DannyBCruzin in an FZJ80

IN AF! I really want an 80, but I probably dont want something that gets worse mileage than my truck

 

It's had an added bonus of making my Tacoma's gas mileage look great hahaha. Honestly, the mpgs aren't so bad right now. Plus, it's not a DD so I don't care much. Its trail abilities more than makes up for it!

 

A couple pics of this weekend's progress. We added a 5/8" thick sheet of plywood to the rack. With the middle crossbar, it is plenty sturdy. I won't post the pic of this, but I can confirm it held my buddy's full weight lol. I think all that is left is to add the two loops for the tire strap, button up a few welds, bolt the plywood shelf in, paint and install.

 

Oh damn, I dig it!

 

Thanks! I'm pretty stoked at how well it turned out from its beerful inception hahaha. I have a tilting fridge slide to go on top of it too that pops right over the tailgate (also one of my favorite features of the 80 - having a hatch and tailgate)

 

Gives me ideas, minus the tire setup only cause I ordered a rear bumper with swing out.

An LC though just has so much damn room compared to a 4R.

 

It's funny how this truck is so big in some aspects yet feels almost the same size or smaller than my 2nd gen Tacoma lol

 

Depending on tire widths and wheel offsets the track width on mine is only 3" more than my first gen

 

Another project I'm working on is getting the wiring and switch panel ready for the accessories coming in. I took a chance on a pre-assembled carling switch panel from Amazon (linked

$26 FXC Rocker Switch Aluminum Panel 6 Gang Toggle Switches Dash 5 Pin ON/Off 2 LED Backlit for Boat Car Marine Green

here) that turned out to be a lot nicer than expected. The switches are your standard carling on/off switches with a green backlight, the faceplate/panel is made of aluminum that feels strong, and the pre-wiring looks clean. For $30, I'm impressed. In going this direction, I wouldn't try messing with what has been pre-assembled, as that is where some reviews stated problems arose (trying to remove switches, switch wiring patterns, etc.). I'm just going to install as-is to my lights and stuff and take this purchase as a win.

However, I'm still deciding between two locations. The vertical option fits best as-is and provides the cleanest install, but it also blocks the spot where a cup holder is typically added to this cupholder-free vehicle. The horizontal option would require some cutting of the front area to get the panel to fit and wouldn't look as clean, but it would allow for a cup holder. Adulting is hard...

 

Apparently the little 7" led bars in the bumper openings aren't gonna work out without some custom mounts (which I don't feel like doing), so I'm going a different route now. The front bumper is thankfully vertical (or close enough to it), so I'm going to get some flush mount pods from @memario1214 and mount them in the front bumper. It's so nice that it's a metal bumper because these mounting options are awesome lol

 

Wheels look good.

 

Thanks! I’ve been digging them a lot

 

Almost ordered a new set of flush-mount pods, but something told me to try one last time. Try I did, and this time I inverted the mounting feet - they ended up lining up with the plastic accent piece juuuust perfectly enough to massage the light bars into the mounts. Once I tightened them down, the feet were nice and straight again. Stoked this actually ended up working out! I also ended up deciding to use the switch blanks since they were actually fairly easy to access and had a lot of space behind them. I stole three switches from my switch panel and some of the wiring. Everything came out nicely, just waiting for my fuse taps to show up so I can get the constant-on/independent switch light to come on with the ACC.

 

I was too lazy to put things back together and move the truck, so this is the light output picture I was able to get last night. Not bad for a $55 pair of little 7" bars! I'll get some better ones when I get my fuse tap and button everything back up lol

 

Fuse taps showed up, so I got everything buttoned up. Came out pretty good I think!

Top: bumper lights
Left: light bar (wired, but waiting for my new 30” slim bar to arrive)
Right: rear dust light

 

I honestly didn't even know this lit up until seeing the LED everything thread lol. I got a green LED bulb from superbrightleds.com and it looks great now. Can't wait to literally LED all the things on this truck

 

This is so true, I had to sacrifice the washer bottle on my 240 when we turbo'd it so it could have an air inlet for the filter and MAF.
Used to carry a spray bottle of washer fluid and a rag......

 

If the reason was because this hippo was turbo'd, I would probably have done the same thing hahaha

 

Also got a new slimmer 30" light bar for the cruiser, as I wasn't really digging the standing height of the dual row 20" I had (which is supposed to be for the Tacoma anyway, but I need to open the bumper mounting points more for the thicc bolts). Now, I'm trying to figure out whether to mount it more forward on the bumper or rearward

 

Yeah, I got one out of a turbo 240, but you know how things get backburnered....
Nice 80 series bro, still wanna get one too but we'll what time tells.