Builds 1997 FZJ80 to HDJ80 1HD-FTE + H152F (1 Viewer)

[OGBeno]

Quantifying the time, effort, design-logic, sweat, let alone money, would be a daunting task for this truck.

 

[Bludozer]

@ohsix tagging you in this thread so I don’t clog up that restoration thread @SNLC has going. As for selling, that’s a tough one for me. I have too many projects as it is. There have been several days when I said I would sell the truck. To be honest, I’ve told a few people that it could be bought. But we never talked money and I have not figured up how much I spent on the truck. I don’t even think the numbers fairly reflect the value because there is a lot of stuff going on with the truck that probably cannot be replicated that easily today.

I have a lot of effort invested in this truck. I recall going to a Western Union in a local Publix because I needed to send $5,000 to some guy I did not even know (in the Middle East) and the high school cashier kid tried to tell me I was getting scammed. The sad part is that there were so many occasions where I did crap like that for this truck that I could not even tell you what was being purchased at this point. I sent so much at one point my account was frozen and I had to get a friend to send some transfers for me. Thank you @OGBeno.

I expect that I will never get back the money invested and it’s not about the money. The point I’m trying to make is that I am deeply invested in this truck for numerous reasons - a lot of them just mental.

As much as there are many in this thread who I'm sure would love the opportunity to buy it, please don't ever sell this one. To your point, there are an infinite amount of variables at play here. As time goes on, the ability to recreate anything even close to this and have it all come together this well is probably not even possible.

 

[bottombracket]

To misquote @Godwin in @OGBeno ‘s old 60 thread, “when you sell your 80, how much of yourself goes with it? “

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: this truck really is the ultimate expression of what an 80 series can be. You have other trucks that are similarly spectacular, but I really do think this one is the pinnacle of design, performance, and execution.

Also, for what it’s worth, similar Western Union expenditures almost got me a strip search in Tel Aviv. But that’s another story and it doesn’t belong in your thread.

 

[SNLC]

Cheers

 

[OGBeno]

To misquote @Godwin in @OGBeno ‘s old 60 thread, “when you sell your 80, how much of yourself goes with it? “

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: this truck really is the ultimate expression of what an 80 series can be. You have other trucks that are similarly spectacular, but I really do think this one is the pinnacle of design, performance, and execution.

Also, for what it’s worth, similar Western Union expenditures almost got me a strip search in Tel Aviv. But that’s another story and it doesn’t belong in your thread.

Says the guy who owns said 60.

 

[ohsix]

@ohsix tagging you in this thread so I don’t clog up that restoration thread @SNLC has going. As for selling, that’s a tough one for me. I have too many projects as it is. There have been several days when I said I would sell the truck. To be honest, I’ve told a few people that it could be bought. But we never talked money and I have not figured up how much I spent on the truck. I don’t even think the numbers fairly reflect the value because there is a lot of stuff going on with the truck that probably cannot be replicated that easily today.

I have a lot of effort invested in this truck. I recall going to a Western Union in a local Publix because I needed to send $5,000 to some guy I did not even know (in the Middle East) and the high school cashier kid tried to tell me I was getting scammed. The sad part is that there were so many occasions where I did crap like that for this truck that I could not even tell you what was being purchased at this point. I sent so much at one point my account was frozen and I had to get a friend to send some transfers for me. Thank you @OGBeno.

I expect that I will never get back the money invested and it’s not about the money. The point I’m trying to make is that I am deeply invested in this truck for numerous reasons - a lot of them just mental.

I'm sure there are so many awesome stories and memories behind this build. I'm not going to encourage you to sell it, but if you ever arrive at the conclusion to sell, I would love the chance to buy it. If you have kids or plan on having kids, I would keep this one until you're sure they won't appreciate it when they're old enough.

 

[SNLC]

Well, Chris flies out early tomorrow morning. He is heading to Johns Land Cruiser ranch in Florida. Chris is my main guy and did all the wiring on this build plus a lot more.

