Builds ROTW - Walking Eagle's White Trash Lexus (1 Viewer)

I’ve been into Land Cruisers off and on since 1980 when my dad bought a ’78 FJ55. Spent a lot of time growing up in that truck. Learned to drive in it, spent the night stuck in the middle of Wyoming with it, mom, dad, my bro. and our dog. Etc. etc. good memories. Dad sold it about a year before I got my drivers license. Then summer before my senior year, I bought a ’77 FJ40 50/50 with my dad to fix up. Didn’t quite work out the way we’d planned. I crashed it the first week I had it, but put it back together and drove it my senior year in High School working for a HVAC consulting firm. College came and it had to go. Stayed away from 4x4’s for a while after that. Eventually I ended up buying a ’01 Trooper cause I needed the space and the ability to tow. After visiting my parents in Wyoming and my brother in Idaho, I swung by Moab. A couple of easy trails and I was hooked again. I probably goofed and bought a ’73 V8J40. After putting too much money into the 40 and always having to work to keep it drive-able rather than working on it to make it better, the Trooper started using oil at 75,000 miles. Only solution was to dump it and get an 80 series. Sold the 40 in April to finance birth of my son and new tires. Enough on how I got here, and on to the rig itself.

1997 Lexus LX450 – I’m the second owner, it was purchased at Lexus of Tulsa by some kind of contractor / builder. Still have the original window sticker including the all important locker option.

When I got it, it had 163,000 miles on it, and horrible brakes. I put new Toyota rotors on and 100 series pads first thing. Wish someone had told me I couldn’t use the anti-squeal shims with the 100 series pads, as I fought with them and fought with them, and finally didn’t put them in. 4 months later, read somewhere on here that you couldn’t use the shims.

Now it has 183,000 miles on it, and here’s the set-up.

J-springs – My brother found them used for me

L-shocks – My brother found them used for me

MAF- 3” front drop brackets – Yes, they are lower than running plates, or bushings, but I really like the way it drives with them. I haven’t had any problems getting hung up on them going forward, though I did have an issue for the first time this weekend trying to back up something.

MAF- extended SS brake lines – Bit of advice on replacing the rubber hoses that have been on the vehicle for 9 years and 180,000 miles, make sure you’re ready to change the hard lines too. I could not for the life of me get the hoses free from the rear hard line, and the front right line that is on the axle – the little 5” long one. After replacing that much line I also did a brake fluid flush. Not that I wanted to, but it took that much to get the air out.

MAF – 2” front bump stop drops.

I like the idea of the drop plates but wouldnt it be better to have a castor correction kit so you didnt have the plates to get hung up on?

nice? rims

Nice truck Heath. What future mods do you have planned?

Ken

I wasn't done yet guys, just had to get some b-fast.....


My own rear bump stop drops, 1-1/2” soon to be replaced with a 2” drop. I really wanted to get as much travel out of the shocks as I could, but I’m getting a bit of rubbing on the wheel wells.

My own front sway bar drops – 2”x 2” x ¼” tubing.

Mickey Thompson MTZ 315/75 R16’s - I painted the stock rims gold, much to my wife’s displeasure. Guess I still have a soft spot for those gold BBS’s on Porsche’s back in the day, and on the Cherokees. Yes, the white letters face out. I caught a bunch of crap for that on this forum. I figure if you’re ashamed of your tires, you hide the name. I was accused of making the first “White Trash Edition Lexus”. So, now that’s why it’s called, “The white trash Lexus”. The gold rims will probably go away some day.

The unusual stuff:

Funky cup holders – They’re RAM Mount drink holders. I did it cause as we all know the stock drink holders are worthless, and I didn’t want to pay a small fortune for a cup holder that covers my radio. The gimbles really do work to keep you from spilling your coke all over.

RAM GPS mount – pretty basic Magellin Explorist, but it does tell me the correct speed I’m going, and it does give an altitude reading.

CB mount – I put the CB in the center console where the factory car phone used to be. I thought about putting it in the ash tray like so many others do, but I really wanted the PA option and couldn’t find any small enough to fit that had that capability. Yes, I do have a PA horn behind the front bumper. It’s quite handy for talking to others on the trail, like the guy in the jeep who starts down a hill while you’re coming up. I need to add an external speaker to the CB though, the sound is o.k. but the speaker does fire into the console. I haven’t seen anyone else mount one this way, so I figure it’s unique. I mounted before it became the white trash Lexus, so maybe I should remount a shinny one from the roof.

