hanging off the back/sitting on the roof rack.. (these are sometimes modified to have a longer wheelbase than intended).. sucks that there arent so many of those driving around this area nowadays. plenty around for sale, but very few are actually driving them. If they are being driven round here they definately dont look that clean! At the very least ours is stainless steel, just like them bigger ones :P

Hey guys, Ive posted up pics and updates on the jeepney in the MEMBERS rides section! MEMBERS RIDES - JJCRU23RS JEEPNEY!!!!!!!!

Oh yea, for some wierd reason the postive battery cable was too short to reach the battery?!???? Dad sent a balikbayan box full of tools that he wants to use when he comes back up here including my old jack and some car stands which came in handy when I had to take off 3 of the 4 tyres.. I pumped up the other partially inflated tyre with a bike pump... so proud of that haha! Dad also included a battery cable which I bolted on to the existing cable which doubled its length, so I dont have to put cardboard under the battery and lean it slightly to get the positive cable connected.. swear the wierdness doesnt stop on this car.

HIRO thanks 4 the info.. so that confirms it right? Its corolla engine then? or possibly a crown..?? geez Id like to know the size 1.8? 1.6? 1.4? people round here only buy like 500 pesos of fuel at a time.. so i did the same.. thats about 10L only that I bought, not knowing exactly how much my dad left in the car before he left here about 6 months ago. Dad put in the new horns, electrical cables in the engine bay.. the brakes are not disk brakes... no idea what youd call them..

I swear the left hand drive, no seatbelts and the feeling of no door is doin my head in.. forgot to mention, there WERE seatbelts fitted on the car.. just the belts, no buckles in site?! so i took them off.. there was also a roof rack which I didnt like the look of.. id never use it here anyway, so I toook that crap off. One last thing, everytime you put the car into reverse, the car plays this polyphonic version of LAMBADA.. this car is a helluva driving experience.. crazy but it gets us from my parents place to the inlaws house within 5-10 minutes down 2 roads.. in that case its easy.

My old club lock keeps the car from being stolen ( as if people would wanna steal it) haha Front passenger side Front drivers side (they do drive on the left side of the car here) Theres no stereo, just a stainless steel compartment in the dash, the fuel gauge doesnt work, most of the gauges dont light up at night.. it only has one window wiper (thankfully on the drivers side), oh and Ive recharged the bettery twice since being here (theres not much electronics besides the indicators and starter, but i left the lights on overnight).. all fun up in here! no seatbelts, no doors and dont wanna drive faster than 50-60kms.. usually drive 30-40kms on these roads coz of heaps of pot holes in these parts.

Gday all, Im in Mindanao, Philippines and this is our "JEEPNEY!" When we first arrived @ my parents holiday house, it was pretty much as my parents left it, except the car, which had been serviced when my dad was here.. sitting outside in the elements, three of the tyres were flat and the engine which was worked on hadnt been started in ages... This is apparently a Toyota engine.. saw a toyota label on a random part towards the bottom of the engine. Rear passenger side - which has been reinflated, flattened and reinflated again within the space of 24hrs lol! The spare.. which is just 4 looks.. gotta get that one fixed :/ ANYONE NOTICE HOW HUGE THE REAR WINDOW IS? GEEZ The seemstress gotta sew it bigger next time haha And heres the interior.... pretty spartan in here. I swear you gotta be a 4 foot tall to drive this cos that roll bar will hit the back of your head unless you have the front seats pushed forward and the headrest pushed all the way up. The low windscreen makes for low visability which means you gotta crouch down like an old man to see, so you cant really lean back unless you like the back of your head bashed. So hard to tell from this photo but the car is in 1ST GEAR, so the stick is leaning on the drivers seat!!!! also notice the lack of a HANDBREAK, which means you gotta leave the car in 1st gear to stop it rolling away from where you parked it.. DONT YOU JUST LOVE IT?!! Toyota Crown steering column.. shifts forward, back, up and down.. all while you drive, and without you wanting it to! hahaha! The brakes need to be pressed HARD in order to stop safely. Its also rear wheel drive and it handles like a frikken trolley.. as if you are steering from the back of the car and the front is doing whatever it wants!? is this normal of front wheel drives? ive only ever really driven FWD or 4WD... im guessing the front tyres grip the road like bowlingballs.. there is tread but it feels like the front end isnt holding on the road at all. Doesnt help that its wet season in Dec/January and can rain upto 4-6 hours at a time.. Not sure if you can see on the car but the rear view mirrors.... the drivers side was real wobbly and the passengerside mirror was missing in action. So far I spent 700pesos repairing the tyres (2 inner tubes)+ the rear being reinflated twice, 300 on gettin the car started (had 2 put fuel in the carby and repair the brakes), 500pesos for almost 10L of petrol, 280 Pesos on a pair of rear view mirrors, all up 1780 Pesos spent so far.. divide by about 43 and you get $41.39 Aussie spent to get it running hope itll last the next few weeks cos we wont be back until last week of January.