Box Rocket 1995 FZJ80 Build

Sliders are here. Now to find some time to do a little welding.

 

Adam, this thing is beautiful, you do tasteful mods that fit your needs, i can dig that. Makes me wish their were more available down here so I could invest in one.

 

Holy smokes, Texas is flooded with these things! More than half the ones I looked at were in Texas, and my '93 that I'm retiring was one I found in Houston. Just do a little looking. You'll find lots of them.

thanks for the compliment Chris.

 

Haha I must be looking in the wrong part of the state. Where I am though its mostly chebys and ferds #'merica #foreigncarsarecrap blah blah.

 

here's a little better side by side of the difference after the lift swap.

 

Got started on sliders yesterday.

 

Sub!

 

I picked up a pair of BH3D emblems this week to replace the two "sombrero" ones on the truck. I replaced the one on the grill and this one on the rear hatch.

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I was also pleased with the number in the bottom left of my Ultragauge. I think that's the best I've ever had from a full tank in an 80. Yes, it was mainly highway miles but still a good number as far as 80s are concerned. 12-13mpg is typical.

 

You must be lucky with mpg's your trucks always seem to be slightly more efficient than others.

BTW, got the rails yesterday. They look great! Waiting on brackets but if you have some time tomorrow I can meet you to test fit the final rails. If everything looks good I will drop them to be powdercoated and we can get everything installed next week!

 

Honestly I think the good fuel economy has more to do with my driving style and the fact that it's a lot of highway miles and not a lot of city driving. But I do think that if you drive conservatively (and that doesn't necessarily mean slow) that you can really affect mpg in a good way.

That's great news about the rack! I have the 80 with me today, but I can also drive it tomorrow if today doesn't work for you. Stoked!

 

**Prinsu Design Roofrack teaser.** I can't begin to describe how freakin cool this rack is going to be. Zach Scott is doing a fantastic job with it. We test fit the very first set of 80 Series rails on my truck today. *Don't mind the backward TEQ" , the guys that laser cut it forgot to flip the logo for this side. It's getting fixed. Rails are 1/4" aluminum. Might be hard to tell in the pics but the rail has one bend in it. It sits in the rail and angles in toward the center slightly and then goes vertical. The rails will be powder coated right away. Crossbars are black anodized aluminum and they are BEEFY. I love how this rack runs the entire length of the gutter to spread the load over a much larger surface. You can see 4 sets of 4 holes on the rail (laid out in a square), these will be where the mounting feet attach. so it will be held to the truck with 4 feet per side. It will have a wind deflector across the front and I like how the angle of it matches the angle of the windshield. I mentioned this before but this rack with require removal of the OEM roofrack. I wanted it to be as low profile as possible and it's about as tight to the roof as we could get it without worrying about any contact.
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Should have it powder coated and ready to go in the next 10 days or so. Just in time for an early spring Moab trip! Can't wait.

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Looking good!

 

That rack is going to be freaking sweet i cant wait to see it finished!

 

Sliders are 90% complete. Waiting for paint to dry and then they get welded to the frame.

 

Finished up the sliders over the weekend. Not many people use the Trail Gear sliders, but I ran a set on my old '93 for years and was very impressed with them and how well they've held up. As will any slider, proper gussets at the frame are key to keep them from flexing. There is some fabrication involved with the Trail Gear sliders since they are made for Tacomas. The sliders ship with the main slider fully built but with the legs un attached so that you can set the angle of the slider where you want it. The forward leg that is supplied is too short so that what you need to handle on your own. I used some 1.5" 0.25" wall square tube for that front leg. It's crazy beefy but since it's a longer leg it helps to have heavier material. I made some big gussets from 0.5" plate. The sliders are welded to the frame using some 3/16" scab plates on the frame with the slider/gussets welded to the frame plates. On the passenger side I needed to bend the forward leg to pass under the cats. All in all I think they turned out nice and for the cost, they are the best bang for the buck sliders out there for the 80 IMO even with the extra work involved. Hard to go wrong for roughly $200. You'll want the 67" versions.
https://www.trail-gear.com/TG/Rock_Slider_Kit_58_/i_0_0_3212/_120001-1-KIT.aspx
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Looks great! I had an 80 I sold to my father (now our hunting rig) I'm trying to get him to put a small lift and a bit of armor on (tired of dragging the spare over everything) I may have missed it but what rear bumper is that?

Thanks!

 

Home built rear bumper.

 

Ahh... looks great! is there details on it's build on here or Mud? I would love to build one using yours as inspiration if that's ok.