Road Cruiser 80 Build (1 Viewer)

[seeylater]

Hello Mudders.

I just purchased my first Land Cruiser, a 1997 40th Edition (#591) with 170K miles. Prior to last week, I had never driven or even been inside a Land Cruiser of any generation.

The previous owner had just spent $6000 (I have receipts) doing the following repairs, Spark plugs, Wire Set, Head Gasket and milling head, replaced all hoses, belts, thermostat, ignition coil, new window motors, fan clutch, ABS unit, power steering pump, and all fresh fluids. So mechanically it's in great shape. I was expecting it to dive like crap, but I did the 45-minute drive home on I-95 doing 75mph on cruise control. The exterior paint is shot and it could use new front seat leather. This has been a Florida car it's whole life, so it has no rust anywhere (that I found so far)

These are my plans for this month:
Paint exterior Leadfoot Grey (2018 Ford Raptor color) Factory Sage Color
16x8 Mickey Thompson Classic III wheels
315-75R16 General Grabbers (had them on my last 2 trucks and liked them)
IronMan 2.5" Lift Kit (couldn't pass up their 20% off sale)

These are my plans for next month:
4x4 Labs Rear Bumper (6-8 weeks lead time)
Slee Shortbus front bumper (ordered)
LSeat front seat covers

I called it the Road Cruiser 80 because here in South Florida the biggest elevation change we have is like 12", so there's not much off-roading. We have some dirt roads out in the everglades, but you can probably get thru them in a Camry. I'll mostly use it to go mountain biking, occasional camping trip and the weekend run to Home Depot. My son will be driving in 2 years, so this should be the perfect first car (big, safe, and slow).

Here are some pics of it now:

 

[seeylater]

Update:

I spent about 8 hours this weekend taking off bumpers, fenders, etc to get it ready to drop off at the paint shop. I'm going to stick with the stock Sage color since doing a color change was going to cost me $6-8K. By doing some of the work myself, the paint is only going to cost about $2K now which is reasonable.

After removing the rear wind deflector I found some rust and decided to POR-15 it and cover up the holes. So the wing is not going back on. Luckily, this was the only rust on the entire truck.

I also decided to remove the roof rack and rails. The nutserts we're in good shape and not rusty, so I sanded down the area to the bare metal, filled them with JD Weld and POR-15 over them. The paint won't look perfect over them, but it's good enough for an old truck. Who knows, I may end up putting a big roof rack at some point and you'll never see them again.

I usually end up with lots of extra nuts and bolts when taking things apart and putting them back together, so this time everything went into a labeled baggie and will get filled with some apple cider vinegar for a few days to clean them up.

She's off to paint and should be done by the end of the week. In the meantime I'll order a Slee front bumper which appears to be in stock and a 4x4 Labs rear which will take 6-8 weeks (unless someone has one for sale).

While under the truck this past weekend, I did discover a small engine oil leak that I have to narrow down and the Y-pipe has a small crack and leaking. I might have to get some headers to replace it with.

 

[seeylater]

Just stopped by the body shop to look at the progress:

 

[450LX]

With all the effort and money I wish the belt line moldings, door ding guard, windshield and rear glass were removed. I've seen cuisers painted both ways and the paint comes out sooo much cleaner when those items are removed. Keep us posted!

 

[seeylater]

Memorial Weekend Update:

Land Cruiser is back from paint and it looks great. It still needs to get wet sanded and buffed. I attempted to do the rear hatch prior to installing the new badges, but it appears it's going to take longer than I anticipated. I probably should just have paid someone $400-500 to polish it, but I kinda wanted to try it myself and learn how to do it. I spent about $150 on sandpaper, polishes, pads, etc. I'll most likely end up f**king it up and then paying some to do it right. I never learn...

Local shop mounted my wheels and tires (Mickey Thompson Classic III / General 315-75-16), but they were too backed up to do the Ironman 2" lift, so I'll have to bring it back next week. It looks wayyyy better with the wheels on already.

I spent about 2 hours wet sanding and polishing the rear hatch before installing new badges. I"m hoping the hood and fenders are a little easier since they don't have as many curves. I'm doing 2000 then 3000 by hand, followers by M105 and M205 on a polisher at 1500rpm. I also tried my Porter Cable DA, but it didnt seem to work as hard at the polisher.

Look at what UPS dropped off this morning! I've purchased much more expensive bumpers for previous trucks, and this is the best packaging I've seen. Great job Slee.

I painted the grill black and managed to integrate some amber LEDs like some of the new TRD trucks. It took a few hours to make it look like it came like that from the factory, but I think it was worth it. The LEDs we're a little too bright at first, so I added a small diode to drop the voltage to about 9.5v.

