Build A Brazilian tries to build an 80!

[250below10]

Alright, I think it is time to start a build thread!
I'm a noob and did not grow up working on cars. Everything I learned was either here on Mud or back in Tacomaworld, with some Youtube University in between.

I first got into Toyotas 4x4 seeing some modded Hilux driving around town where I grew up and thought it would be cool to own one eventually.
In 2015 I got my first job in the US and almost immediately my '01 Escape blew a HG, I thought it would be a good time to go find that Toyota 4x4. I ended up with a 1st gen Tacoma, that my girlfriend (now wife) named White Lightning. (funny enough, we now own a '22 White F150 Lightning )

Early in the pandemic, we decided to move back to the PNW from Michigan, and to make the move easier, I sold the Taco to a buddy of mine, on a condition that if he would ever sell it, I would be first in line to buy it (which it happened, I bought it back, but ended up selling it again )


The day I sold it! And I kept the wheels and tires.

Once we moved, the search for the 80 started. My wife grew up with an 80 and an 100, so she was onboard!
It was the beginning of pandemic and the used car market was starting to get crazy, so it was getting tricky to find one to buy. I knew I wanted a 95+ and preferably a Land Cruiser over an LX (foreshadowing).
I had a couple hits locally but nothing worth pursuing. So I expanded my search and ended up finding a nice '96 LX450 in West Sacramento. It came with ARB front bumper and a 1st gen Smittybuilt winch that has never been unspooled. The truck also had no signs of ever being offroaded. So I flew down to take a look and got it!
232k miles on the clock but running like a champ, except for an EGR code that got dealt with later.

The day I got it, somewhere between California and Washington.

Yes, it came with the ugliest wheels available.


How it sits today

The plans have changed back and forth a lot on my 5yrs of ownership, but as of now it is part daily driver, part adventure rig, part my tinkering toy.
More than anything, now that my kids are a bit older, I just want to get out more with them.
The truck was sidelined for about a year and a half when the kids were born and we had 3 cars. But we went back to 2 vehicles and the 80 went back in rotation and got a full baseline treatment by Torfab.
I'll try to list and upload photos of all the mods Ive done so far and keep this first post as updated as possible.

Ongoing projects:
None at the time!

Future plans:
Gullwings hatch system
Lockers/gears
Scheel-Manns (if Im feeling wild)
Considering/planning and engine swap for next winter
Eventually I want to deal with exterior cosmetic stuff (paint and Tupperware)


Exterior:
ARB Front bumper with Smittybilt 9.5k winch
Dissent modular rear bumper with dual swingout
WKOR sliders
Prinsu Rack
Ebay knock off snorkel

Wheels and tires:
Falken Wildpeak A/T3W 285/75R16 and SCS Ray10s 16x8, -12 offset
BFG KO2 315/70R17
Rough Country Steelies 17x9, -12 offset
SSW Dakar Beadlock 17x9, -25 offset

Suspension:
Ironman 2" springs with Ironman Nitro Gas shocks (shocks blew with less than 10k miles)
OME Nitrocharger Shocks
Dobinsons 3.5" Dual Rate coils (C97-144VT and C97-145VT)
Dobinsons IMS shocks
DeltaVS 3" long radius arms
DeltaVS Panhard lift bracket
LCP Severe Duty rear sway bar links
Whiteline rear swaybar

Interior:
3rd row seats removed
Homemade drawer system (ongoing project)
HuracanFab Tailgate storage lid
Wolfbox rearview mirror/dash cam/backup cam on DeltaVS mirror mount
Blaupunkt Frankfurt stereo
Rockville SS8P powered subwoofer
Midland 15watt GMRS
Rosen sun visors

Engine:
Blue fan clutch
HuddExpo EGR plug kit

Electrical:
Bussmann RTMR fuse/relay box on a custom mount (for sale)
LiTime LiFePo4 100ah house battery
Redarc BCDC Alpha 50R
Redarc TVMS Rogue
Redarc Redvision Display

Lights:
PO had some sort of HID/Xenon low beam thingy, not sure what it is, still researching what I want for head lights (quads, projector, etc)
Hella Black Magic 500
Diode Dynamics C2 SAE amber fogs
Harbor Freight Roadshock Edge 6

 

[250below10]

Still back in 2020

Got the ugly wheels off and the "new" wheels on
Tiny dog looks like a proud 80s owner

First time taking it out on the dirt, no lift, no sliders. If it wasnt for the winch, I think id still be stuck there.
And banged the cats really good that day, which created an exhaust leak that I could not get rid off and only got solved 4yrs later when I took it to Torfab
Also got some good scratches on the wheels

Later in 2020 I got to do the first 2 sections of the WABDR with a fried

This same friend ended up buy a built 95, so for a bit I had another friend with an 80. But he is even less mechanically inclined than me and could not keep up with the work on the car. Plus his wife and kids all hated riding in it. So he sold it less than a year later.

