Builds 2002 HZJ79 Double Cab Firetruck

[Kroll]

following, sweet truck!
What's next on the list ?

Hi, Thanks!
Been away from Mud, busy getting my 84 pickup back on the road for some wheeling trips.

No real major mods completed yet. Busy sourcing parts and planning what to buy.
Ordered a set of Yokohama Geolander G003 MTs in 255/85R16 - they're getting hard to get hands on in Canada currently. Non-split steel rims ordered from ENS Toyota for the new tires. Next on the list is gathering a lift kit- probably go with OME.

 

[bdt]

Hey Im from Manitoba and considering getting ex fire truck also, cant beat a 79. Looks like you got a nice one, ? did you import it youreself or is there a company you used that you would recomend? keep the updates coming!

 

[Kroll]

Hey Im from Manitoba and considering getting ex fire truck also, cant beat a 79. Looks like you got a nice one, ? did you import it youreself or is there a company you used that you would recomend? keep the updates coming!

Hi,
Welcome to Mud! No, you really can'tgo wrong with a 79. There seems to be less of them hitting the auctions lately and I don't think many exist past 2005 build year.
I had a friend who uses AA Japan, so I went with them (great experience all around) others have used B-Pro out of Alberta. I used B-Pro's auction credentials (he shares them on his website) to look at the stock that was hitting the upcoming auctions. Good luck with the search!

Made some decent progress on the conversion, so an update with pictures is coming soon.

 

[bdt]

Thanks for the welcome, love all the info on here and finally decided to register, Sounds good will definately check them out, im curently spending some time in africa, and have spent quite a bit of time behind the wheel of a 76 so thats what has ignited the fire for a 70. Every day im seeing 70s running around here. Looking forward to youre update. Cheers

 

[Kroll]

Long overdue update! Got lots to show in the build progress.

Next up I got an inline heater plumbed up to help the coolant warm up during cold winter starts. It's going to serve as a temporary solution. I tried to get a block heater to fit (apparently a 3B shares the same frost plug size) but the element was a bit too big and wouldn't allow me to cinch the retainer properly. So I replaced the frost plug and decided I will deal with it in the future. With battery blankets and an inline coolant heater I was now ready for relatively stress free cold starting. Topped up the system with Toyota Long Life with a concentration that showed about -38C, have had a few stretches of -30/-35C so I figured that should keep me within spec.

 

[Kroll]

Next up did some small ugrades with lights. Added a Phillips LED festoon build for the interior dome light and a set of LED Phillips bulbs for the front park lights. I do like the sealed beam look of the 79, so I decided to upgrade the bulbs to some Wagner Night Defense bulbs (yellow hue to help in inclement weather) and I got the wiring harness upgrade kit from partsouq to maximize the amount of power going to the headlights.

You can see the contrast between the LED marker and the regular incandescent bulb.

 

[Kroll]

Weather starting to warm up a little bit. Decided to upgrade the dash speakers. Got some on sale and a cheap single DIN deck since I plan to keep the OSAKA SIREN and strobe lights up for a little bit. Was nice to be able to have Bluetooth and more than 2 radio stations at last.
My truck was also lacking a factory roadside tire change kit but had the jack. So I ordered up a kit for the 79.

 

[Kroll]

Spring 2022 had finally come. Finding rims for a 5 bolt Land Cruiser in a 16" rim is not an easy task in North America, so I had ordered a set of steel rims from ENS Industrial out of Saskatoon. They offered a great price on them and prompt delivery. I ended up sanding the rims down and painting them blue-grey in an industrial enamel. A little too blue for me, but they've grown on me.
I also ordered some Yokohama Geolandar MT's in 255/85R16. Wow, been a while since I bought a brand new set of 5 mud tires...prices have gone up! Well worth it, they look great and the size was exactly what I had in mind.

 

[Kroll]

I reached out to @HoffLarr to see what body parts I could find in my journey to convert the fire truck into a "regular" truck. Larry has a few ex-mine 79's in various states of repair. Luckily he was open to allowing me to get some important parts that will help me out in the future. It felt a little weird cutting up a cab of a wide nose 79, there's a lot of layers of steel in the rear cab corner. Many grinder discs got chewed up...

That window frame will one day fit the rear wall of my double cab.

A final picture of the 79 in fire duty form....big changes coming up for it soon.

