Builds My First LC:The Twin-Build Thread (1 Viewer)

[ryanjw]

So recently my dad and I have caught the cruiser bug. Over the past few months we found two white 80's (not intentionally the same color) through much craigslist surfing. My dad's not much of one to post on the interwebs, so I thought it would be cool to have one thread to cover both of the cars. I think it will be interesting to see how each of them evolves over time. The awesome people here on mud will definitely provide much needed help for us noobies.

My dad has little to no off-road experience, and I don't even have a full license yet...So hopefully we don't hurt ourselves or the rigs too badly as we learn.

The 1995
"My" cruiser, and first car. We found this gem a few months back from a local dealer. This thing is CLEAN. Not a dent, the paint is perfect. 130,000 Miles. Factory locked. The only "mods" we've done so far is mounting some 285/75r16 BFG A/T KO2's and installing a cdl switch, which I purchased from the fellow mud member Hitit66.

Mods I see in the future:
1. Suspension
2. Custom front bumper w/ winch and rear bumper. I'm into fabrication/welding so these should be a fun project...
3. Roof Rack
4. Sliders
And much more as I come up with ideas.

Soon I will probably go through and baseline all the fluids, just for peace of mind. Probably going to do trans fluid, and engine, transfer, and diff oils. Anything else?

I apologize for the cell-phone picture quality, better pics to come.

The 1993
My dad's truck. This one is a little rough around the edges, but should be a great rig after some work. We found this one cheap, at under $2k. 230,000 miles. Open diffs. The PO says it was mechanic-diagnosed with a bad head gasket. The PO bought it to do a v8 swap, but other projects got in the way. He's a mud member, but we never asked his username.

Unlike the '95, this one will not be so much of a daily driver and more of just a wheeling and camping truck.

Plans:
1. Fix head gasket, make it overall mechanically reliable
Off-road mods are way in the future, but will definitely be covered in the thread eventually. Have to do the dirty work before the fun mods.

Anyways thanks for reading through the long intro. I have the suspension kit coming for the 95', looking forward to covering the install in this thread.

 

[retrofive]

 

[baldilocks]

Welcome to you both. I look forward to you future hold thread.

 

[ranma21]

Welcome to the addiction!! Fantastic son and dad project and your 1st car is cruiser too. Can't get better than that. Enjoy!

 

[ryanjw]

I have some updates today!

The suspension system for the '95 arrived on monday, it took the two of us a few hours to put the springs and shocks in.

The kit is an OME heavy-load kit with 2850 front springs and 2863 rears. I ordered it from Slee Offroad, it shipped quickly and came with their tool to deal with the caster bushings.

Here's the truck with the rear springs in but the front is still stock. Had the mad-max stickbug stance going big-time. We should have left it like this.

Rear shock and spring.

Front shock and spring. Getting the top shock mount bolts off on the front shocks was probably the biggest PITA of the entire process...

And here's the lift all finished, minus the steering damper and caster-correction bushings. We'll tackle those sometime soon. It's still up in the back a little more than I like, hopefully a rear bumper and heavy sliders will help to cure the stance. The truck rides much better than stock, it feels sturdier and more planted on the road. There is some slight unknown drivetrain noise up front that wasn't there before. I'm hoping its a driveshaft issue that will fix itself when we fix the caster. Like I said, it's very slight so it's probably not too big of an issue.

Anyways thanks for reading through my rambling. Next up for the '95, bumpers!

 

[musthave]

Wow, 2 NICE looking rides! Congrats on your purchase. I guess you have to pull 2X the amount of money from the bank instead of just 1.

 

[ryanjw]

The head-gasket set arrived today for the '93. Finally the thing will run correctly...hopefully. And pass smog...

The kit is one my dad found from a company called Beck Arnley here http://www.amazon.com/Beck-Arnley-0...35869359&sr=8-1&keywords=beck+arnley+032-2983

Not the cheapest kit out there, but definitely not OEM. Since we bought the '93 for so cheap, my dad wants to keep things as easy on the wallet as possible.

Here's the part list on the box.

Please reply if you think there are any parts we missed that are a necessity, it will be nice to know before we tear it apart. Other than what's in the gasket set, the only other parts we will most likely be replacing are the water pump and head bolts/studs. Where can we find head bolts that would be less than oem ones?

Thanks for reading.

 

[Slim D]

Nice rigs... Looking forward to doing a build with my sons.

 

[sbman]

I happen to have an OEM head gasket new in box you could get for a good price. People have not had good luck with aftermarket ones. I bought it about a month ago, but ended up buying a Cometic MLS gasket.

 

[ranma21]

Hopefully the kit you bought is great quality kit, it is always a must with OEM head gasket for your rebuild to avoid future issue and surprise. Good luck man.

