‘95 FJ80

About a year ago my wife and I found out our first kid was on the way. After the excitement of the news I quickly realized that my regular cab Tacoma wasnt going to work much longer. The thought of driving the wife’s crv for all family trips quickly made me start looking for something different.

A few months ago I spotted and land cruiser sitting behind a funeral home in a nearby town. After a quick phone call and looking over the vehicle I was quickly the new owner. What I ended up with is this 1995, one owner, triple locked FJ80 with 98k miles. I still need to take the vin to the local Toyota dealer to see if they have any service records.

The story they gave me is that the sunroof leaked somewhere around 2008, and instead of cleaning the interior and clearing out the drain holes they parked the vehicle and bought a new suburban.

First order was to see if it would run. I pulled the plugs, spayed the cylinders with wd-40, and let it soak for a few days. Changed the oil, rolled the motor with a breaker bar, put in a new battery and fired it up on some starting fluid.

I disconnected the fuel filter and tried to cycle the fuel pump but no gas came through. Quick trip to the parts store and they had a fuel pump the next day.

After a week of fussing with it in funeral home parking lot yard I finally had it running, and the wife started to calm down. Now the fun starts, haul it home, get it road legal, clean the interior , and put some miles on it.

I immediately pulled the running boards as they were rusted through, and in the process got a little zealous and pulled the fender flares too.



So far rear brakes are installed, new generals in 285/75/16, and the interior is mostly out. The leaking sunroof and 10 years of sitting made a nasty mess inside. Hopefully the weather will cooperate this weekend and I’ll get all the interior cleaned and back in as well as get the front brakes installed.
I’m considering putting Monstaliner on the rockers and around the wheel wells so I figured I’d try some plasti dip first. Not sure I like to look yet..

At this point the goal is to get it on the road and drive it a few months to work out the bugs. Hopefully things keep going smoothly and I can update the suspension and start looking into other items...winch, sliders, etc. etc. till the money tree dies....

 

Holy crap that must have been quite the moldy headliner!
Also if you want to see what monstaliner liner looks like look at my build

 

It’s disgusting. I’ll grab a picture of it tomorrow to post. So far I’ve used most of a Clorox bathroom spray bottle getting rid of the mold on the doors, dash and seats.

 

Oh god that must be horrible...

 

Nice save, hope she cleans up well. Looks similar to something but I just can put my finger on what.... Haha

 

I saw your cruiser build the day I found this... your cruiser is crazy clean compared to mine. What I originally thought was rust, both inside and out, just ended up being moss/nastiness. My wife is still not convinced I can get it clean enough for her to ride in.

 

Finally was able to get the cruiser inspected and on the road. Spent a weekend going through the front axle and brakes and then took it to a local shop for inspection.

I ended up changing the rubber brake lines, master cylinder, and vacuum booster before I could get the brakes to work right. It was a little more than I planned to do at this time but I’m glad I did. Similar to ever other rubber part on the truck, being parked for 10 years was pretty rough on it.
I also ended up finding a good deal on OME shocks. The plan is to get the lift springs in a few months but the shocks need changed now.

And finally for the money shot!
Both front and rear lock engaged without any trouble.

Now the plan is to drive the hell out of it to make sure it’s road worthy and take it to Utah in July. I have a work conference near Salt Lake so the plan is to drive out and spend a day or two seeing the sights before I come home.