DannyBCruzin in an FZJ80

As much as I like ih8mud for knowledge, it's a bit quiet in there. So now I'm bringing my FZJ80 build to TW so I can be validated by strangers and have better self esteem. I've had this thing for a year now, but here's some info about when I got her:

1. 1996 Land Cruiser FZJ80
2. 270,223 miles
3. OME 2.5" lift w/ KYB extended shocks and CDL switch

Mods are listed in the second post, and here's where I'll try to keep a current picture.

 

Links to mods - (Will be updated when they happen)

- 12/2/19: 315/70/17 Cooper STT Pros
- 2/4/20: Icon Alloys Rebound, bronze, 17x8.5 and 315/70/17 Cooper STT Pros
- 2/18/20: Stereo rebuild
- 4/25/20: Knuckle Rebuild with Low Range kit
- 5/19/20: Full baseline of maintenance, Group 31 Duracell AGM and diff breathers
- 6/4/20: OEM recovery point relocation
- 6/9/20: Front Runner Outfitters Roof Load Bars & Raptor Series Offgrid Voyager RTT
- 10/29/20: Front light bars installed with switches in OEM blanks
- 5/29/21: Raceline Avenger wheels, machined aluminum

To-Do List

- Install Eibach Pro-Truck Lift System
- Install Delta VS Panhard Lift Bracket
- Install Metal Tech 4x4 sway bar drop bracket
- Install Slee front & rear bump stops drop brackets
- Install rock sliders
- Install 4.88 gears & rear Spartan locker
- Decide on front locker (decided against it)
- Order Slee headlight harness

 

Trips:

- 5/22-5/24/20 Poker Flat Trail: Maiden Voyage

(Will be updated as they happen)

 

Day Zero: Purchase day

10/25/19

Early on a brisk NorCal morning, I hopped on BART (local transit train) from my little town of Martinez to Oakland Airport in order to catch my morning flight to sunny San Diego. Being originally from Los Angeles, it's always a pleasure to return to SoCal and enjoy the way better Mexican food lol.

Anyway, my buddy @jAndyMendo picked me up and we headed out to meet with the seller. In talking to the guy all week, he seemed very trustworthy, upfront and knowledgeable of Land Cruisers. His reasons for selling were 1) didn't have time to take it out into the wild, 2) he bought a 100-series to be more wife- and kid-friendly, and 3) the truck still needed some work after investing a bunch of his labor hours into it.

Things already completed (per P/O):

1) Front main seal
2) Oil pump seal
3) Dizzy seal (distributor o-ring)

Things still needed to be fixed (per P/O)

1) Sunroof was not working properly
2) OEM stereo doesn't push any sound to the speakers, but it still turns on and otherwise functions properly
3) P/O before P/O claims he rebuilt the knuckles in 2017, but didn't have any receipts or other proof (likely need to do this myself)

The P/O before this P/O apparently ran the truck for a long time with these three things leaking, so the entire engine bay and undercarriage is coated in oil (yippee ). Although ugly and annoying, I knew this going into it and used it to bargain. After a test drive and some discussion, we struck a deal, and the title was signed over to me in exchange for a number of crispy, blue Benjamins. Here she is, at the scene of the purchase (me on the right - let me know if you have a cute sister or cousin or something)



So, that was it...I made a decade or longer dream come true. I'm an 80-series owner! Here are some more crappy cell phone pics of the truck at the time of purchase







However, the next big step was making the 500-mile journey back home to NorCal...hopefully the P/O was as upfront as I thought he was, but I mean, come on, the 80-series is supposed to be the pinnacle of Toyota engineering right? I checked all the fluids I could without tools, since I flew down, and hit the road first thing in the morning. As mentioned earlier, there were couple more things wrong with the truck, including 1) the radio doesn't push any sound to the speakers, and 2) the sunroof is jammed on something - possibly off the track. Knowing this ahead of time, I packed a bluetooth mini speaker and a dual-usb car charger to keep the tunes going for 8 hours or so lol.

The drive was smooth overall, but I did notice that the cruzer had some vibes/wobble at highway speeds and the steering grew a bit looser over the course of the drive. These were fairly expected, but the next morning was when I found the bummer...



(See all that grime I mentioned before?) I unfortunately had grown optimistic that the P/P/O actually had rebuilt the knuckles...clearly not, though. Overall, she still got me 500 miles back home, and I averaged 14.7 mpgs (not nearly as bad as I've been hearing others getting, but still early on lol).

If this wasn't enough of a bummer, the next day NorCal decided to all catch on fire at once. My little town of Martinez was surrounded by other cities on fire (include one of our own), so the cruzer was already poised to be my bug out vehicle while the Tacoma was still in the shop (out of fire danger thankfully). After loading her up with the living essentials and important docs, I was thoroughly satisfied with the cargo capacity. Big thanks to our first responders for not having to actually bug out!



Thankfully, though, all was well in my area and I didn't have to evacuate. My two girls were able to be home finally.

 

A Land Cruiser buddy found me an awesome deal on these 315/70/17 Cooper STT Pros, so I went to go pick them up. Got a bomb deal cuz dude had no idea what he had lmao. These aren’t pretty or ready for more than maybe 8-10k miles, but they should hold me over for a couple months while I sort out the rest of the maintenance and upgrades.

 

Welcome Brother!