 

[250below10]

2021


Iroman had a sale on their lifts, so I bough their Stage 1 2" lift kit

The lift looked good and felt good, since I was still running on the original suspension. And I ended up netting almost 3" of lift.
But when I took the truck to Torfab for a good baseline, one of the shocks were blown, and it had less than 10k miles on it.

The day I got my 1st gen back from Michigan. I kept it for another 2 years, but since it was not getting much use, I sold it for good in 2023.

Fun story, the 1st gen lived in salty Michigan for about 4 winters, before that it was an CA/OR truck its whole life.
Ive done a bunch of maintenance on it, including all ball joints.
On a beautiful sunday morning, my inlaws borrow the truck for a Lowe's run. I got a call about an hour later from them saying something happened with the truck when they were living the parking lot and that a wheel felt off.

All and all, not as bad as it could have been.
I patched it up in about a week and it was back on the road.

 

[250below10]

Still in 2021


Quick trip to Tahuya State Forest
Back when my buddy still used to live in the PNW and had his 80

I got jealous of my friends cool looking snorkel and decided to get one.
Bought a knock off safari snorkel from ebay and had a go with a hole saw

It was a pain to install and I did an awful job. Classic good from a far but far from good. Oh well, still on my list of things to fix

 

[250below10]

End of 2021

I found a nice surprise on my driveway

Good thing I caught it on time before something worse happened.
Knuckle rebuild here we go

 

[250below10]

And people are not lying when they say this is a messy job.

(I'll say this with the caveat that I did messed up the inner axle seal and ended up with another knuckle job 3 years later)
Not a hard job per se, but it does take time and it is REALLY messy. And of course, about 6 months after this, I had to do my friends knuckles.

 

[COS80]

I got jealous of my friends cool looking snorkel and decided to get one.
Bought a knock off safari snorkel from ebay and had a go with a hole saw
View attachment 4000382
View attachment 4000383
View attachment 4000384

It was a pain to install and I did an awful job. Classic good from a far but far from good. Oh well, still on my list of things to fix

It took me two months and three outrageous installation quotes to talk myself into cutting into my factory original fender. The subpar instructions inspire no confidence.

 

[COS80]

End of 2021

I found a nice surprise on my driveway

Good thing I caught it on time before something worse happened.
Knuckle rebuild here we go

You got lucky like I did... I came across a thread here saying to check those nuts... mine were all loose and one broke. Definitely better to find in the driveway than in the boonies!

 

[250below10]

2022


Went back to Browns Camp in Oregon, the first place I ever went wheeling

I also built my first drawer system. Damn this was a piece of crap compared to what I have now!

 

[250below10]

It took me two months and three outrageous installation quotes to talk myself into cutting into my factory original fender. The subpar instructions inspire no confidence.

Yeah, and the templated was also crap.
How much were they quoting you?

Ill probably remove the fender to try to fix it a bit and hope the mounting spot in the A pillar still lines up after.

 

[250below10]

2025

After removing the old crappy drawers, I decided to get the Huracan Fab tailgate storage to keep some of my recovery gear

And in classic me fashion, I forgot to cut one of the supports and now it gets in the way of stuff. Another thing on the to-do list


Also decided to give the interior some love. So I got new buttons for my HVAC panel
Old

New

And got rid of my early 2000s looking double din stereo and got one of those fancy german retro looking ones.

I still need to trim the dash bezel a bit and fix the mounting bracket so the stereo sits a bit more flush with the dash. I think you all can see a common trend on the way I work

 

[COS80]

Yeah, and the templated was also crap.
How much were they quoting you?

Ill probably remove the fender to try to fix it a bit and hope the mounting spot in the A pillar still lines up after.

I think the lowest one was $650.

 

[250below10]

Decided to go up in tire size and started shopping for new rubber
I forgot how expensive tires were.
So I found a good deal on a barely used set of 5 315/70R17 KO2s, and bough some Rough Country steelies, since I was still rocking 16" wheels and I could not find anything used for a 16".
Still came cheaper than buying 4 new tires

Before

After

 

[250below10]

I think the lowest one was $650.

