Box Rocket 1995 FZJ80 Build

Looks like that will be a fun rig. The 1HD-T is a neat motor.

 

It really is, and triple locked it'll keep up with my Tacoma no worries. I bought it for my wife.. with the intercooler add on and a mild tune, even with factory 4.10 she pulls hard. I'm so pumped to finally have found the dream. Luckily the suspension is identical, so I'm very keen on some of the mods you've done. That lift setup has my attention for sure...

 

I think you’ll find an 80 to be on a whole other level of capability offroad compared to a Tacoma. I love Tacoma’s and their good at many things. But as a straight up wheeling rig, I’ll take the 80 every time.

I can’t say enough good about the Slinky suspension on my 80. I’m now in my 20th year of wheeling an 80 and the Slinky suspension is easily the best money I’ve ever spent on an 80.
Just finished setting up the dual bypass rear shocks last week.

 

Oh I'm aware, I've got a couple buddies with imported HDJ81's and even with open diffs they keep up. .really at a point with my Tacoma where I either go fully insane or sell it. Yes that slinky setup has my attention, this truck has a random 4" lift I don't recognize the name, it drives nice but I'll definitely be looking to upgrade it in the next year. I'm setting it up as a tourer but I still want it to run any trail I point it at. That being said my wife still has to daily it.. it's going to be a really fun build I can't wait

 

Few updates to add since last summer. Nothing too major but a few things to share.

I decided to do a common mod to convert the tailgate to include some storage. I found some suitable hatches on Amazon that were the size I thought would work. There are a few very nice full width storage hatches on the market. They can be a bit expensive and I was looking for less expensive option that I could manage quickly before a trip. The center area is quite shallow and not as useful for storage so I did two separate hatches in the deeper parts of the tailgate. These are still pretty shallow and things like a rolled recovery strap is about as thick as you can fit in that space. I'm using the space for recovery gear storage.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Used some Noico sound deadening mat on the inside.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Trimmed the original carpet panel, recovered in with new carpet and wrapped up the installation.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

 

Next was something really simple. Will work for some, others may not like it. A driver armrest is something that many wish the 80 had. The position of the center console armrest isn't ideal and you have to lean over a bit to use it. I welded up a simple post that is anchored to the floor. There is a foot on the bottom and I've found bolting it down with a single bolt shared with the seat bracket. Some foam and marine vinyl finished it up. Makes my driving position much more comfortable especially on longer drives.
Armrest by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Armrest by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

 

I was looking for a better way to carry my maxtrax rather than on the roofrack. The roofrack is fine most of the time but if my tent is on the roof there just isn't room for the maxtrax. So I modified my driverside swingout on the rear bumper. This required relocating the fuel can carrier farther outboard so that my highlift and shovel could be moved more to the inside and free up space on the outside for a bolt on bracket to hold the maxtrax.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

The rack for the maxtrax was built quick and dirty since this was literally the night before leaving on a week long trip. Some angle steel and some of the Maxtrax pins was all I used.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Maxtrax mount by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Maxtrax mount by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

I also got a fancy tool bracket from Delta VS that replaced the quickfists that were holding my shovel. This bracket is really cool and works great.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

 

Most recent mod was some new lights. I've been searching for some lights to replace the three HIDs I have on the front bumper. I'm a big fan of the HID lights and the distance of the light throw. The ones I have are Hella lights and I've been really happy with them. They've been discontinued so replacing them with new ones of the same thing wasn't possible. Most options on the market now are LED lights and while there are some really excellent lights out there, I had not been able to find an LED option that could match the distance of the HIDs, so I was reluctant to buy anything.

Then I found an option from LED CoLight that is a round LED light but uses a laser module with a projector lens in the center. The advertised distance of 2000 meters caught my attention. They are Chinese lights but use OSRAM LEDs that are known to be good quality. They weren't really cheap in terms of cost like many cheap chinese lights and the price was closer to other good quality lights. I decided to take a risk and order a pair. I paid full price for these and did not enter into any agreement with the company to promote these so this is my honest opinion of them. They have these Laser lights in 5", 7", 8.5" and 9". I got the 9" versions since I was only going to have two lights to replace 3 HIDs and wanted to hopefully have close to equal light output.
Laser Lights. by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

The 9" lights come with three translucent color rings (red, amber, blue) that can be changed. I didn't like any of the colors so I painted one pair of the rings a graphite color.
Laser Lights. by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Laser Lights. by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Installed.
Laser Lights. by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Laser Lights. by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Laser Lights. by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Laser Lights. by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

I've had them a couple weeks now and I can say that I've been VERY impressed with them. The lasers have a noticeable increase in distance beyond the HIDs, which is what I was hoping for. I should note that the beam (especially the laser) is a really tight beam. I have some additional LED lights on the roof rack that give a more wide light pattern so I was not concerned about the tight beam of the new lights. If you got some of these lights you might want to consider some additional flood pattern lights, or ditch lights or something like that to light up a wider area. But I'm super happy with these so far.