I'm not a huge MUD fan either, feel free to ask questions if you have any. I'm well versed on the 80

 

Thanks to @Box Rocket - I finally pulled the trigger on some wheels. They are “Icon Rebound Series” 17x8.5, 4.75” BS, 0mm offset. He was kind enough to confirm that these fit (without a center cap) over the chunky hubs without boring out the centers. Finally...now I can finally ditch these bald 285s and install my not quite as bald 315/70/17 Cooper STT Pros

 

Thanks man! Yeah it got to be a bit old and "my way or the highway" over there lol. They're also all very strongly opposed to non-oem wheels too. Yours looks great! I almost got a '95 in that same color, but the interior needed a complete re-upholstering job so I passed. Love that color tho

 

On another note, I'm over Best Buy's free installation that I got with this head unit. I went for my third appointment, and, granted the problems they've discovered are actual problems, their unwillingness to even attempt to tackle them even with additional time added to the invoice is a total turnoff. As such, I've decided to tackle this myself too.

The previous owner's hack job on the wiring harness isn't as screwed up as I thought, just very poorly executed. They also put some POS Ford speakers in the doors. However, the amp and wiring setup from there look promising. All the door speakers have good wires going to them and the RCA cables are run to the head unit area. The amp has a nice ground, and there's a power cable running to the engine bay...but for some reason they decided to cut the fkn power wire and zip tie it off to the side. WTF! Anyway, seems like a fairly easily salvageable situation, and I can't wait to finally have tunes in this thing!






My neighbor and I went to work on this thing. Installed a new Pioneer double-din, Kenwood 6.5s (with some spacer mounts from a local audio store cuz the door speakers were REKT), an Alpine 8" powered sub, and a Kenwood 400w amp. The P/O hacked up the radio surround, so the fitment kit didn't even work. Eventually I'll replace this, but for now it works.

 

Helllllll yeahhhhh! Love this build! Lessssss gooooooo!

 

With all the time at home, @duncnasty came by to help me rebuild my knuckles. I used the Low Range Off-Road kit, and it came with everything I needed except grease. For grease, I used Red Line CV-2, which has worked great in my Tacoma's CVs. I've also seen a few on here who've used it with success, so I was happy to keep using it. Overall, it was just as time-consuming, dirty and painful as advertised, but it wasn't quite as difficult as I originally thought. Pics for proof of course...

 

@cruiserguy would love to see this build

 

I've kept myself pretty busy working on the cruiser during this shelter in place. Here’s some things that I’ve done:

1) Engine oil, transmission, transfer case, differentials and coolant service/fluid and filter replacement (where applicable)
2) New OEM belts (all of them lol, thanks to a mud member for pointing out I was missing one completely)
3) New battery terminals from Delta Vehicle Systems
4) New group 31 Duracell AGM battery and battery tie down
5) CB radio system with Rago Fabrication antenna mount
6) Front and rear diff breathers

Lots more stuff to do, but she’s finally driving really nicely. My tie rod ends didn’t solve the play in my steering, so I’m thinking it's the alignment. Going to get a set of caster correction plates and go from there.




I've also been slowly but surely knocking off all this built up oil from the engine bay and undercarriage. So much simple green...

 

Finally, everything came together enough to take this thing out into the wild!!! Here's some pics from my trip to Poker Flat with some close friends. The Land Cruiser performed flawlessly, and I couldn't be happier with my decision to dive into the 80-series rabbit hole.







During this trip, I found out at the wrong time that the p/o removed the front OEM recovery points smfh. When I got home, I was happy to find out on the forum that you can relocate the rear points to the front, so I grabbed some bolts and washers from my local Ace and did just that. I bought some more D-rings and a hitch recovery point from Rhino, whose products have worked great for me with my Tacoma.

 

Did another thing: I ordered a pair of Front Runner roof load bars and a non-name brand RTT on the cruiser. The tent is a "Rapter Series Offgrid Voyager" rooftop tent, and it heavily resembles the original Freespirit Recreation M55 tents (probably is the same tent lol). The mattress is really comfortable - on par with my old FSR 55" High Country. All the seams look heavily sealed, the canvas material is nice and thick, and setup is easy. My only criticism is the quality of the buckles on the cover, but otherwise it seems like it's a great tent for the price. These Front Runner load bars are really nice too, especially for the price compared to a full rack. If I were going with a typical clamshell RTT, I probably would've gone with a full rack to take advantage of the remaining roof space, but since this style tent covers the whole roof, it seemed like a bit of a waste of money. My buddies at Vagabond Outdoors are a FR dealer, so I may add another load bar for the tent and one for a wind fairing, but the setup works just fine right now. Thanks for the help @Overlanerd @tyfoon11

 

A couple other little gizmos:

Ordered a CSI 52-quart fridge from @Mike's Custom Toys at the thread HERE and a tilting slide from DFG Offroad that is super nice




Two @ragofabrication CB antenna brackets with an Amazon special yellow LED pod for a dust light and a CB antenna




And an always-hot plug for my CSI 52qt fridge

 

The piece I'm most excited about, though, is the custom spare tire carrier/shelf system I've been working on with my bro. It will be bolting into the 3rd-row seat mounts for super strength, has room for a 37" tire, will have plenty of upper shelf space to mount my fridge slide and carry other gear, and room underneath to fit Front Runner boxes (both cub and wolf packs). I can't wait until it's done!

 

Buttoned up a couple other small odds n' ends:

P/O removed the 3rd row speakers and grilles and broke the dome light assembly, so I found some replacements on Craigslist and slapped them on. They really tie the room together.





P/O also cut the hoses to the windshield washer nozzles and the reservoir had a leak, so I also found replacements from the same Craigslist seller for these. You don't appreciate your ability to wash your windshield while driving until you can't...


Finally, since the Fast and the Furious is my real dad, I put some $12 Amazon led strips in the footwells. I can feel your judgement, and I don't care I might even put a set in the trunk for camping parties!