[bhaines]

I am going to update this tonight with a running history of all the things I have done to my landcruiser over the years. This will be a work in progress tonight and I will keep updating with all my pics as the night goes on.

Lets start with some pics of my 80 when I bought it back in early 2004. These pics are taken in the car yard where i bought technically I didnt own it until the next day.



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It is a 1991 FJ80 and had done 200,000 kms which is fairly low for an australian cruiser of that age. I paid $16,500 which was also a really good price. Upon knowing what I know now I should have spend another $3000 and bought a FZJ80 with the 4.5ltr because the 3FE was always crap.

The only modifications when I bought it were the bullbar and it had heavier rear spring which made it high at the rear and low at the front, I didnt like that.

These are pics of our first holiday in the 80 which was to Robe in South Australia which is about 800km from where I live in Victoria. This was my first experience with sand driving. We went here in August 2004.





My father bought a 1978 4wd F100 new when I was born and modified the crap out of it in 1980 with a 460 V8 and a 10inch lift and ever since then I wanted something that would match it. Its was a tall order. So I started down the track of modifying the 80 to suit.

I know this may sound kind of funny but I literally had a set of 5 35x12.5 BFG mud terrains that were brand new on 15x10 rims that were laying around in my garage for 5 years from another project I had, a range rover dont laugh.

So first on the agenda was a 4inch suspension lift to fit the larger tyres. This consisted of extra heavy duty front and rear tough dog springs, front and rear adjustable panhard rods, caster correction bushes, increased length brake lines and a tough dog return to centre steering stabiliser. All this was around $4000 fitted with a wheel alignment.

This is a good pic of the 4 inch lift and 35's from the side. As you can see if I went on full articulation I would be hitting the flares of which I did on many occasions ripping them off a few times.



This is just a nice shot



Here is the 80 with the 4 inch lift next to my brothers old Bronco with 33's and no lift for perspective.



Now things were going well and I had been on many a 4wd trip doing lots of mud, sand and snow work and feeling pretty good so I went out one night with a few mates and started to have an issue with my brakes. We went up and down a few steep hills and as I was attemping one hill at about midnight I stalled and had no brakes and started rolling backward into oblivian without any clue as to where I was going.

As I had my wife and daughter in the car I had to make a quick decision. I could either roll right back to the bottom and hit the trees at 80kph or roll back left and go over the cliff or roll right and hope to got there is a tree big enough to stop us. So I went right and smacked into a huge tree that smashed up the whole rear of the truck and wrote it off.

This is what it looked like:





There was other damage but I dont have pics of it. It took me about a year to get the time to fix it all up. The rear of the chassis was bent so I had to cut off the rear bumper, straighten the chassis and make a new rear bumper section. I used a pnumatic ram to spread the rear pillars apart so that new lift and tailgate could be put in and I had to build a new section of the floor pan in the rear because it was all crumpled up. Then I had to get it inspected by and engineer to put it back on the road. Not an easy task.

Eventually I had it all together and we went on another holiday to Fraser Island which is in Queensland about 2500kms from home. The drive up was a pain in the ass as I had overheating issues from the moment we left home. I changed the thermostat, water pump and even replaced the radiator on the side of the road in a 40degree celcius day. It took me 5 hours. And on the next hill it overheated. What a bummer I guess it was a blown headgasket. I told myself that I wasnt going to let it ruin the holiday so I pressed on and had a great time except for having to let it cool down ALL the time while driving on the sand.

I took it up with the stock wheels and tyres on, notice the red rear gates that AI replaced after the accident. I also put on clear taillights and clear front apron and front guard (fender) indicators.



Looks funny with the stock wheels and tyres.



How awesome is Fraser Island (This is not me in the pic ok)

[robchad]

G,day bhaines, nice rig mate im going to take a guess and say you bought it from Frankston, that car yard looks awfully familiar?

[bhaines]

Somewhere around this point it got a 9500ib electric winch. I also decided that this was going to be the end of the 3FE and a V8 was needed. When I got back home I decided to add the 2inch body lift that I has sitting around since before the accident. So by this stage it sat 6inch above standard, the body lift was a pain to fit as a couple of the body bolts were jammed into place and needed either cutting off or some real force to be removed. Now the bullbar and the rear bumper didnt line up properly given the extra height. The bullbar to this day I havent lifted but I made provision for the 2 inch lift when I designed the rear bumper after the accident so that should line up nicely when I get around to it.