 

[sbman]

Please reply if you think there are any parts we missed that are a necessity, it will be nice to know before we tear it apart. Other than what's in the gasket set, the only other parts we will most likely be replacing are the water pump and head bolts/studs. Where can we find head bolts that would be less than oem ones?
Thanks for reading.

I think that ARP head studs are cheaper than OEM bolts. Paradise racing sells a direct fit set for $175 I believe. That's the kit I am using on my rebuild.

 

[ryanjw]

I think that ARP head studs are cheaper than OEM bolts. Paradise racing sells a direct fit set for $175 I believe. That's the kit I am using on my rebuild.

Thanks, I'll look into the ARP studs.

Not my decision not to go with OEM parts, but I'll definitely bring the issues with aftermarket parts to my dad's attention.

 

[Gunsmoke76]

Welcome from a fellow noob. I recently joined the Cruiser movement, as well as this forum. 1992 FJ80 w/210k on the ticker. Pleased with it so far. Anyone care to elaborate on a $1 oil hole/leak fix I saw on a thread from 2004? My truck has an undeniable leak, that I haven't thoroughly investigated... Had it for two days now...

 

[ryanjw]

Update time, Finally! A few weekends ago we took a trip up to Mammoth to do some riding. Our fun was somewhat thwarted by constant thunderstorms and rain, odd for the middle of summer up there. A few days later we even found out the top of the mountain had gotten snow!...in July...after one of the crappiest seasons known to skiing...I don't get California sometimes. What drought?

We did try a little "wheeling" up a somewhat technical trail, its name escapes me at the moment. Anyways of course it started raining so, we turned around due to our severe lack of preparation and recovery gear. The trail apparently goes pretty far and ends up at a good camping spot next to a lake, we will definitely take another shot at it some time in the future.

I really need to step up my photo game, the only pic I have is of the '95 set up to leave. Next trip I promise pics.

Dat harbor-freight trailer doe.

Thanks for reading.

 

[ryanjw]

My dad and I have been slowly chipping away at the head-gasket project on the '93 over the last couple weeks. We were tired of the garage being filled with non-op land cruiser, so this weekend we set out to finish it. And we did! What a process though...

A couple pics of issues we found.

Here are two of the spark plugs. 5 of them looked like the one on the right, while #6 is the one on the left. A little oily and moist...

And here's the #6 exhaust port. Oily, as was the entire piston and area around it when we got the head off.

All the pics I have...If you are looking for an in-depth thread on head gasket repair, jcardona here on mud has a thread that was very helpful and straight-forward.

Anyways everything else looked fine, at least to our untrained eyes. We did end up going with an oem head gasket, thanks to the suggestions from fellow MUDers. We also really don't want to have to repeat this process if the aftermarket one leaked. Major PITA. Lying under the car with 3 feet of extensions to get the intake chamber bolts off was fun...

It did fire right up though, but ran similar to before. It is missing pretty badly, and we couldn't seem to get the ignition timing right. We dropped it off at the local garage tonight for a tune up. We are pretty burnt out working on it for now... See what the real mechanic says.

Wish us luck, it should be a fun truck once it runs right. Thanks for reading!

 

[ryanjw]

Another mammoth trip! And this time with a few pics...not enough though, I know.

We went up the Laurel Lakes trail just outside of town off of Sherwin Creek road. The trail is pretty easy, popular for dirt bikes. Only a couple of JK Jeeps and a Tacoma on the trail with us car-wise. It ends at two pristine lakes with a couple places you can camp, but since the trail is only ~5 miles it's definitely a good day-trip destination if you are in the area.

There's also a hiking "trail" that goes a little west of the lake up to a massive abandoned mine. The main entrance must have been 20' wide and 10' tall, and went back as far as I could see. Pretty impressive considering the location. Might need to go back and explore sometime.

Anyways not some big 4x4 excursion but still fun.

The trail was pretty rocky, and due to not having any means to air-up I was still running the tires at ~38 psi. Rough ride. I've been looking up different on-board air systems, and I think I'll go the inverter-ac compressor route. Hopefully costs less than a PUMA but is still faster than the cheap 12v inflators. Write up on that to come soon. Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks for reading.

 

[ryanjw]

Wow it's been a while. Since school just got out, I am going to have a lot more time to spend on the cruiser so it's time to start adding to the thread again. It's cool, at least to me, to be able to document this and look back after almost a year of inactivity in the thread.

Since the last post:

With driving to school everyday, and multiple trips to mammoth, death valley, palm springs etc the odometer has crept up on 150k. No issues so far, oil every 5000 miles, nothing else. 150k is nothing, it's still a baby as I'm read about rigs pushing 400k without rebuilds. Only thing is the CEL came on, and it's throwing a 401 (EGR) code that I'm not looking forward to messing with. I just got it smogged so I have some time to fix it.

