Builds Civil_Offroad’s Battle Cruiser

[civil offroad]

Hey there MUD Fans

I have been a long time lurker (since 2010) on this forum prior to my first Hundy. But, money, time, and work never really permitted me to get deep into adventure. Then came 2017, when I stumbled upon this 99 Land Cruiser (1B1 Champagne Pearl) in San Luis Obispo, CA. I personally didn’t care for the color, fender flares, skinny tires, slammed lowered look, but it had a rear locker! So like everyone else with a build thread, I guess I’ll cave into the peer pressure and make a build log too!

Special Thanks to the following for the help, inspiration, and advise.
@benc
@TRAIL TAILOR
@ikarus
@Odyseuss
@REZARF
@SierraWheeler
@mrburlingame


Pictures when I brought it home.

Current Picture

The Ultimate Plan:
Build a well-equipped, practical, dependable, overlanding Battle Cruiser. I want to take the family out to Rubithon, Cruise Moab, HiH (If they let me in or maybe [ @benc ] Dissent Offroad will let me tag along with them HAHA), Mojave Desert Road, and other places!

One of major concerns: Being an overweight land anchor.

Phase 1: Clean up, Refit, and Maintenance.
Overall the truck was in ok shape. Frame was straight, didn’t appear to put on a frame jig. I am owner 5, the vehicle was an Los Angeles car most of its life with a brief stint in Texas. As with any great Battle Cruisers, a little TLC is required upfront

• Clean up was/is needed on the interior leather, engine bay, and wheels. (DONE)
• Recondition the leather (DONE)
• Swap out the hoses for the radiator and do the PM on the heater "T"s.
• Baseline all major fluids:
• Oil (COMPLETE JUNE ’17)
• Transmission (COMPLETE JUNE ’17)
• Transfer case (COMPLETE JUNE ’17)
• Front/Rear Diffs (COMPLETE JUNE ’17)
• Coolant (COMPLETE JUNE ’17)
• Powersteering (COMPLETE JUNE ’18)
• Brake Fluids (PENDING)
• Remove the obnoxious fender flares (DONE)
• Repaint underneath fender flares (DONE)

Phase 2: Building the “Battle Cruiser”
Suspension, Wheels and Tires:

• Tough Dog 2.5" lift (DONE)
• Tough Dog 45mm Shocks/ Heavy Rear Springs
• 35" tires either on the factory 16" or 2018 LC 18"s (DONE Well just the 33’s on factory 16”/ I have the 18 LC rims waiting for some new shoes)
• Trail Tailor Diff drop (DONE)
• Add Spider Trax 1.25" spacers on all 4 corners
• Trail Tailor Sway Bar Links F/R (DONE)

Armor Package/ Exterior Mods:

• Front Bumper: Dissent Offroad Aluminum Front Bumper with Complete Bull Bar (DONE)
• Skids: Dissent Offroad Complete Aluminum Skids (DONE)
• Sliders: Dissent Offroad Custom Aluminum Step Sliders (DONE)
• Rear Bumper: Dissent Offroad Aluminum No Cut Rear Bumper with Tire Carrier/ Flat platform accessory (DONE)
• Trail Tailor Rear LCA Armor
• Trail Tailor Rear Shock Armor
• Wrap it /or Paint It/ or Drive It (DRIVE IT)

Interior Mods:

• Clean and condition the leather (DONE)
• Repair front driver seat bucket
• Weather Tech floor liners
• Add a XM/Sirius Radio with BT
• Navigation App or System (Garmin Overlander/Gaia/Lowrance/iPad/Garmin Inreach)
• Re-Tint windows (The tint looks like it was eaten up by PO’s dog)
• Rear Drawers: Build or Buy it! Goose-Gear or Trekboxx (I know I know there $$$)
• Add one of the OBD2 Diagnostic devices, scan-gauge, iPhone app or similar. (DONE Scan GaugeII)
• Ham Radio install (MAYBE)
• Remove all the wood grained interior pieces (80% COMPLETE)
• Rewrap the leather steering wheel