Here are some pics when it was 6inches high.






This is where the 80 sat for 6 months while i gathered the money for the engine conversion. I will also give a big thumbs up for anyone who can tell me what type of car my other pride and joy is in the pic and also what movie a car like it was the main character in?



Thats enough for tonight, pics and a description of the V8 conversion tomorrow.

Originally Posted by robchad

G,day bhaines, nice rig mate im going to take a guess and say you bought it from Frankston, that car yard looks awfully familiar?

Your right, good spotting....

[Bluto]

Originally Posted by bhaines

...This is where the 80 sat for 6 months while i gathered the money for the engine conversion. I will also give a big thumbs up for anyone who can tell me what type of car my other pride and joy is in the pic and also what movie a car like it was the main character in?

http://s102.photobucket.com/albums/m...t=23-07094.jpg

Thats enough for tonight, pics and a description of the V8 conversion tomorrow.

Mad Max Interceptor - That movie rocks!
Looking forward to the V8 conversion info.

[Romer]

Nice looking truck, thanks for contributing

[TiredIronGRB]

I would trade my 80 for that Interceptor in a heartbeat, The Mad Max triology is my all time favorite.

[alkaline747trio]

Ford Falcon?

[bhaines]

Originally Posted by Bluto

Mad Max Interceptor - That movie rocks!
Looking forward to the V8 conversion info.

thats it

[chibo]

What paint code is that? I love it

[80krazE]

Nice rig!!

Glad it made it back on the road after the tree "incident". By the way, is there anything to your license plate? (Energy Inc.?)

[bhaines]

Originally Posted by 80krazE

Nice rig!!

Glad it made it back on the road after the tree "incident". By the way, is there anything to your license plate? (Energy Inc.?)

Energy Inc is a company that I own that does 5 star energy ratings on new houses before construction. It is a mandatory government requirement for any new home in Australia.

[Slomo]

Originally posted by bhaines

Wondering, what is that round cap with a chain hanging from it that is coming through your rear cross-member/bumper a little right of center in this picture?

That is alot of damage to undo, kudos for fixing her up good.
Nice rig thanks for sharing.

[bhaines]

Originally Posted by Slomo

Wondering, what is that round cap with a chain hanging from it that is coming through your rear cross-member/bumper a little right of center in this picture?

That is alot of damage to undo, kudos for fixing her up good.
Nice rig thanks for sharing.

Thats an LP Gas filler point. My 80 is dual fuel, unleaded and LPG. Almost all petrol Landcruisers in Australian run on both fuels given the price of petrol down here, the conversion costs about $2000. LPG is available in 99% of petrol stations, you would have to go in the middle of the outback not to find it.

In the picture with the red rear doors on the beach you can see the Gas Bottle hanging down below the tow bar. It has been bashed on many occasions

[Aussie cruiser]

After the bent rear did you consider a dual cab conversion

looks a lot better after the body lift with the 35s

What year is the hard top it looks like it's in real good condition

[reffug]

Nice rig.

Great write up.

Looking forward to seeing the V8 conversion.

Man that back end damage was severe, don't think I would have fixed that. Kudos to you for having the skills and patience to tackle it.

[bhaines]

Originally Posted by Aussie cruiser

After the bent rear did you consider a dual cab conversion

looks a lot better after the body lift with the 35s

What year is the hard top it looks like it's in real good condition

Funny enough I didnt consider ripping the rear off it but after i had fixed it I began to wonder if I should have made it into a tray back single cab, but then reality hits again and I remember the rest of the family has to come to.

The coupe is a 1974 model it has a bit of rust in the rain gutters and in the wheel wells. I also have another one in the garage that I have been restoring for 2 years which is in much better condition now.

[bhaines]

Originally Posted by reffug

Nice rig.

Great write up.

Looking forward to seeing the V8 conversion.

Man that back end damage was severe, don't think I would have fixed that. Kudos to you for having the skills and patience to tackle it.

80's are still reasonable expensive here so it was worth fixing it up. All up it prabably cost about $2000 to fix and all the labour was done by myself although I am a little cheesed off that I didnt take any progress pics.

