ROTW bhaines Twin Turbo V8 80 Series Extra Cab Ute
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)
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.
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)
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