Electrical:

• Hard-wire for Rear Accessories
• USB ports for front and rear passengers.
• Auxiliary fuse block small /I only plan on having the rear usb and fridge on full time “ON” (Blue Sea)
• LED cargo lighting for rear drawers
• Dual batteries or Group 31 main Goal Zero for Aux purposes
• Solar panel for the roof rack to run the fridge while camping
• Light Package up front (DONE/For Now: Baja Designs XL80-R in a box)
• Light Package Roof Rack (MAYBE)
• Rear Chase Light (Bar/Single/Nothing)
• Accessory switch controller (Switch Pro 9100 or SPOD Bantam)

Misc Accessories:

• Winch (DONE Warn VR12S/Factor 55 Expert)
• Although I had a build issue with this unit, I may move to another winch later. See my build notes
• Snorkel
• Roof rack (DONE/Dissent Offroad)
• Aux Fuel tank (Long Range Automotive)
• Roof Top Tent/ Oz Ground Tent
• 2.5 gal rotopax Fuel and Water
• Recovery Kit (DONE/but always evolving Tough Dog Recovery Kit)
• Recovery Boards (Treds/Maxtraxx)
• Tool Kit (DONE/but always evolving inspired by Jonathan Hanson’s article One Box Tool Kit)
• Pull-Pall 14k

Phase 3: Enjoying the Damn Thing
INITIAL SHAKEDOWN RUN

• Prairie City OHV CA (Scheduled)

PLANNED Trips

• Hundreds in the Hills
• Rubithon
• Cruise Moab
• Mojave Desert Road
• King of the Hammers
• Baja
• Signal Peak (Scheduled)
• Soda Springs Fire Roads
• Alaska/Dempster Highway/AlCan Highway
• Basic Camping with Family

 

[ikarus]

Looks great man!

 

[yotasavg]

Sweet truck! You local to Gold Country area? I'm frequently in/out of Grass Valley and Auburn, and also over to South Tahoe.

 

[civil offroad]

Looks great man!

Thanks man. Next step is figuring out how to take proper pictures!

Sweet truck! You local to Gold Country area? I'm frequently in/out of Grass Valley and Auburn, and also over to South Tahoe.

Thanks. Im in the Sacramento Area. I visit friends in the Grass Valley/ Auburn/ South Lake area.

 

[civil offroad]

So, when I brought it home I got started digging into it. So my first stop was the MUD bible: 100 series FAQ! I then started with a baseline of all fluids. Since I have some personal conflicts I decided to bring my rig to my personal Toyota Tech (I have a family friend who worked at a Toyota Dealer for 30 years). Of course, he works on stuff within his retired schedule. Its all good, he has a lift, a secure place to store my rig, and the right tools.

Upon some further digging we discovered, that the front diff may have taken a dump. I observed a streak of dried up gear oil which goes from front to back. The axles are replaced and are aftermarket. The transmission and transfer case fluid appeared to be fine and no metal material.

January 2018, I went for the first mod. Tires… went with the BFG AT Ko2’s in the 285-75-R16 flavor. Noticed a huge difference in handling. Not sure if its good or bad, but time will tell.

Once again special “Thanks” to Ben and the Dissent Offroad Team for being a part of my Battle Cruiser Build

November 2018, Ben made the announcement he was designing a “No Cut Rear Bumper” for the 100 series. Which would not require the removal of the rear cross member. At the time, I was on the fence on which tire carrier to go with. All of them out there provide the necessary ground clearance, but I really didn’t care to mess with the frame. I left a message with Ben the next day and proceeded to get my order squared away. I remember telling Ben: Im going with the complete Dissent Offroad package!

At the same time, I worked on a couple requests for my rig:

Suspension Install:

Well I felt kind of silly having this built rig on stock suspension. So off went the call to Jason @TrailTailor for the Tough Dog 2.5 inch lift. Jason is a pretty cool guy, calling to confirm my order and “Tailored” my purchase to my current/future needs. I mean that’s something and I appreciate the customer service!