[bhaines]

After having so much trouble with the 3FE while going to Queensland I decided that the engine must be swapped. By this stage I had a Toyota Soarer (Lexus SC400) with a 1UZFE V8 laying around and I was going to start parting it out so I was intending taking the engine and putting it into the 80 but when I started to read how dissapointed people were with the 1UZFE conversion in 80's I decided that I would go with the old faithfull chev V8. I started planning for an LS1 conversion but thought that I would get to lost in the wiring and computers that I wouldnt be able to do it myself so I stuck with a carby chev.

Here is the engine when I bought it wrapped in plastic $2800. They are block hugger headers on it. (Theres another madmax car in the back there).


Here is the Marks Adapters kit positioned against the engine. Note that you bolt the flexplate onto an adapter boss which then bolts to the flywheel on the engine. How strange.



You can read about all my trauma with the Marks adapters kit here:

http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/viewto...t=brian+haines

and another here:

http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/viewto...3933&highlight=

This is my dad and I fitting the engine in place.



This is the engine in position:



Thats it for now. Tonight I will put more up on the engine conversion and also my big brake conversion.

[NorCalDoug]

Sweet rig and excellent write up!

[shanegtr]

Looks the goods. Great work fixing up that arse end. Bet it was fun getting the tailgates to line up again?

[bhaines]

Originally Posted by shanegtr

Looks the goods. Great work fixing up that arse end. Bet it was fun getting the tailgates to line up again?

Alot of time was spent trying to get them to line up. There is not much adjustment in them. Most of my adjusting came by hitting the lift gate hinges with a big hammer.

[apcoleman]

nice rig!

[maverick_sr71]

I must be missing something here. Firstly you said you should have spent an extra $3000 and got a 1FZ-FE..............are you nuts? No 4WDer on Oz would be seen dead with an engine that needs spark plugs. You shoud have spent an extra $3000 on a HDJ80 (4.2 TD). Then you go sticking another petrol engine in the poor old girl.
(All TIC)

Nice looking rig, be interested in pics of how you brought the front and rear bars up after the body lift, assuming you have of course. I have the same ARB front bar and I'm not keen on cutting it.

[bhaines]

Originally Posted by maverick_sr71

I must be missing something here. Firstly you said you should have spent an extra $3000 and got a 1FZ-FE..............are you nuts? No 4WDer on Oz would be seen dead with an engine that needs spark plugs. You shoud have spent an extra $3000 on a HDJ80 (4.2 TD). Then you go sticking another petrol engine in the poor old girl.
(All TIC)

Nice looking rig, be interested in pics of how you brought the front and rear bars up after the body lift, assuming you have of course. I have the same ARB front bar and I'm not keen on cutting it.

I looked into the Turbo Deisels at the time but they were out of my price range. Around $8000 more than I paid. Every vehicle I owned prior to the 80 was a V8 so I thought it was a good idea.

I havent lifted the bullbar yet as I want to put on a FAT bar and ditch the ARB (Replica) all together as it is too bulky. I have started on lifting the rear bar but havent finished it as you can see in the pics.

[gnx7]

Australia looks like a beautiful place to live and nice "80".

What transmission/Tcase is going behind the small block Chevy? Too bad you couldn't use the "last of the supercharged V8's from the MadMax car! I assume you will continue in your thread with progress pics of the V8 conversion

[80 Cruiser Rod]

Great write up. i'll definitly look forward to more of your mods.

[Dusty]

can you do a street legal carb conversion in a late model car over there in ausi land? Here in California they take 1 testicle for doing that.

[bhaines]

Originally Posted by Dusty

can you do a street legal carb conversion in a late model car over there in ausi land? Here in California they take 1 testicle for doing that.

You can only if it runs straight LPG no petrol is alowed.

[bhaines]

As my landcruiser was built prior to 8/92 I had the smaller front brakes. So I ended up converting to the post 92 front callipers, backing plate and 100 series pads. That made a HUGE difference in the braking ability of the vehicle.

Here is the difference between the rotor sizes:





This is Standard 100 series pads on the left, cut down 100 series in the middle and standard 80 series on the right.



I ended up needing some help with this project:



This is the final product:

[Slomo]

Very useful mod. Did you paint the calipers or did they come red?