edited with CORRECT Tuffy part number.
Okay, so welcome once again to another prolonged IY tutorial. This time we're tackling both form AND function, by replacing the pretty useless, devoid of cupholder, stock centre console with a lockable steel unit from Tuffy.
As most of you know, nobody in North America, including Tuffy, makes a centre console specific to the 1992-1997 Land Cruiser. And, as far as I know, nobody in the world makes an all-metal, lockable console for the Land Cruiser at all. The unit I'm installing is a full 8" wide, and is Tuffy model #013, in tan/camel (colour code is 05). Colour-wise, it's a pretty good match for the Lexus interior, but a little light for the brown Toyota interior. They have a few other colour and size options (including grey for those of you with the wrong interior colour). The one I have is the "Deluxe II", which has a separate stereo compartment. The other 8" wide console they offer (without the stereo compartment) has the same "footprint", so installation should be the same.
You could go with a narrower console, but the 8" model fits nicely between the seats, and still allows easy access to the handbrake and the seatbelts.
Why do you want to do this? Reason one: this thing is steel, and it locks. If you carry anything of value, from loose change to a camera or handgun, this console is a must-have for security purposes. Can it be broken into? Sure - anything can. But it will take a hell of a long time to do so, and most crooks won't bother.
Reason two: more storage space. This thing is cavernous. In fact, it's so big that I can *almost* fit my Panasonic laptop inside it (the only thing that prevents this is the size of the Tuffy lock module, which is pretty big). It also has a removable small interior compartment for small stuff like cell-phones or W-H-Y.
Reasons three through ten: cupholders. x2, with the option of adding two more (sold separately) for rear passengers. I'm sure that if there's one common experience we all 80 owners can share, is the terrible consequences of trying to drive with a hot cup of coffee gingerly held in the crotch. How the hell a company like Toyota can build such a complete vehicle without a simple thing like a cupholder is beyond me... I mean, what the hell were they thinking??
But I digress...
By sheer luck, the Tuffy Console (with its back legs attached) sits at the perfect angle for the Land Cruiser. The only real issue is that its bottom sits a little higher than the stock console, so you need to make a spacer to fit between the new console and the stock rear mount. The other issue is that there is no part of the Tuffy console that mates perfectly with the front mount. On the upside, the rear legs of the Tuffy do not block any airflow from the rear heater, and protect its fragile conduit just as well as the stock console did.
Cons: the Tuffy is 24" long. It protrudes beyond the front seat-backs, and if you install it as I have, you cannot fold your rear seats forward (but you can still fold the backs down). If you have huge amounts of hauling to do, you'll have to remove your back seats (not a big deal as there are four e-z to access bolts holding them in place).
Notes: I'm installing into my 1994 US-spec FZJ80 with cloth manual seats. If you have a JDM, a different year or have the leather electric seats, I cannot guarantee the same fitment.
Also, this install is easy to do with the seats installed, but it would probably be even easier to do by removing the seats (after marking the exact placement of the console).
I had some aluminium square tube laying around, so I used that. I may switch to steel at some point, but that's probably overkill.
*****************************************
So, without any further ado, here are some simple steps that will allow you to make like a chicken and "suck seed".
1) Remove the stock console. It is held in place with two large bolts through the main storage section, and one through the (ha!) cupholder. You MAY have to remove the shifter console by removing the small screws (two on USDS and one on USPS) to free-up the main console.
2) Behold the sordid assortment of stale pretzel fragments, bottle caps, lint, leaves, and whatever else has accumulated under your console. remove if you're one of those OCD types (I'm not).
3) Count all the change you're going to find. I am $1.71 richer as a result of this exercise. Whoohoo!
4) The front dual cupholder comes with the console, but you have the option of installing them on the front, the back, or not at all. I decided to have it in the front. By cutting a little section out of the shifter console with a small saw, the cupholder fits nicely, and fills the hole left by the removal of the stock console. I wanted mine as far forward as possible, so I cut as much as I could. There is a small module (shift lock module) mounted in a bracket right in the way, but it can be removed and pushed forward, and the bracket can be cut away or bent forward (I just bent mine out of the way.
5) Because I always want too much of everything, I wanted my cupholders forward AND up. I decided to use 7 1/2" piece of 1" square tubing to raise the cupholder. There are a couple of wires which run rearward and are in the way, so I cut a section out of the tubing to allow the wires (and my iPod/amp wires) to pass through. I ran the stock bolt through the tubing, with a couple of washers to compensate for the thickness of the carpet (which is absent at the mounting hole).
