Builds ROTW - chitown40 (1 Viewer)

Ok, here goes my shot at ROTW. First a little history. I got into cruisers about 4-5 years ago as I so badly wanted a FJ60. Being in the Chicago area it's tough finding a decent cared for cruiser that hasn't been eatin' away by the elements. Just by accident I found a FJ40 which I spent about a year freshening up and fixing. I loved the 40 series, but as I got older I wanted a little more refinement. Somewhere within that year I stumbled across a FJ60 at of places, a Chevy dealer. I rescued it, rebuilt the top end and carb and fixed a ton of problems with the engine and made her run like new. It was at that time I ventured into the 80 section here on Mud and started doing some reading. It seemed the 80s were really gaining in popularity and I wanted to see why. So I test drove one locally, and although I found it to be a great truck, it didn't feel like a Cruiser to me. (i.e. I didn't feel like I was beat up enough while driving it). But, I kept lurking here in the 80s section and learned a ton more about the 80 series and a couple years ago I found a 1997 Collector's Edition at a local broker/dealer real close to me in town. I took a detour on my way home from work one night and checked it out. It ran pretty nice, looked good, and best of all had lockers. The guy wanted around $13000 for it, but I was pretty sure I wasn't buying for that price. Coincidently, the guy had seen my FJ40 around town and actually stopped me earlier that summer and offered to buy it - I told him it wasn't for sale. Small world. At this time the punishing ride of the 40 and the growing car lot outside my house got me thinking. I ended up trading the FJ40 + $1000 for the 1997 80 series and I haven't looked back since. I miss the 40 in the summertime, but other than that I think I got the better end of the deal.

So, now onto the meat and potatoes. I'm going to spell everything out in probably more detail than needed for the benefit of the influx of new 80 owners on the board and because I'm off work today and have lots of time.

Here is a pic of my 1997 Collector's Edition 80 series when I brought her home, followed by the FJ40 I traded for it:













Ok, now on the the build-up / modifications. For a while I kept the truck stock and worked on baselining the fluids and maintenance. Right after I got the truck it got a bath and the engine compartment cleaned out. On my way out to Gumby's shop to deliver him some parts, the truck died on me and luckily Ali and Todd were able to come out and hillbilly tow it back to Gumby central. It turns out that the distributor cap had been running without the little button inside and the only conduction point was the small spring that holds the button to the rotor. So a tune-up was in order. After making the repair with a NAPA cap/rotor, I decided from then on that this truck was only getting genuine Toyota parts. I put in/on new plugs, plug wires, cap/rotor, flushed all the fluids including transmission, power steering, brake fluid, and several oil and filter changes as the oil looked pretty neglected when I bought it. Other than that compression was tight and the truck ran flawlessly. Once issue it had when I bought it was a squealing idler pulley, so naturally when I changed that out I put all new belts on to go with it. I gotta say that after I read through the FAQ everything so far was a snap. Then I read about the dreaded PHH. Thanks to Gumby's help and the use of his shop, changing it out along with all new hoses throughout and a few quarts of Toyota red, the truck runs nice and cool with no problems. I also added a genuine Toyota of Canada block heater courtesy of cruiserdan at this time.

The front axle and brake system were next. The axle needed a rebuild and I needed brake pads something terrible, so I ordered up one of Jim Reiss' birf job DVD's and after watching it a few times, dove right in. Once you watch Jim and his partner do the job a few times, and have the FSM at hand, the whole job is a cakewalk, although messy. I decided to go with new rotors and 100 series pads (from a '99-'01 Land Cruiser 100 series). The braking isn't so much significantly improved but the life of the pads seems to be much longer. The rear pads were replaced as well, but I held off of the LSPV since mine is rusted solid and I'm afraid I'll destroy it trying to adjust it. I'm currently hunting for a used assembly to swap in.

Ok, the maintenance stuff, although necessary and "feel-good" is a pretty boring read, so onto the good stuff. I was never a wheeler, but was interested in learning and going so I figured I'd have to build up one of my trucks at least with a few pieces of armor and a lift and tires. Should I carnage a nice 80 series or bash up my 60? After a long debate inside my noggin, I chose the 80 as it clearly has more upside than down. After talking with lots of people about tires, I took Ali's recommendation and bought a set of Yokohama Geolandar ATII tires in size 285/75R16. These tires are a steal for the price. They are soft enough where they stick to the road nicely in all weather conditions, but hard enough so they don't wear out quickly like say a Dunlop tire would. They have the most tread on them than any other AT tire in that size (something like 23/32") and they were priced right at Discount for $135 / tire installed. 5 tires mounted/balanced/installed with road hazard warranties were about $900.