I have never had a light that would penetrate fog like these lights. This photo is using only the new laser lights. No headlights, none of the other LED lights on. So it should give a pretty clear idea of the light pattern you could expect. The fog is impacting the distance somewhat. On a clear night these seem to go on forever.
Laser Lights. by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

 

This past weekend I replaced the brake booster since I was having signs of booster failure. I used a Seiken brake booster that I'm told is an OEM part. Pretty straight forward install and brake pedal feels much better.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

This coming weekend I'll be replacing the rotors and pads. I'm going to try some EBC dimpled and grooved rotors after hearing a fair amount of good feedback on them. Hawk green pads this time. Looking forward to compare these to the OEM rotors and pads I've always used and been pretty happy with.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

 

Definitely need to get these for mine. Brakes feel very squishy right now, even with lots of life in the pads.

 

What brake lines do you have? Squishy-ness could be brake lines or air in the system.

 

Likely stock. I haven't touched the braking system since I bought it

 

Everything you do is phenomenal!

In a few years when I've hit certain financial goals I'd straight up pay you to fix up a few of my old Toyotas! (Not saying you'd accept haha).

Love your design work as well!

 

Brakes were done last weekend. EBC dimpled/grooved rotors, OEM Calipers with Hawk Green pads. Also installed a Seiken Brake Booster. Feels a bit better than the stock rotors and pads but nothing scientific to report.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

 

Delta console installed.
Delta Console by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Delta Console by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Delta Console by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

 

Been more than a year since I last updated the thread and there's a few things I've done since the last post.

First, I upgraded the lights on my roofrack.
I got a hold of LED CoLight about some other lights since I've been so impressed with the 9" lasers on my bumper. The 4.5" Cube lights they sell fit what I was trying to do so I picked up a few sets of them.


I made a simple mount for them from some scrap 3/16" steel I had in the garage and bolted it to one of the crossbars on the prinsu rack. These nighttime pics are before I got them aimed better. So far I am as impressed with these as I was with the ones I got in the winter. They aren't a cheap light but not as expensive as some of the big name US brands but have performed just as well in my experience.


Roof lights by Adam Tolman, on Flickr


Roof lights by Adam Tolman, on Flickr


Roof lights by Adam Tolman, on Flickr


Roof lights by Adam Tolman, on Flickr


Roof lights by Adam Tolman, on Flickr


Roof lights by Adam Tolman, on Flickr


Roof lights by Adam Tolman, on Flickr


Roof lights by Adam Tolman, on Flickr


The ambers are wired to a separate switch and obviously needed to be aimed after taking this photo.

Roof lights by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

 

I also got a pair of the Rob2 Pro lights from LED CoLight. These came with a few different lenses (white or yellow, in spot or flood pattern). I chose to use the yellow flood lenses and use the lights as rear facing dust lights. These are working great for this purpose!
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

To complete the lighting upgrades I got a set of Projector Retrofit headlights from Freedom Retrofits. These have been awesome! I didn't do anything fancy with them and used X3 LED Projectors and Multispot Led High Beams in black housings.
Headlight Retrofits by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Headlight Retrofits by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Headlights by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Headlights by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Headlights by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Headlights by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

 

Did this on a recent trip. Front diff gave up after getting airborne at 80mph. LOL. It's all fixed with a new set of 4.88's
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

This happened on the same trip. Was surprised by a 2' ditch across the road. Hit the ditch at 75mph and the tire carrier hinge snapped. It was a Ruffstuff Spindle hinge.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Got it all fixed up with a new double shear hinge from 4xInnovations.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

 

You're a bad influence on me. Nice upgrades. Whay was the cost on the headlights if you don't mind sharing?

 

Here's a handful of pics from the last two recent trips. First one was a corner to corner crossing of Utah on dirt roads. We started at the NW corner at the Idaho/Oregon/Utah border and finished at the UT/AZ/CO/NM (Four Corners) border. It was an AWESOME trip, even though I broke my tire carrier and front diff.
Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr