best Cheap mods.

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Hi All:

Like asked before, define "cheap." As in an arbitary dollar limit, or what?

The cheapest performance mod I can think of for the typical Land Cruiser would be a full tune-up with quality Japanese parts (i.e. Toyota OE or Nippondenso.) $130 or so if you hunt around for the best deal.

The cheapest mod for off-road would be the $250 Lockrite/Ezlocker/Aussielocker. Makes all the difference on the trail, no matter what tires, suspenion, or gearing you have!

"Cheap" body armor for the 40 Series is home-made heavy-duty side steps, made from 4 inch by 4 inch angle iron, 1/4 inch thick. Use a cut-off wheel mounted on a 4.5 inch angle grinder to cut and shape the angle iron as a crude replacement of the factory side step; use the holes on the factory side step as a template for drilling mounting holes on the angle iron side step. Rust-resistent "rattle can" paint to your taste! These will cost under $50 to fab-up, all depending on the cost of materials.

Oh, a "tool tip" for you home fabers; buy a $30 "unibit" drill bit for drilling through plate steel - it works great and does not get dull quickly like a regular drill bit!

Regards,

Alan
Seattle
 
second the Silver Star headlights; definitely a noticeable improvement. Also: real cheap in my case, one was already installed by the PO ;p
 
I ran a air hose from my CO2 tank mounted in the back corner of my '55 threw the rear panel along the frame to the front and out the crank hole. Or what ever that hole is called. So I don't have to drag a bunch of air hose around.
 
No particular order

A. Fire Extinguisher
-bicycle tube to keep from banging on roll bar
B. Bicycle tube as a gasket between the hard top sides and tub
C. Windshield gasket - less snow coming in from the top of the windshield, the rest is from damaged fiberglass (gonna be fixed in a couple weeks hopefully)
D. HiLift 48"- haven't got my money's worth out of it yet, but it's sure nice to know it's there now, and it was on sale for $40!
E. $20 roll bar light - buddy's Jeep has it, it's BRIGHT. Haven't done it yet, soon.
F. $10 roll of all-purpose weatherstrip - helped seal a little more heat in, stopped a LOT of rattling, still have some rattles to fix
G. Anything that needed repainting - battery tray, plate under oil filter, fan shroud, bezel, wire wheel the then-purple valve cover, scrape off trunk liner (?) on interior side panels, dash etc. and repaint. Using up my dad's old rattle cans, so I haven't even had to buy paint yet! :D Next is to repaint the side panels and repair/repaint the fiberglass top. Interior will be a LOT brighter when I'm done.
H. Drill holes and bolt down bottom parts of jump seats. Hinges were cracking, they were rattling bad, now no more rattles :D
I. Hand throttles and diff breathers are sounding better and better, will get cracking on those soon.
 
Here's a super cheap one I learned awhile ago anyone can do. Steal a white crayon from you sons/daughters crown set. Rub it on the face of your worn out dash switches. Then use some type of cleaner, or? to carefully wipe off the face of the switch, which will leave the white crayon in the indents. It will make old switches look like new!

Noah
 
2 of those battery operated tap lights mounted with double sticky tape
in your favorite location, I have 1 on the cage and one on the windshield frame next to the rear view mirror, used autometer RPM gauge $10 ebay
 
my windshield defroster was useless on my 40 until I removed the two plasic rings that sit around the vent hole, squashed between the windshield and tub. They had warped/ bowed inward and practically sealed themselves shut.

-Dustin
 
lets see:

-I made this shovel & axe holder and saved BIG money.

- I made my own stone guards for rear tail lights see here

- I made my own cool rubber diamond plate floor mats see here

-I used a cookie pan to do this

- I modded some steps on rear bumper see here

- for 2 tnaks (front and rear) I rigged a setup to run 2 tanks on 1 gague see here

-I rigged this jeep rack (and made my own Hi Lift mounts) to work on my rig and saved BIG money

-I made my own light bulb for my pull on light switch on the dash becuase I could not find the right small size, I broke out the old bulb slowly, kept the copper body from said bulb, found a small bulb that had no body just wires from something else, soldered the wires togther that were still in the bulb body and pushed the new bulb down into the copper old bulb fitting and AHHHH - light up letters!