Custom Work on Rear Bumper:

I also ordered a set of Roadvision Turn, Tail, Reverse lights for the back bumper. Been a fan of Trail Tailor and Slee 200 series Rear bumper setups which integrate the light similar to how the Aussies run them.

Custom Sliders:

Finally another part which I wanted to set the Battle Cruiser apart were the sliders. I asked if Ben could build me a set of sliders, he said he would be happy to. I was not a huge fan of the standard go to DOM slider. Although many great builders out there have great slider products. I still was not convinced and I was not into the Helicopter skids look. So, I talked with Ben a little more and we discussed a set of sliders for my project. My biggest request was it had to have some type of surface to step for my wife. Ben looked into alternative methods, possibly extrusion, possibly expanding the press brake, but at the time we both didn’t know.

So, I dropped the Battle Cruiser on March 2019. I received a progress picture a couple days later with Ben letting me know that the suspension install went smooth.

 

[greasem0nkey86]

Looks great! Looking forward to where you mount the rear aux fuse block!

 

[REZARF]

Whoa, rad truck!

 

[civil offroad]

Lets continue on this journey. Every great story has a tiny bit of drama. As the team at Dissent was mocking up the front bumper, I received a call from Ben with some bad news. The WARN VR-12S winch I had ordered was not right. It was bent in the shape of a happy face but, I was not happy about it. So here begins the bit of drama we had with WARN.

First off, let me begin by saying when you receive something from AMAZON, go ahead and check it. Even if the box looks pristine. So the WARN rep on the other line stated that the issue was outside of the return window and no longer their problem. I was instructed to contact Amazon about my issue. I was a month past the return window, but WARN refused to take the unit back. I was told to return the unit to an authorized service dealer for inspection and diagnosis. Well you know what that means!

Box with no major damage. Just the superficial frayed corners.

In the box once it was opened

On the table

Up close look at the bend.

So, Ben told me that the unit was out about an inch at the bottom and a quarter of an inch at the top. Well, after some MORE discussion with a couple of Warn’s regional sales people, Warn's Technical Staff, and the great help of Dissent Off-road. We got some parts and were able to get the unit squared away.

I'm not going to use the internet here to lay out the complete (he said/ she said) conversation about this incident. My intentions here are more of a PSA to others. I am sorry to say, all that should have never happened. Unfortunately, I drew the short straw with this Warn product.

As I have mentioned in another thread, I will run this until it breaks and I am going with another product.

 

[REZARF]

Wow, the forces needed to bend that sucker are way up there! I’d be interested to hear the whole story. Maybe around a campfire one day. I hope it runs well for you. Every warn winch I’ve owned has been a workhorse.

 

[civil offroad]

Well, lets continue on... Meanwhile during our little dilemma. Conversations back and forth with Ben, it almost seemed like the slider part of the build was not going to make it. At the time of the build, Ben was looking at alternative ways of building the sliders and at the time it just didn’t make business sense to go a different route. I can respect that and I appreciated the honesty from Ben during the whole build experience! So I began to look around at alternatives to sliders. But, I switched on the InstaG and photos of the Dissent 200 series sliders came up!

And so, I continued the update calls between Ben and myself. I felt like I constantly bothered them about the condition of my rig. As I write this, I have to remember that Ben stands by his product and this is evident at how he’d rather take up more time to make sure its done right. Soon after, this appeared on the gram!

 

[civil offroad]

Continuing on...

So to answer some questions from [ @ftzgrlds1 @TidalVA ] Yes, I am the fella that Ben built the 100 series sliders for. As stated in the beginning, I wanted a step rather than DOM. Ben built some Aluminum Step sliders for his 200 and at that point I was SOLD.

