100 Series Ute Conversion (3 Viewers)

[kittric]

Hi all, since I have been on the Mud forums to get various questions answered for my land cruisers over the years figured it's time to put in a contribution.

So what vehicles do I currently need to do something about? A 96' 80 series with 190k and lockers, a 99' 100 series with 320k and a 150 series (wifes car). With 3 SUV's in the driveway and me no longer having a pick-up (usually a tacoma) to haul stuff, I figured might as well and try to make a real truck to haul things around. Since the 100 had the most miles it was the natural candidate to go under the knife.

As I said, it has a lot of miles but it is a very clean rust free CA car and I am the second owner. I replaced the engine with one that had 170k miles recently so I figure that if everything works out on the chop it should be good for another 100k. I was borderline on selling this and just trying to find a first gen tundra with leather, but figured it would be nicer to have a LC interior with the better turn radius, coil spring rear end and rear locker for my "pick-up". Also I know it is a lot of work and a PITA but I have always wanted to do a project like this that our brothers in Australia seem to do with abandon.

And here is picture of the victim pre angle grinder and sawzal.

 

[rally roo]

Can't wait to see how this turns out! Extending the wheelbase? Going 2 door or staying 4 door crew cab? I'll bet these would look great with a tray bed.

 

[kittric]

So my plan for this thread is to just basically put a lot of pictures with some commentary on why I went a certain direction in the chop. I could never find any pictures on what to expect as I pealed apart the layers, so hopefully this will help anyone who is thinking about doing something similar.

So obvious first step was getting the 2nd and 3rd row seats out. If anyone has any particular part they may need let me know. I am not trying to make a fortune off of the old parts, but don't want it to be a waste of time so figure I will send anything out at 2x shipping/packaging cost. 99 Toyota Land Cruiser, UZJ100 - auto parts - by owner - vehicle... - https://boise.craigslist.org/pts/d/boise-99-toyota-land-cruiser-uzj100/7254040351.html

and a little peak at things behind the panels

 

[kittric]

Moving on here is the interior with a few more items removed. As a PSA I would say that I was doing this work in a 16x26 shop and didn't have much room to work, so I kept the front seats in for when I had to move the car in out and reposition it at various times. If you have a huge shop or don't forsee the need to move the car around, do yourself a favor and gut the whole interior right off the bat. Things probably took about 25% longer the way I did it. Granted, I was sort of feeling my way forward slowly in case I changed my mind at any point. But if you are committed to chop the thing, go all in right off the bat.

and some pictures of what it is like around the sun roof if someone ever needs to replace them.

And finally some looks with a lot more stuff missing.

 

[kittric]

Ok time to commit. Again I wasn't sure how much I wanted to keep, so I set my drivers seat as far forward as I though I could possibly have it. From there I figured I could make the cab longer to fit based on how the body lines looked, body mount locations, etc. Anyway I had a lot of back in forth in my head were I wanted things, so I just set the seat at the minimum and worked from there.

Now I am committed to at least having a convertable!

On a side note, I left about 6 extra inches on the roof cuts from were I thought I would eventually end up initially.

 

[ramangain]

#sticky please mods!

 

[Eyedaho]

Nice work on taking the plunge!

I would like the three little inserts for the rear ceiling vents that direct the airflow, if you have them available. Not sure how a PO managed to lose those, but they're missing on my rig.

 

[FxFormat]

I cut out my mudflaps to fit bigger tires on and i was cringing, this man just cut half of his truck off O.O

 

[J1000]

This is so cool I saw this thread this morning and loved it. Then this afternoon my rear hatch got dented and the glass smashed is your hatch still available? Is your paint code 1E9? Thanks and good luck can't wait to see the finished product!

 

[bgolf247]

This is so cool I saw this thread this morning and loved it. Then this afternoon my rear hatch got dented and the glass smashed is your hatch still available? Is your paint code 1E9? Thanks and good luck can't wait to see the finished product!

Jimmy are you sure you just don't want to follow suite and chop the back of your Lexus off?

 

[kittric]

Eyedaho, are you talking about these guys? I only noticed 2, but it was dark this morning. PM me or call the number on my craigslist ad and you can come grab them.

***correction just looked at it again in the light. the 3 you are talking about are on there. They each have 4 screws in the back so you need to remove head liner to install, fyi.

J1000, Sorry the bumper, rear hatch and tail gate were taken yesterday.

 

[kittric]

Here are some pictures of the structure under the bumper if anyone is interested in building a bumper and wants a general idea of what they will be dealing with underneath for visualizing a build without having to take it off

.

 

[rally roo]

Is that bumper bar up for grabs or are you keeping it for the truck? Mine could use replacing, it is very rusty.

 

[kittric]

Is that bumper bar up for grabs or are you keeping it for the truck? Mine could use replacing, it is very rusty.

It was just picked up yesterday.

 

[kittric]

Moving on, I initially was thinking about incorporating the existing bed somehow in the structure. So I began measuring offsets from the window line to ensure everything would line up right in the final position.

And then the sawzal and angle grinder got more use. On a side note, I ended up using a fat 1" x10" metal blade for the sawzal mostly. It seemed to cut the best and lasted the longest.

 

[kittric]

I was thinking about incorporating the back hatch into the chop, but after looking at the curve and window height I decided it wouldn't look right. I also didn't want to have it at the factory slope and just moved forward because it would cut into the bed space too much.

 

[Bripars40]

Like this one?

 

[kittric]

I initially planned on incorporating the back "bed" of the rig into the build. So I was thinking if I sliced the body right next to the body mounts I could just box everything in and maybe have some tool boxes on each side with a 4'x6' bed between them and some wicked fender flares coming up. It would also work out good because I could keep the gas filler in the same location. Another benefit, is the gas tank attaches underneath the body at a couple of points along with the fuel lines, and I could keep wiring in pretty much the same location and just put some fj40 tail lights vertical in the back box.

I ended up not going this route because ultimately I didn't want to deal with welding on all this painted/ sound deadened material and figured it would look cleaner with a seperate flat bed eventually. I guess the Aussies already have this worked out, that's why you see every chop they do, mostly going in a straight line down the middle.

Don't judge me on my ghetto mock-up, it was just for some quick visualization!

 

[hoser]

If running a flatbed/Ute Tray, I like how they do the back wall here:

 

[kittric]

Like this one?View attachment 2540280

That actually works for me. I have a house build coming up and I wanted to make sure I could carry plywood sheets in the bed, so that was one of my main criteria for the build.