Builds 02 Cruiser Build Thread (2 Viewers)

[originalcruisey]

Ok here we go 2002 Land Cruiser build thread. Originally I was looking for a Sequoia for my girlfriend and I happened to find what looked to be a solid deal on a Land Cruiser. The LC’s weren’t even in my scope because of the prices that they typically go for. Anyways I found one 1.5 hours away from me that looked fairly good for 6500. This was one of the few pictures from the vehicles listing

 

[originalcruisey]

So we drove out to look at it and it was ROUGH. The interior was hard to look at. No major leaks just the typical valve cover leak. The seller sprayed a bunch of shine juice over the dirty engine bay . I’ve restored my fair share of crusty chevy’s though so it didn’t scare me away. Engine sounded extremely quiet. And the test drive went alright. It was obvious that the LC would need at least 5k in parts and a lot of labor to get her back in daily driver action. Here’s some pictures of the foul interior.

 

[originalcruisey]

So I got em down to 5500. Still paid too much but I had Land Cruiser envy and the vehicle was 2 owner and despite the interior abuse I could tell it was driven mellow and no hacking had occurred. Anddd more pics. Bumper damage and interior.

 

[originalcruisey]

We barely had the LC for 24 hours before I ripped everything out. Luckily I’m going to welding school right now so I have a bit more time than usual to tackle this project. Pics pics pics

 

[originalcruisey]

The previous owner has owned this since 2005. Carfax showed that it had been driven almost exactly 10k a year its entire life. So the vehicle had been maintained enough for that but clearly it hadn’t been cleaned probably ever. I mean the interior looks worse than an auction vehicle so I finished removing almost every interior panel but not all. CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN. And I wanted to put sound deadening in cause my girlfriend current car is a 2022 grand Cherokee. So I wanted to try to get the interior noise levels closer to a modern vehicle. She drives a lot. 20k a year

 

[Live to Ski]

you sir, are a braver man than I

 

[Patron100LC]

Nice combination of oil, tar, sand, bleach, mold, acid and coca cola there!

There's a vendor here selling carpet sets that should be close to OEM fitment, new leathers will set you back a good amount, up to too much depending what you get, I installed Ridies, middle of the road and I like it, but there's also great seat covers for a lot less.
Search for the Toyota Evap cleaner, a foam to spray in there, if it looks like this outside, you don't wanna know what's in there. You'll need several treatments.

The rest is elbow grease and soap. While carpets are out and headliner down you can do several other stuff "while in there" like stereo wiring, cameras, soundproofing, and many other ways to spend too much money on an old car..

Good luck!

 

[originalcruisey]

I will include some estimated pricing for those that are curious what something like this costs. Right away we ordered parts including:
Carpet kit- 420
Corbeau Sport seats vs with brackets- 1400
Sound deadener- 150
RockTrix 18x9 -12 wheels- 640
Lexani All Terrains 275/70-18 (33”x11”)- 640

 

[originalcruisey]

Nice combination of oil, tar, sand, bleach, mold, acid and coca cola there!

There's a vendor here selling carpet sets that should be close to OEM fitment, new leathers will set you back a good amount, up to too much depending what you get, I installed Ridies, middle of the road and I like it, but there's also great seat covers for a lot less.
Search for the Toyota Evap cleaner, a foam to spray in there, if it looks like this outside, you don't wanna know what's in there. You'll need several treatments.

The rest is elbow grease and soap. While carpets are out and headliner down you can do several other stuff "while in there" like stereo wiring, cameras, soundproofing, and many other ways to spend too much money on an old car..

Good luck!

Yes absolutely thank you for the evap advice I will look into that.

 

[originalcruisey]

you sir, are a braver man than I

My poor girlfriend was feeling a little overwhelmed after her investment and fear that it would never be a good car hahaha

 

[originalcruisey]

But wait there’s more. We are getting closer to being all caught up to current day.

 

[originalcruisey]

Yes this build took over quite a bit of my living room and kitchen. I have the best girlfriend for being a great sport about all of this. We put the seats back in so we could go for a ride a see the difference from the sound deadening as we put everything back in.

 

[originalcruisey]

Next I cleaned the big interior panels/quarter panel area ? Not sure on the proper terminology for that lol

 

[originalcruisey]

I have a tire machine so I was able to mount her tires up to the new wheels. I went as big as possible and luckily they ended up fitting well.

 

[originalcruisey]

Next I cleaned up her center console which I would say was the absolute dirtiest area of the entire car by far. Hard to tell from pictures but it was.

 

[originalcruisey]

I was really happy with the quality and color of this carpet kit.
Also I forgot to mention I had her order up some weather tech mats. We want to keep this carpet clean and hopefully it’ll help with sound deadening
Weather tech mats- 500

 

[MechE30]

I’m sure impressed you took this project on. Props, it’s looking great!

 

[originalcruisey]

We painted the center console insert cause no amount of cleaning would shine it up. I didn’t love the full black insert look so we grabbed some Home Depot metallic Dark Copper.

 

[originalcruisey]

We painted that last night as well as spent 2.5 hours scrubbing the 2nd row seats clean with lemon scent 409. 409 works great of extremely dirty surfaces

 

[TheLCProject]

Wow...good on you for diving into this one.

What are your plans for the headliner?