Buggy out an FJ80?

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woytovich

woytovich

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A local buddy of mine has a 91 FJ80 that is quite well built but is a bit of a fright to look at... a few trail "adjustments' to the sheet metal and a general approach of uglyness - in a really cool trail truck way. He is moving on to a "nicer" LX450 and we were talking about the potential fate of his 80.

My question is: are folks taking super-capable trucks like this and loving the "ugly" with no worries about trail damage? It has everything and will go everywhere you point it for the most part: ARB lockers, protection all around, VERY well maintained mechanically.... really ready-to-go.

Is this a good platform to build into a buggy-ish or or just to wheel the piss out of as-is?

Mark
 
Yes people have done it (although usually with the FZJ80), yes it works well, yes it's a good platform.

Search man, search!!
 
Well then why won't somebody buy it so I don't have to have evil thoughts of getting ANOTHER cruiser!!?!?!?!?!?
 
I think this one was around 4500lbs with all that cage. A simpler non- family cage and those 37's would probably tip scales at 4300lbs. An 80 at this weight would be nice offroad with gears in tcase and axles
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bugsnbikes said:
I think this one was around 4500lbs with all that cage. A simpler non- family cage and those 37's would probably tip scales at 4300lbs. An 80 at this weight would be nice offroad with gears in tcase and axlesView attachment 887954
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this one it's very sweet .. altho I would like to see one with even less panels on front .. I mean this one appears to have all front clip ..
 
Here's one at our fall crawl 2013, Iron Pigified.

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The key would to keep it light as possible - and keep to 37's . 80 axles pushing 4000lbs should be pretty bulletproof on 37s and go about anywhere. Once you go over 37 or start adding stupid cage/slider weight you basically will need to rebuild the whole thing from ground up ( stronger axles/3link etc etc) and the slipperynslope begins a fast downward spiral.

Things I'd do to keep weight down-

- chop in toward seats on sides and eliminate need for longish sliders. The narrower an 80 is in this area basically eliminates areas that need to be protected. I'd just run a slider half size and waaaaaay up high. Light d.o.m.
- just run a simple hoop over driver and triangulate it for strength. Will function well to protect you while not adding the 250+ more pounds a family cage would have.
 
been done a bunch of times. We built the Franken80 a couple years ago. Caged, 39s, chromo everything, geared and beat on. Also suggest keeping on 37s on the rig, The Franken80 keeps breaking front axle parts to include 1 R&P set, knuckle studs, hub studs and now a locker. ARP'd studs going in everything in front does help but tires I'm guessing are the culprit behind multiple breakages.

build thread here: https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/the-official-fraken80-schedule80-build-thread.552636/

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Our intension was to build a 5 seater and since we get rain even the summer at elevation, we kept the roof.we wanted sound so we built a computer designed ported box for 2 12 inch Kenwood comp speakers behind the rear seat. With the ports along the fenders.

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Has anyone tried putting an F-Toy 2 or 4 seat on the FJ/FZJ80 frame? I keep thinking about this for if my 80 becomes a raisin. Should that come to be, I also want to pull the heavy engine and trans and convert to something I can run with generic dual cases...
 
green73 said:
Has anyone tried putting an F-Toy 2 or 4 seat on the FJ/FZJ80 frame? I keep thinking about this for if my 80 becomes a raisin. Should that come to be, I also want to pull the heavy engine and trans and convert to something I can run with generic dual cases...
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Seems like it'd be much easier to throw 80 axles under a mini if you're going to get rid of the body/engine/trans/xfer case...
 
True in that, but what about retaining the 80s coil spring suspension and maybe e-lockers... 6 of 1, 1/2 dozen of another I guess. I wonder with stock height or a mild lift how the FJ80 set-up would work as an F-toy with OE engine/Trans or what I threw out as an idea.
 
The problem I've seen with 80's as a hard core rig is the lack of gearing options available. Yes you can gear the T-case (+/-25% lower) and diffs to 5.29 but don't think you can get close the T-Case options found in the mini truck world, ie. dual cases w/ 4.7. Now that being said I heard recently of an 80 doubler kit out there, would be interesting to see specs and cost.
 
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