He is swapping in a really nice 1HDFT circuit board into the cluster and also installing the GTurbo Unichip tuning module.

Cheers

 

[jomelo]

I'm sure there are so many awesome stories and memories behind this build. I'm not going to encourage you to sell it, but if you ever arrive at the conclusion to sell, I would love the chance to buy it. If you have kids or plan on having kids, I would keep this one until you're sure they won't appreciate it when they're old enough.

No kids but I have a dog that absolutely loves the truck.

Edit: to be fair she loves riding in anything in which she can sit in the front seat. I haven’t decided if I’m going to let her in this one yet.

We also plan to reorganize the rear setup this weekend. I’m planning to remove the Trekboxx and relocate the sub to a new location. @SNLC shipped me a nice new mounting setup that he and Chris worked up. Will allow me to retain some of my charging ports as well.

 

[SNLC]

The texts have been coming in this evening letting me know things are good.

I will let John post up what he wants about it.

Cheers

 

[jomelo]

The truck is great. Taking the drawers out saves a fair amount of weight. I now have a fully functional instrument cluster. And the new Gturbo unichip is much much better than the prior Gturbo chip. We took it for a cruise this evening and it would spin the tires through third gear on these dirt roads with barely half throttle. The truck would really move under the old setup but it’s something else now. Very very pleased.

 

[jomelo]

Friday evening news dump.

The truck has a new owner. At the end of the day, I bought this truck in 2018 and started this “project” soon after. The truck is really amazing and I cannot be more excited about the 79 series that @SNLC is building for me. It’s basically the same platform as this one but in a truck. I have a few 40 series at the house now and two more that will be home in the next few months. Square footage in the barn is getting harder to find. I had to make a decision and this was it. I still need to sell one (maybe two) more truck(s) in order to get to my magic number.

 

[cahill]

Someone just got an amazing vehicle. This was such an epic build and such and amazing coordination and vision. Dream vehicle to be sure!

 

[g rant]

@jomelo did this beauty go to a MUD member? Would hate to think I can’t live vicariously through the owners pictures anymore!

 

[ohsix]

@jomelo did this beauty go to a MUD member? Would hate to think I can’t live vicariously through the owners pictures anymore!

Jomelo still has it, but it will be mine when I have time to pick it up. I’m currently thinking early August.

The plan is a family beach vacation in FL, then I’ll drive it from FL to my home in TX. I’ll drive it a fair amount until SNLC finishes my green 80, then I’ll take the HDJ back to SNLC for some small mods and a nice paint job. I bet SNLC will update this thread with pictures when he starts working on it again.

 

[suzuguru]

Sorry to revive this old thread, but it's pretty dang cool to read through this. I was wondering if the motor mounts had to be altered to mount the 1HDT-FE into the U.S. spec 80?

 

[SNLC]

Sorry to revive this old thread, but it's pretty dang cool to read through this. I was wondering if the motor mounts had to be altered to mount the 1HDT-FE into the U.S. spec 80?

No if you use 1HDT/FT mounts.

The trans mounts we did move because in an 80 an auto has the mounts farther back on the frame. So we moved them forward to suit the manual trans.

Cheers

 

[Crush 4]

Jomelo still has it, but it will be mine when I have time to pick it up. I’m currently thinking early August.

The plan is a family beach vacation in FL, then I’ll drive it from FL to my home in TX. I’ll drive it a fair amount until SNLC finishes my green 80, then I’ll take the HDJ back to SNLC for some small mods and a nice paint job. I bet SNLC will update this thread with pictures when he starts working on it again.

How you liking the rig?

 

[suzuguru]

No if you use 1HDT/FT mounts.

The trans mounts we did move because in an 80 an auto has the mounts farther back on the frame. So we moved them forward to suit the manual trans.

Cheers

Thanks for the info!

 

[jomelo]

How you liking the rig?

For what it’s worth I miss this truck.

 

[ohsix]

How you liking the rig?

I like it! It’s my daily driver most days. I’ve put about 2,500 miles on it so far.