6) once you have test-fit the section of tubing, you can match it to the cupholder, and drill the appropriate holes (this photo shows the underside of the cupholder, and the tubing before I cut the notch for the wires):
7) Bolt the tubing to the stock mount, then bolt the cupholder to the tubing. Note in this photo the small chrome nut joining the cupholder to the tubing. Obviously, you don't want to run the bolts through the part where the cups will rest.
Note that for my install, I have placed the cupholder "backwards". The reason is because its "back" will block the ugly hole in the shifter console, and because it sits so high that the holes used to mount it to the Tuffy consoile won't work anyway. More on that later. If you use cups with handles, think this part through, because installing it the way I have might mean your cups won't sit properly.
8) cut another section of 1" square tubing, about 7 1/2" long, and seat it on the rear stock mount.
*NOTE* the mount is offset, not centred.
Carefully sit the Tuffy console on top of it, and pressed up against the cupholder. Guess what? The gap between the bottom of the Tuffy console and the stock mount is exactly 1".
If you've done everything correctly, you have the wight of the console resting on the rear mount, the front of the console seated nicely on the floor and right up to the cupholder, and the rear feet resting on the floor.
Fiddle with the placement of the tubing, and mark appropriately. Remove the console, and drill holes in the tubing. Two holes for the stock bolts, and two holes to attach the console to the tubing.
(I'm going to draw attention to the hack-job I did with the tubing, because I just know one - or all - of you will mention it if I don't. My Dremel broke, and I didn't have a drill-bit big enough to make room for the socket required to drive the bolts through the tubing sections, SUE ME!)
9) once you have secured the cnsole to the rear mounts, drill two holes through the cupholder and the front of the console, and bolt the two sections together. Now your new console is secured by all three stock mounting points.
If you want to get extra crazy, you can also secure the rear legs of the new console to the floor. I don't want to drill my floor, so I won't bother with this step.
That's it!
Here is what the console looks like, completely installed (pardon the mess ):
I'm still on the hunt for a set of LX450 seats, but when I find some this will be a great match.
Okay, so welcome once again to another prolonged IY tutorial. This time we're tackling both form AND function, by replacing the pretty useless, devoid of cupholder, stock centre console with a lockable steel unit from Tuffy.
As most of you know, nobody in North America, including Tuffy, makes a centre console specific to the 1992-1997 Land Cruiser. And, as far as I know, nobody in the world makes an all-metal, lockable console for the Land Cruiser at all. The unit I'm installing is a full 8" wide, and is Tuffy model #013, in tan/camel (colour code is 05). Colour-wise, it's a pretty good match for the Lexus interior, but a little light for the brown Toyota interior. They have a few other colour and size options (including grey for those of you with the wrong interior colour). The one I have is the "Deluxe II", which has a separate stereo compartment. The other 8" wide console they offer (without the stereo compartment) has the same "footprint", so installation should be the same.
You could go with a narrower console, but the 8" model fits nicely between the seats, and still allows easy access to the handbrake and the seatbelts.
Why do you want to do this? Reason one: this thing is steel, and it locks. If you carry anything of value, from loose change to a camera or handgun, this console is a must-have for security purposes. Can it be broken into? Sure - anything can. But it will take a hell of a long time to do so, and most crooks won't bother.
Reason two: more storage space. This thing is cavernous. In fact, it's so big that I can *almost* fit my Panasonic laptop inside it (the only thing that prevents this is the size of the Tuffy lock module, which is pretty big). It also has a removable small interior compartment for small stuff like cell-phones or W-H-Y.
Reasons three through ten: cupholders. x2, with the option of adding two more (sold separately) for rear passengers. I'm sure that if there's one common experience we all 80 owners can share, is the terrible consequences of trying to drive with a hot cup of coffee gingerly held in the crotch. How the hell a company like Toyota can build such a complete vehicle without a simple thing like a cupholder is beyond me... I mean, what the hell were they thinking??
But I digress...
By sheer luck, the Tuffy Console (with its back legs attached) sits at the perfect angle for the Land Cruiser. The only real issue is that its bottom sits a little higher than the stock console, so you need to make a spacer to fit between the new console and the stock rear mount. The other issue is that there is no part of the Tuffy console that mates perfectly with the front mount. On the upside, the rear legs of the Tuffy do not block any airflow from the rear heater, and protect its fragile conduit just as well as the stock console did.
