[FJBen]

I have been wheeling trails since before kindergarten with my parents all over colorado and such, our family has had Willy's, Jeeps, Land Cruiser, trucks...etc...but unfortunately mostly Jeeps but at least they took me wheeling...nothing like back in the day, sitting on the fender holding onto the rollbar riding down/up blackbear pass! So when my wife and I met, I had a Jeep, which I liked, but always wanted to get a cruiser again.



And so it is...the story of our 93, not very decked out or exciting AT ALL compared to the creative and ingenious mods many of you have, which have given me lots of ideas as well.

2001 My wife and I had just had our first child, Cora and we were wanting something with some space/room/safety/reliability. Naturally that led us to Toyota. Now I'm every bit of 6'4" and my wife is 5'11" so room is a big factor for us. We tried all the 4-runners we could and just could not comfortably fit. I found an ad for a 93 cruiser so we decided to check it out. We fell in love with it, but it was priced to high at a dealership so we decided to wait, plus no lockers so I was sorta glad about passing. So when we thought we just couldn't find one, my wife spots one in Ft. Collins for sale outside of a gun store.

Hop out, it's Slate blue, great color not that ugly green loaded...AND lockers...woot woot, 128K Went inside the guy said 13K it was his wifes and that we could test drive it the next day. Come to find out, his wife was a Dr., bought it brand new at Pederson Toyota in Ft. Collins and had every service/record done there. Got the loan and had to buy it, fell in love! I told her the day we bought it driving home that someday it was getting lifted and decked out!

It has been the best vehicle I have ever owned. The only issue we had was last may the power steering pump went....thats it...In the whole vehicles history. We have driven it all over colorado, to Boston, Mississippi and she's been flawless.

My wife basically drove it until last april when I had my little accident with my 76 FJ55. I bought her a 97 FZJ-80 and starting modding the 93. Enough with the sappy stories and blah blah blah...

On with some pics/mods:

Pic 1: the reason why I'm sportin' the 80...It was an FJCruiser photo shoot in my hometown of Walden, CO... 18 degrees below zero, ice roll...I didn't get hurt but my prized decked out piggy got parted :(

Pic 2: One of the first mods, ARB front bumper...found one used for next to nothing, that next week we went to a family reunion in Kansas and hit a deer at 70mph...no damage to vehicle or bumper...deer not so lucky road pizza, wife finally approved the ARB

Pic 3: The next mod came in the form of a used(and tested!!!) rear TJM bumper from Actionjackson on the board. I had to rebuild the bearing setup and fabricate the rear tire mount section. Basically around the same time the lift went on. Lift is a bastardize/franken-lift that is ever evolving Upon initial install,

Slee 4" front Springs
OME "J" rear springs
OME L shocks
Homemade brakeline extensions, front swaybar spacers, bumpstops
285 BFG A/T's
Slee Front Control Arms

[FJBen]

So about 1 week after the lift, I got some new shoes. I decided with to go with the 35X12.50.16 Interco Trxus as I have heard some good reviews on these tires. My first choice were the Toyo M/T's but they have just finally come back into stock. So far I have been very happy with the tires although I'm most likely moving up to a 36 or 37.



Pic 2:
About this time, well actually before, I had started documenting all changes to the vehicle in terms of flexing. There is an RTI ramp about 2 blocks from my house so I get to test all the time. Changes haved ranged from stock vehicle up to 14" rear travel shocks, hitch pin mod, no swaybars etc.

here is that thread if you are intersted:
http://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.p...&highlight=RTI

here is the stock cruiser pic flex:


Pic 3: is where I am at now, with 14" rear bilsteins

[FJBen]

A few wheeling pics here:

Crystal mountain, I have the "hitch-pin" pulled on this spot. Front end is moving pretty good



This is still OME shocks all the way around, the "L" shocks, very good travel!




Some more mods that occured:

I had my fabshop make up a skid plate that mocked the factory original. I will add more bracing after I get my sliders on to make sure it fit with them correctly. Made out 3/8" steel...should finish up nicely. This is my helper as well.



My hood was starting to fade a bit, on the clearcoat anyways, so I decided to black it out. I used auto-trim paint and had my friend come over and shoot it on. Looks pretty nice and does cut down on the glare.





In a quest for more travel and stabillity. I wanted to try some longer shocks because I could easily max out the rears. fully compress and fully extend them. So I looked around for different mounts as we know the rear uses pin/eye setup and that OME L is the longest bolt in size. No one in the US I know makes an adapter for eye/eye mount and gives you more travel. I got the idea from ActionJackson and made it work with a stock setup, no bodylift.