-I used a rubber Ford floor mat ($5.00) to build nice fender flares where the PO bobed the fenders for larger wheels
fender.jpg


-I used some flat metal wood tie-in plates for ply wood from Home Depot to make mounts for my front Baja lights to sit 3" back from the brush guard as the brush guard got in the way of where the lights 'were' mounted.
lights.jpg


-I rigged up a $5 Pep Boys rear license plate light as it is a law in CA and the PO removed it in place of the tire rack.

- I made a hand throttle out of a defunct Choke knob/cable.

- I painted a .50 cal ammo can black and mounted it under the drivers seat for extra storage (hard to see when black).

- I used flexible rifle cable locks as the locks to lock on my hi-lift and jerry can.
 
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Did you guys know you can get LED DASH lights now? Havn't got them yet but they are on the list. Saw them at PartSource for $11CDN for a pair. These are the ones that fit in the back of your gauge cluster..

Uh, I'll third the Silverstars - and a tune up.

Absolute cheapest -fuel economy improving mod... Fill tires to correct presure!!
 
I added a breather to my rear con-fer tank. I don't have to worry about the pump clicking off or gas-soaked shoes/pants.

I used one of the unsed bungs to run a brass nipple to 45 to 1/4 pipe-1/2 hose adaptor. Heli-arced a 1/2 hose barb 90 and then connected the two with 1/2 low pressure hydraulic hose. Fittings ran about 13 bucks from the local "everything is filed under misc" hardware store (love -em)

"Mod" number two:

Use low pressure hydraulic hose instead of gas hose. It is the same ID and OD but way tougher. About 2 bucks a foot.
 
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Vacuum hose for hood pads.

OEM pads on the cage at the knees and over head.

Leather wrapped steering wheel.

Cup holder on front of center console.

Snake light thingy on dash.

Rubber matting inside the tub area.

Fuel shutoff hidden under center console.

Power cutout keyswitch inside pocket (glove box).

Upgrade from CS130 to CS144 alternator from junk yard $40.

Fog and off road lights.

And some other stuff...

Oh and under hood light.
 
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Here is a freebie!

FREEBIE!

Find your door strikers, and take them off, then reinstal them upside down. They are a modular design so they fit perfect both ways, and you will have a set of brand new strikers for about 5 minutes of work.

NOTE: you will probably need an impact driver to break the old hardware loose.

Two less rattles!

FWIW, I think the best cheap mod is adjusting all the doors/latches and getting that thing close to rattle free.

Enjoy.

Rezarf <><
 
My cheapest and coolest mod was the replacement of the shifter knob on my SM420 in my '71 FJ40 with one from an FJ60 that I came across in the junkyard. I finally have a knob with the correct shifting pattern. Sweet, and practically free.

Now if I can only find a pocket plate with the 4spd shift pattern with the early vaccum Tcase shift pattern, I'd be all set. That might have to be a custom deal.
 
I made this with some bed rails left in a dumpster at work so just the cost of some welding wire and a few bolts (oh and the 12 pack for the two nights I worked on it)

mkc9ch.jpg
 
friend of mine gave me aset of long troop seats ,seeing how the p.o. removed rear seats,cage,and alot of other stuff......ahhhhh


now have seats in the rear... free
seat belts....15.00 (pepboys)
bolts/washers/nuts ...3.00

p.o. also mounted hella 500 lights on bumper and never wired em in ....

wire kit ... free
few hours to figure out what went where.


P.o. was cheap! replaced tail lights with aluminum bracket(my first time out bashed one on a rock found out they were alum.)


30 min with grinder...
2 new sealed slim line brake lights 2.99 ea
2 seals 1.99 ea
steel black angle iron brackets 7.00 each



theres more but i'll stop for now

laters
 
circuit

LandCruiserSteve said:
Just wire it to an ACC fuse.
Click to expand...
The circuit was fine. The reason the fuse was blowing (The dash and instrument lights) was the short to ground in the back-up switch itself.
 
Yep, the LEDs are a big help, under the dashboard, dome light, and heater area also benefit from this mod....it is so much brighter. I also used them for the marker lights.

MrMoMo said:
Did you guys know you can get LED DASH lights now? Havn't got them yet but they are on the list. Saw them at PartSource for $11CDN for a pair. These are the ones that fit in the back of your gauge cluster..

Uh, I'll third the Silverstars - and a tune up.

Absolute cheapest -fuel economy improving mod... Fill tires to correct presure!!
Click to expand...
 
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