The only major mod I've done so far is adding a warn 10k winch to the front. I fabricated a bracket to fit it behind the stock bumper. I'm happy how it turned out, and like how it is tucked away and keeps things looking relatively stock. ARB's are expensive anyways, and this probably cost me $50 in steel and some in welding wire and gas to make.

It's made completely of quarter inch steel so it's pretty stout. The fit was pretty snug, and I used all 8 of the in-frame welded nuts to secure it.

It fits in between the framerails pretty nicely, and barely cleared the grill and trans cooler. If I were to do it again I would make it so the winch sits lower. I made it sit about a quarter of the way up the framerails to avoid clearance issues with the bumper.

Underneath shot with the bumper mounted.

Here's where I plasma-cutted a slot in the top of the bumper for access to the drum and clutch, there's also a cutout behind the license plate where the fairlead is. As of now to use it I need to take off the license plate, I'll eventually look into some kind of hinge. I'd like to keep the license plate where it is for the look, the cutout is kind of ugly.

Finished product. If the box wasn't on top you wouldn't even know it was there. It's kind of funny how multiple people have asked what the box is for, and I actually have to show them where it's mounted. Simple and useful.

Other than the winch, no other major mods except for a much, much better audio system that I'll do a write-up on when I get a chance.

The couple of local trips have been great, and we are planning on heading to Moab in a couple weeks.

Since this is the twin-build thread I guess I should write some about the '93, which in our family has adopted the name "the duff", or designated-ugly-fat-friend from the movie. I think the custom plate "LEDUFF" might still be available lol.

The duff has been on all of our trips, and made it through most of the hairy stuff. Without the lockers and clearance though I've had to pull my dad out of a couple things. We are just amazed how well it runs after we fixed it up, it's proved to be pretty much unkillable, I wouldn't expect any less out of a cruiser though.

Cool shot from our trip to anza-borrego state park.

 

[Bella1992]

Wow that's awesome, father and son. My little boys eight years old, I hope he wants a cruiser when he gets bigger.

 

[ryanjw]

The Revival

Wow, it's been over two years since I last posted in this thread. To say that a lot has happened over the past two years would be an understatement. We still have both of the 80s, but to be completely honest I lost interest in MUD for a while, which is why this thread has essentially died. I back nonetheless, with some stories and plenty of pictures of land cruisers.

My '95 now has 165k on the clock, still going strong of course. The only new mods since the lift and winch are a second battery, puma air compressor and cb radio. I've enjoyed keeping it relatively stock, the lifted/stock form is perfect for what it's been used for which is pretty much pulling our motorcycle trailer out to the desert, driving up to mammoth where there's sometimes snow, and some mild local wheeling trips. The truck never skips a beat, it's been perfectly reliable, knock on wood.

I have done some preventative maintenance, the biggest and most annoying of these projects being the front axle rebuild. It's funny how at first I just wanted to replace some warped front rotors, but while I'm in there I might as well do the front wheel bearings, which means I might as well do the front axle seals. Needless to say I became well acquainted with birfields and grease and the stench of gear oil. Everything went back together pretty easily, except I ended up having to epoxy the driver side brass spindle bushing in place. This experience made me less of a proponent of preventative maintenance and more of a believer in "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

A few weeks ago I went to look at the air filter, and when I lifted the top of the air box the intake tube decided to tear in half near the throttle body. The rubber was incredibly brittle, this just reminded me that these trucks are getting pretty old and will require more care as the plastic/rubber pieces dry out.

I have a couple projects in mind to prepare for some summer trips. Today I started working on a rear swing out jerry-can carrier that fits into the stock rear bumper, similar to designs of other forum members. I see a homemade roof rack, and a rear drawer system sometime soon as well. The truck also bad OME poly caster bushings, I have landtank plates and OEM bushings to install.

 

[ryanjw]

the Duff has grown some, literally, over the past few years as well. We managed to piece together a lift kit of used parts from clist and the classifieds here on MUD. We ended up with OME J springs up front, heavies in the rear, some ironman shocks, homemade sway bar drop blocks and control arm drop brackets I fabricated from some 1/4" plate. The lift turned out great, but in all honesty we threw the drop brackets together in one afternoon, and I would not exactly call my fabrication precise. They aren't pretty, and the front end creaks more than it used to, but it goes straight and my dad has driven it pretty hard without fail. Sometime in the future though we will ditch my hackery and use some caster plates, probably the same landtank ones I have for my '95.

Here it is with new Falken at3w's, It'll be interesting to compare these with the BFG's. You can kind of see the brackets under the front door.

Even a few years after our quick and dirty head gasket job, it's been reliable as well.