Yeah, for that price, Im happy with the result I got

 

[250below10]

Decided it was time to ditch the steel cable and put in some synthetic rope

On top of all the benefits of the synthetic rope, it also makes the front end looks much better!




With the growing family, I decided to buy a bigger fridge/freezer. I just didnt realized how big it actually was until it got here

This thing is LARGE.
So the only obvious next step is to build another drawer system.

Plan is to have the left side at tailgate height with a single drawer that is not full depth (so I can fit my house battery behind it), and the right side its going to be a sliding platform for the fridge with a drawer underneath.
Im done with the first half of it
First I built a 44"x40" platform out of 3/4" plywood. The platform is attached to the 3rd row seat floor mounting points. Then the frame of the drawers attached to the platform using bolts and wood nutserts

 

[250below10]

Sometimes we get lucky without planning too much. Out of luck it fits my tool bag and compressor perfectly!

I also got rid of my subwoofer and amp and got one of those smaller powered subs. Still kicks pretty good!

Eventually its going to live under the fridge side of the drawer system, but for now, this spot will do!

 

[250below10]

Got some new battery terminals

I got this LCP battery holder back in 2020 I believe. I really like it, but I pretty sure I installed it wrong and the front L shaped rod keeps coming out of its place in the battery box. I think I might need to either get a new battery box and redrill the holes, or maybe just put a washer between the L bend on the rod and the battery box underside. We will see.



Got the house battery in its place and started with the wiring.
Im still waiting on one last part of the system to arrive to be able to do it all, but Ive been doing some wiring here and there.

Just got done with this harness for my (soon to come) new bumper lights

I know I probably forgot a bunch of stuff, but this is the bulk of what Ive done to the 80 so far.
So, thats it
You'll caught up to it!

 

[SoTexCruiserDoc]

Very much enjoyed your honest, heartfelt, fun thread!

 

[250below10]

I think Ive done all the wiring I can do before getting the TVMS.
Got the leads for the offroad light outputs and the inputs for some physical switches ran to the quarter panel. Also ran the rj45 cable!

And I finally decided to make life easier on future me and labeled everything the best I could

Wiring always turns into chaos, but I do enjoy it despite barely understanding it
I feel like Ive learned a lot about DC power since I started tinkering with the 80.

Took the ashtray out and I need to 3D print a plate to mount that ARB fridge outlet where the ashtray was, since all the house battery cables are going to enter where the outlet currently is.
How lost I got you with this sentence?

And on the subject of barely understanding electrical systems, I got really lost trying to wire the high beam as a 12v signal.
I know Toyota uses negative switching for the headlights and there is constante +12v while the headlights are off. The catch is, once the key is off the ignition, the circuit switches to ground again (at least that is how I understand it).
All of this to say that I wired a 4 pin relay to be ground switched, and it works OK when the key is ON or ACC. Relay clicks on with high beams on and clicks off with high beams off. But once you take the key out, relay clicks back on.
So yeah, that was a fun hour of my day.
I need to read more about to see if I find a solution

 

[NeverFinis]

I think Ive done all the wiring I can do before getting the TVMS.
Got the leads for the offroad light outputs and the inputs for some physical switches ran to the quarter panel. Also ran the rj45 cable!
View attachment 4001278

And I finally decided to make life easier on future me and labeled everything the best I could
View attachment 4001279

Wiring always turns into chaos, but I do enjoy it despite barely understanding it
I feel like Ive learned a lot about DC power since I started tinkering with the 80.
View attachment 4001280


Took the ashtray out and I need to 3D print a plate to mount that ARB fridge outlet where the ashtray was, since all the house battery cables are going to enter where the outlet currently is.
How lost I got you with this sentence?
View attachment 4001287



And on the subject of barely understanding electrical systems, I got really lost trying to wire the high beam as a 12v signal.
I know Toyota uses negative switching for the headlights and there is constante +12v while the headlights are off. The catch is, once the key is off the ignition, the circuit switches to ground again (at least that is how I understand it).
All of this to say that I wired a 4 pin relay to be ground switched, and it works OK when the key is ON or ACC. Relay clicks on with high beams on and clicks off with high beams off. But once you take the key out, relay clicks back on.
So yeah, that was a fun hour of my day.
I need to read more about to see if I find a solution

I believe you also want to power the relay with an key on source (ACC/On).