Transformer said:

I like the idea of the drop plates but wouldnt it be better to have a castor correction kit so you didnt have the plates to get hung up on?

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Better is subjective. I really like the way it drives on the street, and I'll take that one rock out of 10,000 being an issue going backwards for the trade off.

Sliders – now this is my pride and joy so far. My brother gave me a lot of crap about doing this. Said if it took me more than a weekend to build them, I was building them too complicated. I allowed myself to be goaded into doing it, and I’m happy I did. Finally got a chance to use them this weekend, and they worked great. Only problem is I don’t have the passenger side done yet! I’m 80% there, just working out the cat issues. I plan on air actuators to make them go up and down. For now, they’re just pined. One nice side benefit I found this weekend is that with the edge there rather than a tube, they work great for scrapping mud off your feet.

and the mounts are unique, in that I made them to go around the drop brackets and used angle to make them hug the frame tight...

edit - the mounts do have triagulated braces from the mounting plate to the outrigger, just haven't taken any pictures of them since then.

I plan on making them air powered.... which yes, will be more complex than the current pin system, but if you're going to have onboard air anyway.....

To do the passenger side and take care of the low hanging cats at the same time, I'm replacing the cats with this cat... from Magnaflow. My cats are beat to hell and leaking between them anyway. The rest of the parts came last week, I'm putting in a flex pipe too, just to keep it all from breaking loose flexing.

Future plans include a front bumper from Frankie's Off-Road along these lines... I'll post up of course once he's completed it for me.

Additional future mods, not necessarily in order:

1. Adjustable panard bars - I'm going to go the build your own route with the parts from chassis shop.

2. Extended rear swaybar

3. Rear arms - I'm going to do something with them, since my lower passenger's side is bent, just haven't decided what yet.

4. Custom Heath-made rear bumper with swingout tire carrier and ladder

5. Heath-made roof rack

6. Rock lights - blue, just to be different and set the moode.

7. Rear storage and cargo barrier - have plans for barrier made from angle and storage frame made from same.

8. Air bags - I wanted to do them from the day I got the truck. But then my brother got me such a good deal on J springs that I couldn't pass it up. Only problem is the tailgate is so high my dogs have trouble jumping in, and I have trouble getting up in there too in I need to. The rear will certainly be the first to get the springs replaced with bags for this reason.

9. Pro-comp MX6 shocks - I want longer travel and adjustability, especially once I go to airbags.

10. on-board air - a given with some of the other mods I plan.

11. Skid plate - this weekend I must have hit my transfer case, since the output is now leaking.

Guess that's about it, at least until the engine wears out and I go to a 4BDT, and the tires wear out and I go to 40's....

I really wanted to have both sliders done, and the front bumper on, and maybe the rear before doing ROTW, and even had Rommer push it out a bit, but, it always takes longer than you think to do some stuff, especially when you're a new daddy. Hopefully, my son will have as fond of memories of the White Trash Lexus as I do of my dad's FJ55.

Thanks for contributing Heath. I always enjoy seeing low cost custom mods and thinking that is out of the mainstream.

Good job!
-B-

Lookin' good neighbor (way south in Tulsa!)

"it always takes longer than you think to do some stuff, especially when you're a new daddy. Hopefully, my son will have as fond of memories of the White Trash Lexus as I do of my dad's FJ55."

As long as you love your child more than your ride, you and your son will have many pleasant memories to reflect upon.

Nice writeup and pic's. Maybe when JR goes to his senior prom the gold wheels will be in vogue again!

excellent write up Heath.

thanks for contributing.

those sliders are cool dude.

pharmerdan said:

As long as you love your child more than your ride, you and your son will have many pleasant memories to reflect upon.

Nice writeup and pic's. Maybe when JR goes to his senior prom the gold wheels will be in vogue again!

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Thanks. Jr. isn't suffering from lack of love Last Thursday night the wife was working and it was the night for the informal Green Country Cruisers meeting, so I took Jr. with. He loved the attention form the young ladies there. Funny how priorities change. Buying a car seat was interesting, wife is worried about getting him in and out of it, and I'm worried about which has the best head support for off-roading! It's my thread so I guess I can high-jack it if I want and throw in a baby shot....

Elliot Logan Vogt, 5 months old, and Jackson Daniels Vogt 5 years old.

cute kid. Neat truck. glad the drop brackets work for you. If you fabbed a taper ramp from the drop bracket to the frame perhaps there would be no hangup. Such a ramp would also be a nice place to attach a skid