Builds 2002 HZJ79 Double Cab Firetruck

[Kroll]

The end of the hitch build was in sight. I decided to sleeve the rear of the frame for 2 of the 3 bolts on each side to reduce any squishing that might happen over time. I don't know if this is overkill or not, but I figured it couldn't hurt. I want a secure attachment to my frame for towing and potentially as a recovery point.

Here's a bit of a side profile of the hitch all installed and painted. Missing one bolt on the wing since I misplaced the hardware that I had picked up for it.

I am pretty happy with the end result. The entire hitch cost me less than $500 CAD to build and should meet my towing needs. I tried my best to make it as low profile as possible, not to lose too much of a departure angle. The side wings make it "bulky" looking- I may trim them in the future.

 

[Kroll]

You can't really go out and buy a plug n play trailer harness for a 79....so I guess I gotta build one.
I wanted to make a really clean wiring harness for the 7 pin trailer socket, found some corresponding male / female plugs that fit the factory wiring harness. This made it completely waterproof and eliminated the risk of any wiring issues for the taillights that may potentially arise. I bought plugs that were pre-wired, my OCD was killing me and telling me to change them to the proper corresponding wire colour....but in the end I left them as-is. They'll be covered in loom anyways.
You'll need a 4 wire taillight converter to make this work in a 7 pin trailer socket. The reason is since trailers use the same wire for signal / brake...the 70 series has a separate bulb for signal & brake. So this little box does that conversion for us.

I also ran a power wire and a brake controller wire as I was building this harness.
Amazon had Redarc TowPro Elite brake controllers for a decent price...so it was time to get that wired in as well.

Used some double sided tape and secured the brains of the tow controller to the primitive emissions ECU of the 1HZ that is buried deep in the dash above the glove box.

The knob that controls it all. Really happy with the Redarc tow controller. Definitely keep the instruction manual handy, since there are a few things that are good to know- especially if you intend to tow while off roading.

 

[Kroll]

I was fortunate to have @JDMBC find a factory rear seat fitting the 79. We did a group buy for each of our rigs. Mine got delivered when Garret visited in July.
I had a bench seat...but no way to mount it. The rear bench seat that exists in my 79 was quite elevated, so I needed to find a solution to fit a factory rear seat. I was lucky since an LJ78 was being dismantled local to me. I brought my seat along to test fit it before I did anything.

To my pleasure my bench bolted into the factory floor without issue.
I then made an offer and spent the next hour cutting out the floor carefully.

Eventually the whole piece came out.

Took the donor floor in to get sandblasted and then i primed it. I also took Larry's window frame in at the same time.

 

[Kroll]

Another item that @JDMBC brought up from BC was a set of fuel tanks that @crawlin cruiser had. I got a main rear tank and a mid mount sub-tank. In an ideal world I would have gone with a long ranger rear tank...but everywhere I inquired I was given extremely long wait times to bring one in or just an abrupt stop in communication with the vendor. The fuel tanks were take off units that came mounted to trucks that eventually got modified by a mining outfitter here in Canada. Another item missing on my frame was the fuel tank cross member that the main fuel tank bolts onto. I ordered this item from overseas and got to work to get it fitted. This required it to be welded in as well a mount needed to be made to bolt the tank sub assembly to the rear shock crossmember.
Once the tank, crossmember was mocked up, we could tack weld the front bracketry that I made for mounting the front of the fuel tank assembly.

Also since the welder was up and running I got the rear factory bed mounts welded to my frame. The exact factory location of these is not important since Ralf at SET will build a tray mount to suit them accordingly.

Progress is progress! The filler neck got mounted to the bed mount in the meantime to stabilize it. I also swapped out the fuel sending unit since the one in my original fuel cell tank was too short. Still need to figure out how to mount the secondary sub-tank...but that's a future problem.

 

[theglobb]

amazing work, beautiful to read through

 

[JDMBC]

And the build thread is alive! What an awesome adventure it’s been building our 79s side by side. @Kroll is a man of pure talent, skill and know how. Excited to see this build evolve! To many more adventures and money spent on the 79s.

 

[Kroll]

amazing work, beautiful to read through

Thanks! Been enjoying reading through your build as well.

 

[Kroll]

And the build thread is alive! What an awesome adventure it’s been building our 79s side by side. @Kroll is a man of pure talent, skill and know how. Excited to see this build evolve! To many more adventures and money spent on the 79s.