Cons: the Tuffy is 24" long. It protrudes beyond the front seat-backs, and if you install it as I have, you cannot fold your rear seats forward (but you can still fold the backs down). If you have huge amounts of hauling to do, you'll have to remove your back seats (not a big deal as there are four e-z to access bolts holding them in place).
Notes: I'm installing into my 1994 US-spec FZJ80 with cloth manual seats. If you have a JDM, a different year or have the leather electric seats, I cannot guarantee the same fitment.
Also, this install is easy to do with the seats installed, but it would probably be even easier to do by removing the seats (after marking the exact placement of the console).
I had some aluminium square tube laying around, so I used that. I may switch to steel at some point, but that's probably overkill.
*****************************************
So, without any further ado, here are some simple steps that will allow you to make like a chicken and "suck seed".
1) Remove the stock console. It is held in place with two large bolts through the main storage section, and one through the (ha!) cupholder. You MAY have to remove the shifter console by removing the small screws (two on USDS and one on USPS) to free-up the main console.
2) Behold the sordid assortment of stale pretzel fragments, bottle caps, lint, leaves, and whatever else has accumulated under your console. remove if you're one of those OCD types (I'm not).
3) Count all the change you're going to find. I am $1.71 richer as a result of this exercise. Whoohoo!
4) The front dual cupholder comes with the console, but you have the option of installing them on the front, the back, or not at all. I decided to have it in the front. By cutting a little section out of the shifter console with a small saw, the cupholder fits nicely, and fills the hole left by the removal of the stock console. I wanted mine as far forward as possible, so I cut as much as I could. There is a small module (shift lock module) mounted in a bracket right in the way, but it can be removed and pushed forward, and the bracket can be cut away or bent forward (I just bent mine out of the way.
5) Because I always want too much of everything, I wanted my cupholders forward AND up. I decided to use 7 1/2" piece of 1" square tubing to raise the cupholder. There are a couple of wires which run rearward and are in the way, so I cut a section out of the tubing to allow the wires (and my iPod/amp wires) to pass through. I ran the stock bolt through the tubing, with a couple of washers to compensate for the thickness of the carpet (which is absent at the mounting hole).
6) once you have test-fit the section of tubing, you can match it to the cupholder, and drill the appropriate holes (this photo shows the underside of the cupholder, and the tubing before I cut the notch for the wires):
7) Bolt the tubing to the stock mount, then bolt the cupholder to the tubing. Note in this photo the small chrome nut joining the cupholder to the tubing. Obviously, you don't want to run the bolts through the part where the cups will rest.
Note that for my install, I have placed the cupholder "backwards". The reason is because its "back" will block the ugly hole in the shifter console, and because it sits so high that the holes used to mount it to the Tuffy consoile won't work anyway. More on that later. If you use cups with handles, think this part through, because installing it the way I have might mean your cups won't sit properly.
8) cut another section of 1" square tubing, about 7 1/2" long, and seat it on the rear stock mount.
*NOTE* the mount is offset, not centred.
Carefully sit the Tuffy console on top of it, and pressed up against the cupholder. Guess what? The gap between the bottom of the Tuffy console and the stock mount is exactly 1".
If you've done everything correctly, you have the wight of the console resting on the rear mount, the front of the console seated nicely on the floor and right up to the cupholder, and the rear feet resting on the floor.
Fiddle with the placement of the tubing, and mark appropriately. Remove the console, and drill holes in the tubing. Two holes for the stock bolts, and two holes to attach the console to the tubing.
(I'm going to draw attention to the hack-job I did with the tubing, because I just know one - or all - of you will mention it if I don't. My Dremel broke, and I didn't have a drill-bit big enough to make room for the socket required to drive the bolts through the tubing sections, SUE ME!)
9) once you have secured the cnsole to the rear mounts, drill two holes through the cupholder and the front of the console, and bolt the two sections together. Now your new console is secured by all three stock mounting points.
If you want to get extra crazy, you can also secure the rear legs of the new console to the floor. I don't want to drill my floor, so I won't bother with this step.
That's it!
Here is what the console looks like, completely installed (pardon the mess
): 
I'm still on the hunt for a set of LX450 seats, but when I find some this will be a great match.
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