So I mocked these up with cardboard then had them cut out of steel tubing. here is the thread on that. Definitley need to work measurements to get the best fit...thats my disclaimer anyways...this is more of guidelines...

This allowed me to fit 14" bilsteins 5125 series shocks in the rear on a 4" lift, I lost 1 more inch of compression because the bilsteins are a pretty long compressed shock. 20.75 compressed, 34.7" extended

http://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/112634-homebrew-rear-shock-extensions.html





Since then, I have decided to add a 1" spacer all the way around to get more travel out of the shocks since I basically lost 1" of compression over the L shocks. i am planning on going up to 36" or 37" tires so I might have needed a bit more bumpstop anyways.

I converted the front to an eye/eye style as well by making my brackets, but found out the best solution from someone on the RS board is to buy them from AA Mfg for $2.00 a piece...would have been useful BEFORE I did the mod.

http://www.aa-mfg.com/pdshop/shop/item.asp?itemid=482




PIC 1: Since my factory speakers were poo...I decided to upgrade! Cheaply, my wife had a gift certificate to a stereo place and we decided to buy these. Sound SO much better than my wife's stock 97 speakers. They are Kenwood 6 1/2" and I had to mount them on the outside of the panel. They sound good and match the interior


Pic 2: Kelly Flats Wheeling

Pic 3: Crystal Mountain Ledge

[FJBen]

The next series of mods, well future and current are as follows.

Adjustable panhards: I already have the parts I need to make mine. I'm hoping this weekend I'll have it done as I'm DEFINITELY in need as my axles are way off-center. I used the info on here and a writeup from MABRODIS and ordered the weld-in inserts and the all-thread. An excellent writeup here:

http://www.colorado4x4.net/tech/rear.../trackbar.html

The front I'll sleave it with DOM and weld in the inserts. The same thing I'll do with upper rear control arms. Kumar has a writeup on this.

http://kumar.cruizer.net/Misc/adjustable.html


Sliders: I was working with 2BADFJS, aka Jim with him on his sliders, went to his house a couple times and tried to make something work. I had some steel so I'm basically getting the brackets from him and making my own. Mine will be bolt on. His sliders are great, very beefy, great price. definitley worth a look. Just need to get a free weekend to weld them up at this point.

Gears: The dilemma is coming, I'm actually glad I have been waiting on the gears. My initial thought was 4.88's, but since I'm going to big 36's or 37's I wonder if I shouldn't bump up to 5.29's...Maybe thats too much, but I have a 200K cruiser at 5,000 elevation and wheel above that all the time. It's not horrible by any means, but if I were regularly driving passes, i'd hate it. I'll take all the power I can. There is a big difference when driving my wifes stock 97 and my 93 in terms of quickness...not too mention 5" of tire

[davegonz]

Looks good Ben! Now give Bono his glasses back.

[Capocaccia]

VERY nice rig. It looks so clean and so capable.

[Romer]

Great write-up Ben, Thanks for stepping up early in the vacuum.

[beno]

Nice rig Ben and it is even more bad-asser in person!

Hope you are well dude....

best.
-onur

[osagecruiser]

nice rig ben!...the pig is fine...i have'nt started the restore as i am still gathering parts...i did install some brand new shiny pig mirrors on it....i enjoyed your write up

osagecruiser

[TiredIronGRB]

Very nice rig, It's good to see 80s out on the trails.

[NorCalSam]

Cool Rig Ben

[DanKunz]

Nice rig Ben. If you were a weaker man I would have yours and not the Avocado, so thanks for that .

Oh, and not so much thanks for killing my old 55.

That was a sad day for all of us.

Keep up the good work! I hope to wheel with you at some point!

[desertdude]

nice write up! what did you do to mount your rear shocks ( specifically the lower mount) ?

[Slomo]

Nice write up, and cool rig. I have enjoyed your suspension travel thread also.

[fzj80kidpen]

Nice ride.
I see you have the same cutup tail pipe mod that I have.
Is it still that way or what have you done to it?
More pics of the shock mounts, please.

[FJBen]

Originally Posted by desertdude

nice write up! what did you do to mount your rear shocks ( specifically the lower mount) ?