Thank you for the kind words! Been a heck of a time going through a major build with someone else who understands the process.
Indeed, to many more adventures and dollars to be spent enjoying our 79's!

 

[Kroll]

The summer of 2022 was slowly waning...
I finally took the 79 for its first maiden long road trip to attend a rally racing friend's funeral in another city. The little 60L fuel cell was always on the back of my mind as I wondered how much range it would provide. My truck still had barely 7000km on the odometer, and the fuel mileage was nowhere near what I had learned a 1HZ should be. I think my fuel average on this road trip was 16-20L/100km with an average speed of about 115-120 km/hr. The motor was nowhere near broken in, and my speedy driving also didn't help. Hoping for it to improve eventually.
Was able to catch some beautiful sun setting colours with the Rocky Mtns in the distance.

I was in the planning stages with my SET tray with Ralf. He sent me a few autocad renders of my double cab with the tray I had envisioned.
Disregard the wide nose 79

 

[Kroll]

Winter set in, my ability to work on the truck outside was limited. Finally got to test out the towing capability of the 79. I had a few old pickups out at my parent's acreage outside of town, I pulled all the 22R motors out and brought them back to my house for an assessment and potential rebuild.
Barely felt the 22R's being towed behind me.

Found an ebay allstone knock off arm rest / cup holder. Definitely a nice touch!

I also decided to go ahead and order a Dometic Dual Zone 75L fridge/ freezer for the upcoming camping season. I really wanted a dual zone set up so I could run a freezer in the summer to keep ice and frozen treats to enjoy in the middle of nowhere. It's a large fridge, thankfully I will have plenty of room in the tray to fit it.

I was in @JDMBC 's area of BC in December for a winter rally race. We took a trip out in his 79 to the woods.

 

[janyyc]

I think my fuel average on this road trip was 16-20L/100km with an average speed of about 115-120 km/hr.

wow, that's terrible. My HZJ78 gets about 14L/100km fully loaded, with roof rack etc., 12-13 in normal conditions, and the HZJ76 gets about 11. My HZJ76 had 18 km on the odo when I got it, so certainly it wasn't broken in, but fuel economy was never that terrible. I tend to drive max 110 km/h. Maybe it's the bubble roof? (hint, hint)

 

[Kroll]

wow, that's terrible. My HZJ78 gets about 14L/100km fully loaded, with roof rack etc., 12-13 in normal conditions, and the HZJ76 gets about 11. My HZJ76 had 18 km on the odo when I got it, so certainly it wasn't broken in, but fuel economy was never that terrible. I tend to drive max 110 km/h. Maybe it's the bubble roof? (hint, hint)

Yeah I was quite disappointed with that road trip. Thankfully the fuel average has increased substantially....even when towing a heavy load. I'll dive into that in the future. Haha, yeah the sirens and high top roof definitely add a significant amount of drag and wind nose. The idea of a chop has crossed my mind, but it hasn't made it to the list of priorities quite yet.

 

[Kroll]

The new year had rung, 2023 was here! My list of things to finish before my planned road trip with the 79 in June was still quite long. I had gotten a quote and estimates for some bodywork in the fall of 2022, but left it at that. I reached out to a few shops, many were quite swamped. The one shop that I went to had moved closer to my house...perhaps it was a sign to go ahead with them. They honored their previous quotes and the same body man that impressed me with his body work was still there. Plan was to drop the truck off sometime late February for the body work to commence. To save some money I said I would strip the interior of the 79 as much as possible to make the rear cab conversion easier.
My neighbor across the alley has a beautifully built garage that is heated and able to fit the 79 inside- just had to remove the rear siren off my roof.

You can see how the rear bench was elevated to accommodate the PTO driven water pump below.

Super clean floor pan. Not a speck of rust to be found! Really happy with the easy life it had in Japan.

Removed about as much as I could. The rest will be left for the body shop to finish.

 

[Kroll]

It was at last time to drop the 79 off at the body shop. Speaking with the body shop beforehand it was discussed that the rear panel with window my be a little tricky. I offered to procure a back panel that fits double cab 79's from megazip or partsouq. The panel was reasonably priced, but shipping it became an issue. Either the shipping was flat out denied or the quote was astronomical. I had at least my back window still, so it was decided to proceed forward with the body shop making something work. The rear floor pan was no drama since I had that covered from the donor LJ78 that I cut out previously.

I stopped by every few days to check on progress and answer questions / provide guidance on what I wanted. The team at Phoenix were great to work with.