When I ordered my block heater from C-Dan I also grabbed a CDL switch and installed that with the pin 7 mod. Another plus for the 80 series as this mod is a ten for function and about a one install. I also ditched the running boards at this time and ordered up for front mudflaps, which would later find space in a pile in the garage.

But, I was just dragging my feet building the truck up, so I needed an excuse to get this truck built up a bit. I decided to take a road trip to Florida with the and we were going to spend a day at Tellico on the way back, so I needed to get moving on this thing. Kurt at cruiseroutfitters.com hooked me up with an OME 850/860 kit and at the same time we had our Chicago area slider build at Gumby's shop. So by March of this past year I had a lift and sliders on my way down south. Here is a poser pic of the and the on the access road at Tellico.



We had a fun time although we were limited in the trails we could do based upon it raining most of the week before we got there, the fact we were only with a guy and his wife in a Jeep Cherokee who we met at the trailhead, and we still had about 950 miles left on our trip home and few trail spares with us. Nevertheless it was a fun time seeing what the 80 can do in a near stock form.

Anyway, now the itch began. I ordered up the ARB bumper in time for our first local gathering at Cliff's Insane Terrain off-road park. I had to split driving time with the but I think she got hooked into wheeling as well. She told me when I got hom that she felt kind of embarrassed than my truck was one of the few that didn't have a winch on it. So, the next day I ordered up a Summit 10K (T-Max) winch. Over the past few weeks I got everything installed, including a set of 100W off-road lights and interior winch controls. I also did a few smaller mods that were brought to us by the many intelligent and passionate cruiserheads on the board such as the auto-up window mod. I'm going outside now to take a few pics of the truck as it sits now and of some the more recent mods and I will give details in the next post.

Just got back inside from taking some new pics:

These are just your basic exterior poser shots. Best I could for the time being..






One quick pic of the dash with CDL switch installed and cupholder in place of the useless slot. The only thing the cupholder in the dash is good for is a can of soda or a Dunkin Donuts coffee. But nevertheless its better than the slot.



Here are a few pics of the winch setup and the off-road lights. The lights are 100W, from Northern Tool Catalog and are $7.99 each and do not include any wiring. Pretty much a steal especially for those of us in urban areas where they don't always stay attached to the vehicle after the sun goes down. I figure I can replace these if they get damaged or stolen about 40 times before I reach the cost of Lightforces, PIAAs, or Hellas. You can't really see it in the pic, but I made some tabs to space the lights closer to the grill so they would fit better and also remain behind the bull bar part of the bumper.



The winch setup is basically a standard install - no extra washers necessary. I had to drill the fairlead similar to that of a warn install and with the exception of the weight of the winch being a PIA, I did it pretty much all myself. A few people (myself included) ran into problems with the cables being routed out of both sides of the solenoid box. I tried routing them all to one side, but I wasn't comfortable with the close proximity and sharp bends afterwards so I put them back to the stock positions. If you look closely I used the supplied solenoid box clips to mount the solenoid. I took them apart and played around (and bent them a little) until I was able to come up with the right position to mount the solenoid. With a little playing with it I got it to fit nice and snug with no wire routing problems.



T-Max winches come with a trailer plug pigtail for their brand remote control. I bought a trailer plug and ran my own wires to the dash for interior winch controls.



I ran the wiring for the winch controls to the left of the dash basically for ease of wiring. The stock looking light switch was found on eBay (and it's a genuine Toyota part) for about $13.00 + shipping. It is not backlit, but the light does work when the lights are on. They are wired into the parking light circuit via a relay so they go off when the truck is turned off. Here is a pic of the relay:



The winch controls are from a FJ62 I found in the junkyard recently. The IN/OUT controls is a power antenna switch and the ON/OFF is the defroster switch I believe. I got them and a grab bar for for 60 for $10 total. I made the pictures to cover up the stock diagrams using Photoshop and photopaper. If anyone wants the .psd file I'll be glad to email it to them. Nothing special, but it works for me. I didn;t need relays on the IN/OUT switch because it is a 2-position momentary switch unlike the antenna switch on the 80s where both positions can be pressed simultaneously.