On the bottom, I just reamed out the bushing a little more to fit on that OEM post. It's a bit bigger than what the shocks can use. Time will tell if that bushing goes to hell or not. If it does, I may just try to order bushings for the OME/OEM shocks or find someone that trashing some and use those...that would have been much easier

[FJBen]

Originally Posted by fzj80kidpen

Nice ride.
I see you have the same cutup tail pipe mod that I have.
Is it still that way or what have you done to it?
More pics of the shock mounts, please.

I'll see what I can do to get pics of the shock mounts. The tail pipe is factory, and will get cut back this winter, even tho I have yet to smash it which I figured I would have long ago.

[concretejungle]

nice truck. great write-up.

[FJBen]

Thanks for all the good comments guys. Mine isn't quite a decked out as some but she does alright!

Here is some photo's from last saturday, TJ (pablocruise) and I went up to Kelly Flats to do some wheeling. On the way back I got pulled over in the Poudre Canyon doing 60 in a 35 I actually got a warning I was slowing down off a straighaway going into the narrows which goes from 45 to 35... Thank you Forest Service Officer Huff!!! I honestly did drive the speed limit all the way home.

Pic 1: Climbing part of Hear Attack Hill

Pic 2: Flexing on Posuer Rock, TJ's lil' Sister Katie standing in front, yes she's taller than 5'

Pic 3: you can kinda see the shock mounts and how they work a little better in this pic

[nakman]

Great work, Ben. I really appreciate your efforts towards pushing the capabilities of the 80 suspension-wise. I look forward to copying some of your innovations some day..

[Romer]

Ben,, you have 863J's, 1 inch spacers and L shocks in the back. Have you ever extended to the point the spring becomes loose?

[FJBen]

Originally Posted by Romer

Ben,, you have 863J's, 1 inch spacers and L shocks in the back. Have you ever extended to the point the spring becomes loose?

Before I only had the J's and L shocks no spacers, and the J springs wouldn't come unseated. The J springs and L shocks are actually a very good match in the rear with 2" bumpstop extensions. You are using almost all compression and you can max out the extension without unseating a spring.

Now I have 14" Bilsteins in the rear with 1" spacers and it becomes slightly unseated when flexing like I did on that rock. I'll need to retain the bottom just to make sure I don't pop a spring out. I'd like to retain the top as well for some negative pull...plenty of winter projects.

I'm leaning towards throwing a 6" spring up front, and 4" rear(maybe plus spacer) for an even lift around the 5"+ range...The 4" rear might come pretty close to the 6" height of the front as I know I don't carry the weight for the 6" rear...Then I can get rid of the spacers.

[Slomo]

Originally Posted by FJBen

I'd like to retain the top as well for some negative pull...plenty of winter projects.

Is this at all detrimental to the springs like over compressing leaf springs can damage them? I have always been told to only retain one end of the coil. Not being a smart ass just curious.

[bh4rnnr]

Thanks for the write up Ben, Truck is looking good . Hopefully someday soon we can hit the trail together(dont forget to bring the guitar) .

[ringpinion.biz]

Lookin good!

[FJBen]

Originally Posted by Slomo

Is this at all detrimental to the springs like over compressing leaf springs can damage them? I have always been told to only retain one end of the coil. Not being a smart ass just curious.

I would imagine a bunch of overextension might cause some wear issues, but I'm definitely not qualified to answer that. I'm guessing mine are probably unseating around 1/2" ~ 1" tops? So I"m not sure if that would be considered bad if both ends of the spring were retained.

Im' just as curious!


And heck ya we need to wheel again Perry...I promise I'll bring the guitar...and as many BHTM songs that I know!

[reffug]

Nice write up Ben..............

Thanks for contributing as always.

Awesome travel really sweet.

[Nay]

Originally Posted by FJBen

I would imagine a bunch of overextension might cause some wear issues, but I'm definitely not qualified to answer that. I'm guessing mine are probably unseating around 1/2" ~ 1" tops? So I"m not sure if that would be considered bad if both ends of the spring were retained.

Im' just as curious!


And heck ya we need to wheel again Perry...I promise I'll bring the guitar...and as many BHTM songs that I know!

I wouldn't retain the top ends...I've known some people to do this to the effect of noticeably shortened coil life. As long as the axle end is retained, dropping it an inch down the coil tower is a non-issue because the coil can't fall off.

Love the mods and different approach - keeping things simple and yet creating very substantial mods.

Nay

[semlin]

nice write up ben. interesting approach on the shocks