1997 FZJ80 Collector's Edition Build (1 Viewer)

[Kurty]

After years of wanting one, I was finally able to pick up my first 80 series a couple months ago. She's in good shape, but there's plenty of work to be done. Hoping to get some advice from the community and pass on any personal findings as I progress through the build.

1997 FZJ80 Collector's Edition - 158,000 miles - Not 3x Locked unfortunately

Known Issues:
Oil leak - Most likely oil pump cover, maybe oil pan? (valve cover gasket and distributor were recently replaced by PO)
Radiator Hoses - Covered in oil from leak, need to replace before they disintegrate
Heater Hoses - They're all in pretty rough shape as expected.
Sunroof - Luckily it doesn't leak, but PO said it doesn't work and I'm afraid to try it
Knuckles - Looking a bit rough, probably need a rebuild (I'll post some pictures soon)
Power Steering - Looks like PS fluid was used instead of ATF, need to get the system flushed
Rust - A few minor spots on the body, none look too bad yet but will need addressed asap. (I'll post some pictures later to get some insight on the best approach for these)
Misfire? - My dad drove it around a couple of days recently and said it had a slight misfire. Personally, I think it idles and runs very well for a 28 year old truck, but the PO did recently replace the spark plugs and distributor which has me questioning it. Is there any way to check this myself?

It came with the Trail Gear bumper and some Rocky Road bolt on sliders. Personally, I love how these look stock and I'm not the biggest fan of the bumper so I've got it up for sale right now (let me know if you're interested) and threw the factory bumper back on. The sliders didn't have all the mounting hardware and just didn't align very well, so I've taken them off and plan to have them welded on instead.

While I was removing the sliders, I found the first major issue:

The sliders mount by sandwiching the frame right here, so the visibility wasn't great until I removed them. When I first looked at it, I just saw the little bit of surface rust there and didn't think much else since the rest of the frame is pretty much spotless. But as you can see, it's apparent that the frame has been patched, and it's a decent size patch. I believe it wraps around on the other side as well. There is a deeper bit of rust on the other side of the frame in the same spot that was also covered by the sliders.

If I would have seen this before buying, I most likely wouldn't have bought it. But there's no going back now and with how clean the rest of the rig is I feel obligated to save it.
There's also some random surface rust in all the nooks and crannies throughout the underside that will be a massive pain to get to by hand. So, it seems the absolute best route forward would be to dry ice blast the whole thing, weld on extra plating to reinforce the patch, weld on the sliders, then get the whole frame resprayed. Obviously this comes at quite a cost, but I'm willing to dish out a good amount to never have to worry about this again. The fabrication shouldn't cost too much, I assume it wouldn't be much more than $500, but the blast and respray seems to vary quite a bit.

Would love any feedback here - Is this overkill? Is it even worthwhile if you don't remove the body? Better approaches? Cost estimates? Fabrication/Frame Resto recommendations (Kansas City Area)?

In the meantime, I plan on addressing the following mechanical issues.
- Oil Pump Cover Seal
- Front Crank Seal (might as well with oil pump seal)
- New pulley's/tensioner/belt
- New heater hoses (planning to bypass/remove the rear heater for simplicity)
- New radiator hoses
- New vacuum lines
- Clutch fan? Seems fine but was thinking if I'm taking the whole front apart I might as well?
- Investigate supposed misfire. Not entirely sure how to go about this.

I'd like to do as much of this at the same time as possible, so let me know if there's anything else I should also do while I'm in there.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated! I'll try and get some more pictures up soon.

 

[TRDdrew]

Congrats on the new truck, it looks great

so in my experience that frame doesn't look to bad and the patches looks relatively well done but as we all know the rust from the inside out most of the time. just because it had a bad spot doesn't make it a bad truck. If its made of metal it will eventually rust. Sucks you didn't see it till after, you could have at least used it as a bargaining tool. I personally would get a bore scope or some type of camera inside the frame to further inspect its condition. Very savable though, I've saved worse lol.

You will only get the frame so good and clean with the body on but again its doable. Just all depends how far you want to go. IMO dry ice blasting is more for grit, grim and light light rust. Its not abrasive enough to pull off heavy rust, that's more for sand blasting but dry ice is pretty much safe for any component including most electrical items which is a plus.

If the inside of the frame looks decent i would clean it out the best you can and then you a product like cavity wax on the inside to prevent it from getting worse, be very generous when using it you honestly cant have too much.

 

[FIDO96]

Is that painted Desert Dune over Moon Glow Pearl? What the paint code in the door? Not sure that’s an actual 40th Anniversary. Has it been repainted? AutoCheck indicate wreck?

 

[jpoole]

Not sure that’s an actual 40th Anniversary

It's not a 40th it's a collectors edition which came on a variety of paint combos.

 

[FIDO96]

It's not a 40th it's a collectors edition which came on a variety of paint combos.

I stand corrected. Carry on.

 

[NKP Garage]

Nice start to the build, and a very desirable color.

On the frame rust, the best next step is to clean up the rust, knock off all the loose pieces, get down to bare metal and see what you have left to work with. You might be fine and just want to put coating & paint on it and go from there. Or you might need to weld in reinforcement and go from there. Going to be tough to tell until you get the rust off.