The winch area received a 10" Rigid Radiance light bar. I tried installing a 10" E-Series which is brighter, but the 2 rows of LEDs didn't look right in that small opening. The single row of larger LED reflectors of the Radiance is about the same height as the opening, so it looks pretty good.

I still have tons to do, including:

• Re-install fender arches if I ever get the clips in from the online dealer I ordered them from a week ago.
• Re-install new antenna
• Install all new Pioneer speakers (cheap ones off Amazon)
• Install backup camera to Pioneer headunit
• Install Slee front bumper and wire the lights
• Install Ironman 2" lift
• Find a rear bumper I like and is in stock somewhere
• Replace leaking Y-Pipe
• Custom cat-back exhaust leaving only 1 cat
• Re-Leather front seats with Lseat covers
• Re-Leather steering wheel or find one from newer Toyota that fits (Camry, 4runner, etc)
• Steam clean floor carpet
• Find small oil leak
• Fix drooping sunvisor
• Fix passenger power seat that doesn't move front/back
• Remove cheesy 90's aftermarket alarm and replace with simple remote lock/unlock

 

[AUGuy]

You may already know it, but another common rust area is under the carpet in the driver's footwell. If your sunroof tubes get stopped up, water can accumulate down there with nowhere to go. Another worthwhile place to check if you're tearing stuff apart right now.

 

[JackPrep]

Nice looking grill. Subbed.

 

[htownlc]

Memorial Weekend Update:

Land Cruiser is back from paint and it looks great. It still needs to get wet sanded and buffed. I attempted to do the rear hatch prior to installing the new badges, but it appears it's going to take longer than I anticipated. I probably should just have paid someone $400-500 to polish it, but I kinda wanted to try it myself and learn how to do it. I spent about $150 on sandpaper, polishes, pads, etc. I'll most likely end up f**king it up and then paying some to do it right. I never learn...

View attachment 2319699

Local shop mounted my wheels and tires (Mickey Thompson Classic III / General 315-75-16), but they were too backed up to do the Ironman 2" lift, so I'll have to bring it back next week. It looks wayyyy better with the wheels on already.

View attachment 2319704
I spent about 2 hours wet sanding and polishing the rear hatch before installing new badges. I"m hoping the hood and fenders are a little easier since they don't have as many curves. I'm doing 2000 then 3000 by hand, followers by M105 and M205 on a polisher at 1500rpm. I also tried my Porter Cable DA, but it didnt seem to work as hard at the polisher.

View attachment 2319706
Look at what UPS dropped off this morning! I've purchased much more expensive bumpers for previous trucks, and this is the best packaging I've seen. Great job Slee.

View attachment 2319707
I painted the grill black and managed to integrate some amber LEDs like some of the new TRD trucks. It took a few hours to make it look like it came like that from the factory, but I think it was worth it. The LEDs we're a little too bright at first, so I added a small diode to drop the voltage to about 9.5v.

The winch area received a 10" Rigid Radiance light bar. I tried installing a 10" E-Series which is brighter, but the 2 rows of LEDs didn't look right in that small opening. The single row of larger LED reflectors of the Radiance is about the same height as the opening, so it looks pretty good.

I still have tons to do, including:

• Re-install fender arches if I ever get the clips in from the online dealer I ordered them from a week ago.
• Re-install new antenna
• Install all new Pioneer speakers (cheap ones off Amazon)
• Install backup camera to Pioneer headunit
• Install Slee front bumper and wire the lights
• Install Ironman 2" lift
• Find a rear bumper I like and is in stock somewhere
• Replace leaking Y-Pipe
• Custom cat-back exhaust leaving only 1 cat
• Re-Leather front seats with Lseat covers
• Re-Leather steering wheel or find one from newer Toyota that fits (Camry, 4runner, etc)
• Steam clean floor carpet
• Find small oil leak
• Fix drooping sunvisor
• Fix passenger power seat that doesn't move front/back
• Remove cheesy 90's aftermarket alarm and replace with simple remote lock/unlock

That thing looks awesome. I'd take the running boards off to make it look a bit better.

 

[seeylater]

I’ll wait until the bumpers, fenders and lift is on and see how I feel about the running boards.

I got the grill wired up, front bumper on and for now I put the stock rear on until I find something I like.

 

[SoCal80series]

Didn't like the Slee rear bumper?

 

[Irish Reiver]

If that truck was in my garage it would be getting treated to one of Joey's bolt on turbo kits. Sounds like a perfect candidate given the head has been done and you need a new downpipe...