The hump where the seat belt attaches to is common on all 75/79 fire trucks, it's a floor crossmember that has been modified to allow clearance for the rear PTO output. I decided on leaving it alone, it doesn't really disrupt the rear footwell area. Eventually a centre console of some sort with rest on it.

Rear panel removed, prepping for the rear window.

A little mock up of how the rear cab window will sit. It's technically a bit lower than factory. The sight lines still looked good while sitting in the driver's seat.

Floor welded into place, finishing still required. The crew did a great job of grafting the donor panel into the 79's chopped up floor.

 

[Kroll]

The day had finally come, got the call to come by and pick up the 79 from the body shop. Paint got matched and new window frame seal was installed. I contemplated buying all the components necessary to fit a sliding rear window, but after looking at the price of all of the hardware / components- i held off and went with the solid rear window that I had already in my possession.

The rear panel got bolted back into place like it was originally. I did this for two reasons, it was much faster / easier and the savings in labour also won me. A sealant was laid down between the rear panel and the body.

Rear factory single cab 79 interior light also added in the rear, just need to wire it up to work off of the door switch.

Since a tray with headache rack will cover most of the rear cab, the "unfinished" look of the cab does not bother me.

Looks just about factory to me!

The interior is a lot more brighter now with the rear window installed. It's also taken some getting used to using the rear view mirror that was installed but never used before.

 

[Kroll]

Spent another weekend at my neighbor's garage. It was finally time to install an ARB onto the front. Not sure what happened with the availability of these bumpers, but they became increasingly harder to find in North America and prices started to match their scarcity. I got my bar just before Christmas 2022, I left it all packaged up in the garage awaiting installation day!
First thing, gotta remove the front porch bumper! It served its purpose but now it can be retired. It's available for sale if anyone wants it.

Ready for bar fitment! I have a thick cord that sticks out for my inline coolant heater and two battery blankets are tied into the 3-way plug. Gotta be careful when plugging all 3 into power, since they consume easily over 10A.

Muscled the bar onto the frame rails myself - wasn't bad since it had no winch installed.

The most time consuming part was wiring in the signal lights. I opted to get sealed LED verisons that I found on a AUS ebay post.
I wanted a clean fit, so I bought factory pigtail ends that fit the 79's front signal / park lights and made a wiring harness. The ebay LED bumper signal lights also doubled as a running light. Since I removed the DRL that I wired in for my inspection, I figured more park lights in the front can't hurt to make it look like a DRL set up when the park lights are on.

Nothing looks better than an ARB protecting the front end of a narrow nose 70.

 

[theglobb]

Found an ebay allstone knock off arm rest / cup holder.

link? appreciate it

 

[Kroll]

link? appreciate it

You betcha. Mine are the magnetic versions. There's also double sided tape ones that are usually cheaper. The magnetic version made more sense to me.

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[Gun Runner 5]

You betcha. Mine are the magnetic versions. There's also double sided tape ones that are usually cheaper. The magnetic version made more sense to me.

For Toyota Land Cruiser 70 Magnet Door Armrest Cup Holder LC76/75/78/79(Gray) | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for For Toyota Land Cruiser 70 Magnet Door Armrest Cup Holder LC76/75/78/79(Gray) at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

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Had a friend order the double sided tape version. Unless you enjoy hot coffee in your lap I wouldnt recommend that version.

 

[Kroll]

The next day, it was time to reassemble the interior post-bodywork.
I focused on applying sound deadener to the front portion of the cab. Rolled on a few sheets in areas that I considered to be of priority. I've read that less is more, you don't have to fully cover 100% of the floor area. I let the tranny area unfinished, since I have considered doing a H152 tranny swap in the future and I'm unsure what the change in shift lever position may be.

Got a upper B-Pillar trim piece also to give it a bit more of a finished look. Ha to trim a bit of the plastic on the inside in order to fit- there was a large polished steel bar that ran behind the seats that I removed.

The factory molded sound deadener un-bonded itself the floor pan, so it got completely removed and replaced.

Missing a little bit of the rear floor liner, planning on reaching out to a local upholstery shop to see what they can find that matches. I left the rear unfinished at this point since I needed to find a few grommets to fill a few random openings that the LJ78 floor pan had. I was also awaiting for the arrival of some underlay for the vinyl too.

I bought a set of 8.7" Vision X light cannons during Black Friday, so I took the opportunity to mock them up. They are a lot deeper than anticipated, so I will have to make a spacer to fit them between the main vertical braces of the ARB.