In the big city here we are forced to valet park more often than not, so I was concerned that Billy Buttonpusher valet might turn on the winch and start crushing my ARB bumper, so I added a master cutoff next to the battery that I only enable when I use the winch or go off-roading and I'm in the pilot seat. The cutoff switch is rated to 300amps and costs about $12 from Pep Boys. The battery cables used to connect everything were less than $10 total from the local auto parts store and the plexiglass support piece was $12 for a large slab of thick plexiglass that I have a ton left over from. The switch is mounted to the plexiglass and the plexiglass was sized to fit into the side of the radiator support and is held in place by a couple drops of super glue. I can break it off without ruining it with little to no effort and it stays put when I want it to.






In the cargo area I put the drawer system I originally made for my FJ60. It fit near perfect except for the side flaps which I was able to just chop to a 45deg. angle to match the interior plastic. It is anchored to the floor via the third row seat belt tie downs and some thick bent-up metal plate. I used Jim Brantley's design, then added the side hinged covers and the front hinged cover. I originally had a metal latch/pull on top, but I removed it and now with the hatch closed and the rear window tint, it looks like an empty floor. I carpeted the box with indoor/outdoor carpeting from Menard's (like a Home Depot). Total cost was about $120 bucks including $50 for expensive HD slides.

Here's a few small nifty cheap mods that I found usefull, and then I'll get to the sliders.

Harbor Freight stick up LED lights (3 pack - $5.99). They pop right off, provide needed cargo lighting, and there is no wiring needed. Since they're LED the batteries will last a long time. They also swivel and can be aimed in many positions.




FJ60 cup holder - I took this off my FJ60 center console before I trashed it and decided to make some drink holders for the rear seat passengers. The only drawback to this mod is screwing into your center console and you can't open the console with drinks in the drink holder. Small price for a relatively big gain in passenger happiness. And it looks pretty factory.




Spare tire mod - This is not my idea, but rather one I got out of the spare tire thread. I used pipe nipples as spacers and some longer grade 8 metric hardware to raise up the front of the spare tire. It doesn't give a lot more clearance, but it'll do until I build a rear bumper and tire carrier. I found that removing the entire crossmember and brackets and then doing the mod was the easiest way as most of my Toyota bolts were self-destructing in the welded-on nuts. I had a lot of drilling and re-tapping for mine. That is a 33" tire underneath.





Ok, lastly here are the sliders. They are homebuilt by myself, a couple other local Chicago guys and welded up real pretty by Gumby. They are coated with two coats of Rust Bullet and then topcated with the Duplicolor Spray on bedliner ($7.99/can). When I scrape them up, I just touch em up real quick with the bedliner spray and they're dry and ready to go in 10 mins or less. These sliders are a standard George's design with my own style tubes similar to Metaltech's new design. The tubing diameter is slightly smaller than your standard commerically made sliders, but that what we had a bender for and they work pretty well. I did drop the entire weight of the truck from about a 14" drop just on the tube and they bent slightly.. but no damage to the truck and no breakage. The loves them as a step as well.








Ok, that's all I've got now. This is still a work in progress. I've been wheeling now about 4 times, so as I go more and more and try some more difficult trails and obstacles, I'll use that to gauge my future mods. Currently I'm working on a few rust issues and running a second fusebox and power outlets into the cargo area.

I love it! Great job on keeping your mods at a reasonable cost while maintaining functionalty.

TK

Awesome writeup. I like the cup holder idea and love the sliders. Very nice rig. Cool 40.

Excellent write-up. That 40 was pretty sweet too!

Nice Rig! Thank for the detail and for giving me some more ideas!

Smit

Like Ken said - I love your 40... We haven't had ROTW for awhile. Nice work...

Bueno!!!

Nicely done.

As always thanks for contributing.

Thanks for all the compliments. The 40 was a pretty sweet truck and I do miss it sometimes. I gotta say I got most of the ideas and smarts from reading other people's ROTW, the FAQ, and the many many in-depth tech threads so I was glad to give back a little. Although my truck isn't a technological breakthrough by any sorts, hopefully it'll be one more thread full of pics and ideas to help someone else get their truck the way they want it to be. Once again thanks for the opportunity to share and for all the kudos.

Nice truck!

Love your avitar

Nice rig...and I love the color.

Nice setup there. Im am sure glad ROTW is back again.

cheers.

Thanks for contributing to the ROTW. There are several good ideas in there and you are building the truck the way you want it. I like that.

-B-

Nice truck and thanks for sharing. Got some good ideas from you.

Very nice. I like the winch master kill switch.

Thanks for sharing more of the story about the 80! When is the 60 going to be the ROTW?

that was a great story and write up. i like your rig. the drawer system is a nice touch. i think that will be my next mod.

Thanks for the write up..excellent job...you've inspired some ideas!

Now I've got the wheelin' jones again!