 

[Kroll]

Fast forward to May 2022, I had a free weekend and relatively nice weather forecast to really make a big change to the 79. Grabbed all my tools that I could think of, packed a good lunch and headed off to my buddy's shop to begin the removal of the fire truck body / pump. The PTO driven pump is quite intertwined with the rear body (shell) that you see behind the cab. I spent a couple of hours undoing all the large cast pipes, fittings, and wiring. Once I had made enough room, I was able to then begin the cutting of structural pieces that held the body onto the frame of the 79. A grinder, cutting torch, chisels and a big hammer made the job possible. Also the MVP of it all was the Toyota forklift that did all the heavy lifting.

It was a bit bittersweet to see the 79 in its new form. I had grown a bit attached to the firetruck in its natural state... but this also meant it was that much closer to building it the way I want it to be.

 

[Kroll]

Day 2 of firetruck decommissioning, the focus was to get the pump off the frame. It's a big heavy unit made out of cast and brass. A lot of small items had to get carefully removed and pushed aside to make clearance in order to pull it out in one go. There was a interesting manual grease gun that was attached to grease some of the moving parts of the pump and PTO system. I have a rear output PTO (never seen that before in these modern land cruiser tcase's).

Check out that leaf pack!

Notice the lack of a rear crossmember! Guess that means I'll have to order one now.

The fuel tank for the truck was sitting up high hidden in the "body" so I found a pallet, cut it to size and strapped it into place to have a secure spot to mount my temporary fuel solution. Managed to re-use the old fenders as well, they were cleverly bolted to the frame and also sandwiched between the fire truck "body". The fitment and attention to detail in the build of the rear body was top notch by the Japanese contractor who build these 79 firetrucks. A lot of extra wires that I will have to clean up in the future.

 

[Kroll]

Tucked away the extra wires away, ziptied / bolted down my rear tail lights and got the fuel tank secured. The 79 was now street legal again.
Lacking a rear crossmember and these large oversized fenders, makes it really look goofy! Brought my carhauler trailer to fit all the parts that came off. It was a long two days to get to this state. The 79 felt sportier with the big weight loss . Lacking any substantial weight over the rear axle with the thick 11 leaf pack- the truck rode absolutely terrible. I ordered up an OME kit right away to do something about it.

 

[Kroll]

On the to do list next up was the installation of a rear cross member. I reached out to @JDMBC to compare our rear frames; since he was at a similar stage with his 79 build. Did some measurements, looks like my frame was extended by 100mm in the rear. The welds look to be well done so it was decided to leave it as-is.

Mocking up the brand new crossmember that partsouq shipped to me.
Before I could start the crossmember install, some of the old big brackets that tied the firetruck body in the rear had to get removed. After some careful grinding and chisel work with a big hammer, the big steel pieces relented. Cleaned up the rubberized coating that was sprayed in the area. Prep was all done, ready for permanent fitment of the crossmember.

 

[Kroll]

Since my welding skills are no match to a professionals, and the rear crossmember is an important piece to the frame; I got a friend who welds to come by and lend me a hand. Watching him swirl away dimes proficiently, affirmed my choice in getting him to do it. We mocked up the crossmember, grinded away the factory paint and got it affixed. The rear end of the 79 finally looked "proper" even though it was still just a cab chassis.

New booty pic

 

[Kroll]

Although a HZJ79 is not known to be an amazing tow rig by any means, doesn't mean it can't do the job. I was on the hunt for a proper rear tow bar for this truck. Looking at all the ones available in Australia (Marks 4WD or the Reese versions) I got inspired to make something similar here in Canada. There's a local hitch building outfit called DSP Hitches, they do custom hitches and ones built for the domestic market. I took a drive over and inquired if they had anything that we could make work with the rather simple geometry of the rear frame of a 79. The salesman happened to have one last remaining "service body hitch kit" in stock. I mocked it up at his shop, and it looked like I could make it work. I has big beefy "wings" that mount on the outside. I wanted to get a centre section of contact to the hitch as well, so I found a guy that makes Land Cruiser 4 bolt hitches that mount universally on the classic 4 bolt pattern that Toyota has used since the FJ40. The plan is to get 3 bolts on each wing and 4 centre bolts to hold it all in place. In Australia the reartow bars are rated for over 7000 lbs, I figure this design should be able to do the same.

Had to move my rear exhasut hanger in order to properly fit the hitch wing on the passenger side.

Disregard those fancy shackles and meaty tires...that'll come next.