 

[seeylater]

Didn't like the Slee rear bumper?

I'm not sure I love it enough for $3500.00.

If that truck was in my garage it would be getting treated to one of Joey's bolt on turbo kits. Sounds like a perfect candidate given the head has been done and you need a new downpipe...

Stop giving me ideas. I'm trying to stay on budget here. Besides, this truck is going to my son when he starts driving in 2 years and it needs to be nice and SLOW.

 

[Irish Reiver]

I'm not sure I love it enough for $3500.00.


Stop giving me ideas. I'm trying to stay on budget here. Besides, this truck is going to my son when he starts driving in 2 years and it needs to be nice and SLOW.

It needs to have enough power to get him out of trouble. I have a '94 which isn't suitable for the turbo so i have whatever scraps of power are left after 26 years. Joining a freeway on an up hill is the scariest thing i can do... get him the extra power and teach him how to use it..

 

[SoCal80series]

I'm not sure I love it enough for $3500.00.


Stop giving me ideas. I'm trying to stay on budget here. Besides, this truck is going to my son when he starts driving in 2 years and it needs to be nice and SLOW.

The price is surprisingly steep.

 

[seeylater]

Small Update:

I installed a Curt hitch which bolts to the rear frame. It was by far the easier and non-problematic thing I've done on the LC. Took probably 30 mins. I can now install my brand new NorthShore NS4 bike rack, which took about an hour to assemble. So far I think I like it, used it over the weekend with 3 bikes and it was a breeze to hang the bikes and then open the tailgate. It's a little heavy (50lbs), but it's still lighter then all the other vertical racks I looked at.

The previous owner had butchered some extra holes in the rear bumper where the 4 factory hitch holes were, so I decided to do something about it. A Rigid SRQ Backup light fits perfectly after cutting through the thick ass steel.

I also installed a Fort Knox pistol safe in the center console after reading on here that it fits perfectly. I can now safely lock up our stuff when we're out on the trails biking. It also fits my G26 and G43 just fine. Not sure if it would fit a 1911 or G19, I guess I'll have to try.

I then wired up the front Rigid 10" light bar and rear Rigid SRQ using the CH4x4 switches. Somehow this took me half a day.

 

[seeylater]

Summer Update:

Somehow I managed to convince the wife to take the 23-year-old, 174K mile car on our 1500 mile road trip with the kids instead of one of our newer cars. I knew I was a dead man if this thing broke down and ruined our 8 day trip across Florida. Luckily, besides having to top off a little freon from the auto parts store, and the O2 sensor falling out and hanging underneath the car, the LC80 did really well.

(Beach at Amelia Island)

I got a bunch of stuff done prior to our trip, but the most important was to get the leather done as there is no way the wife and kids we're going to ride in the torn up leather interior. I had received the front seat covers from Lseat.com weeks ago, but my local upholstery shop had been swamped with work. They eventually got me in and did an amazing job. They also re-upholstered the steering wheel with some Lexus leather that matched the closest. They said the quality of the Lseat covers was ok, just a little dehydrated, and to keep applying lots of leather conditioner to them to soften them up.

 

[seeylater]

This beautiful FJ40 was also in there getting a $30K interior/stereo done:

I also got rid of the clock and replaced it with an OBDII gauge that I took apart and soldered the switch to my antenna up/down button that I no longer use (put in a fixed antenna). This allows me to flip to MPG, TEMP, SPEED, RPM, etc as well as read codes and clear them. It's pretty neat, but it didn't come up with this myself, I saw it somewhere on here in an older post.

My Ironman4x4 2" lift was also installed just before we left for our trip. The shop originally quoted me 4 hours labor, but it ended up taking 7 hours because the bushings we're a bitch to get out. It rides much better, but the driver's side is about 1" lower then the passenger side, so I"ll have to take it back. I think they mounted the DS springs on the PS.

That's pretty much it for now. I just have a few minor things to finish up like finding my power steering leak and replacing the exhaust which has a few minor holes in it and a broken O2 stud.

 

[ATXnative]

Where did you get those small amber LEDs? And what paint did you use for front grill and trim?

 

[retrofive]

What ODBII tool did you hack? That's pretty slick.

 

[BigredTEX]

I've got the Slee Short Buss and the 4X4labs rear bumpers. I ran into the same lead time issue with 4X4labs so I ordered the kit. Not regretting it, but it took two of us (one good welder and me for a strong back) three days of welding and grinding to get it built and ready for powder coat. It turned out very well and beat the lead time by over four weeks.