 

[Kroll]

Time had finally come to install new suspension. I seriously contemplated between a 4" or 2.5" lift and tire size choices. The 1HZ in its natural form lacks power, especially when tasked with highway speeds over 110km/hr, to ask it to turn some big tires was not realistic at the moment. I also wanted a comfortable ride since the plan is to use this truck for long distance trips, which often require a significant amount of highway driving. At the end I decided on a 2.5" OME lift with medium springs in the rear and heavy coils for the front. Along to go with the kit I got the castor correction bushings for the radius arms, rear e-brake LSPV bracket extension, sway bar link extensions and a nice pair of Superior Engineering extended lift shackles for the rear leafs. I don't have a nice big garage that is able to fit the 79 with the high roof / lights...so I did my lift on the street in front of my house. My neighborhood is pretty quiet with a lot of original home owners from the early 1960's, I'm sure they enjoyed watching me tackle this upgrade. I started with the rear axle first.

Here's a comparison of the original kidney busting leafs and a set of new medium OME's.

The sheer beefiness of the Superior Engineering Extended Shackles is amazing, really solid and the cadmium finish adds a nice touch.
The sheer size of the rear drums is amazing. Toyota really upped their game. A set of rear discs would have been nice, I don't have any complaints about the performance of these drums so far.

I also took the opportunity to paint the rear hub black. The new wheels and tires really change the look.

 

[Kroll]

The next day I finished the front suspension. Again, wow just amazed by the sheer size of the rotors and calipers on the 79- they seriously dwarf anything that I have seen on FJ40's, HJ60's or pickups. Brake pads look like they barely have been broken in, as expected with a vehicle that has less than 7000km at the moment. As you can see I have the front drive flanges that permanently lock the front axle. I am planning on swapping them out with some Aisin FHT-001 freewheeling hubs.

Comparison of OME heavy coils and the original Toyota ones.

Removing the old bushings was made easier by sawzalling the centre of the bushing just to the edge of the sleeved portion of the radius arm. Pressed in the castor correction bushings from OME at my friend's shop.

 

[Kroll]

I finished the install by painting the front hub black as well to match the rear. Tossed the new tires on the front, did a bolt check to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything by accident and stared at what I had accomplished on the front street.

Super impressed with what a lift and some tires can do to this truck.

Night shot with all the service lights on.

First drive impressions were amazing. The suspension feels a lot more supple and is a lot more kinder to my back. Swapping out the tires and wheels from the heavy split rims also made it feel like I gained 50hp. Really happy with my progress and the feel of the truck now!

The final touch was an appointment to get an alignment after all. The guys at the shop had a lot of questions and couldn't believe the truck was from 2002.

 

[Kroll]

July 2022 had come, and it was time to finally meet @JDMBC in real life. I reached out to Garret soon after I secured my HZJ79 in auction, and realized we share a lot of similar hobbies, values and a Land Cruiser addiction. It's been great bouncing ideas and plans off of each other as we both progress in the builds of our 79's. Garret made the trip north to visit and stay with me before the install of his SET tray. I bought a few items from AUS, so I was hoarding some parts for him awaiting for his arrival. Garret also brought some parts that he had stashed and even picked up on his way to AB for my build. We spent the next day tackling a few things on his truck (coolant hoses, install a few Superior Engineering goodies and doing a set of OME castor correction bushings.

What a sight! 2 HZJ79 firetrucks in their various stages of their "build". I'm sure the neighbors were wondering what the heck is happening?!

We convoyed up to Ralf's shop where the Summit Expedition Trays get installed. Garret's truck inside for surgery, while mine holds watch outside.

At last, after a long day of helping install / wire the front ARB and with the SET tray, it was finally time to crack a cold one and admire what we did.

Learning about all the details and sheer simplicity yet elegance that a SET tray has...it was at this point I knew I wanted one as well. The transformation is seriously remarkable.

One last photo of the 2 79's before Garret left for home.

 

[Kroll]

Found time during the summer to get the rear hitch finally welded up and bolted into place. It took multiple steps to finish it the way I wanted it.
Started off first with mocking the hitch up and cutting the tube to the desired length, used a large metal cut off saw to accomplish that.
Then got the wings installed and clamped into place. My friend came over to share his welding skills in the process.
Did a couple of good passes with the mig and the hitch became one big unit instead of 4 individual pieces.

Mocked the hitch in place with the 4 rear crossmember bolts only.
Next step will be to drill 3 holes on each side through the thick wings and frame of the 79.