I chose Aluminum for a couple reasons:
1.) I don't plan on diving into the first rock garden I see. But, if it came to it, these steps will protect the lower rocker.
2.) I wanted to maintain the lightweight theme. The tops are Aluminum and have a grip texture, but that is more of the BLK1 powdercoat from the coater. The texture is similar to skateboard tape, but not as rough.

Overall, I love the look! I talked to Ben after his recent trip to MOAB and the 200 series sliders worked well for him. I will report back my results once I get this thing into a tough spot and have to use them.

 

[civil offroad]

Been away from the Battle Cruiser build log. So after bringing it home from @benc I decided to tackle a couple things off my list. One of them was to address the leak inside the cabin which was discovered by Ben while at his place. Second was to address the ugly fender flares.

I began by removing the interior trim, which in itself was quite a task. Ben informed me that it was possible that water was getting in through the rear quarter glass windows. So after removing the carpet and side molding I water tested the quarter glass. Sure enough, water was leaking in and dripping onto the top of the rear air system.

It took some delicate prying to get to this point. Its tempting to just start pulling and yanking some of these trim pieces out of there.

The carpet was soaked after removing from the rig.

I did notice that the window was not tightened down all the way from the latch. I thought this was the issue, but I was wrong. After a water test I noticed that it was leaking out of the trim on the lower part of the picture.

Here is a picture of the trim. It appears to be missing two of the four gaskets. So, off to Mr. Toyota and ordered two trim pieces for both Left and Right.

It just erks me to think that the previous owners drove this vehicle this way for who knows how long and never mentioned to think. "Jeez what was the smell back there?" Or "why is this carpet wet after a storm?" Oh well, time to just move on.

 

[civil offroad]

Next up. Removing the fender flares. I began this part of the adventure back in January prior to dropping my rig to Ben. From the guidance I found here on MUD, I ordered a 3M eraser wheel and went to town. I more or less found that the paint did in fact matched under the fender flares.

Here the adhesive was stuck on there as usual. From what I discovered, go easy on the eraser wheel.

Here on the passenger side, the previous owner used self tapping screws to secure the flares onto the rig. I also, went a little crazy on the eraser wheel here. You can see a bit of paint work being heated off from the eraser wheel.

 

[civil offroad]

After getting the rig back from Ben's it was time to address the paint. I ordered the B1B paint from Automotive Touch Up. I don't own a fancy compressor, so I asked for an aerosol can of the matched paint. From what learned from any automotive show growing up, "its all about the prep". Of course I would just DIE if I put an idiot mark on those nice bumpers and sliders that were just put on.

Of course, I wet sanded with 800 grit and wiped off with a clean microfiber towel. Automotive Touchup offers this "Prep Solv" which I used prior to spraying the paint.

 

[civil offroad]

After about 3 coats of base and 2 coats of clear. I ended up with the finished product.

Of course, it looks great from 15 feet away and I am not a pro painter of even the amateur variety. Besides this is an off road rig and my plans are to take it off road. I do need to polish the obvious blend line I made, but I was hoping some pin striping will take care of this desire to want to do something drastic. Maybe I can be brave and just do a complete repaint. TRD Cement Gray or the TRD Quicksand?

 

[REZARF]

You should wet sand the blend line, then polish the paint... it'll blend mo' better.

 

[civil offroad]

@REZARF Thanks for the tip!

 

[civil offroad]

Been working hard at real work and not the Battle Cruiser.

Here are some pics from first outing at Signal Peak back in July 2019. Tried to go up the Cisco Grove side during the holiday. There was a bit of snow still up there at the time and well we came across this simple snow bank. I decided to lock up the back and give it a go. Well what looked like a simple deal turned into a sideways off camber trot. Being my first go with the rig and my 4 month pregnant wife gave me the "You can stop now" look. I decided to back out and call it a day. It was fun to take the rig out for the first time.

 

[civil offroad]

Been while away writing about this wonderful ride. Been a little busy with life and not project Battle Cruiser.

But because I am fairly new to the off-road/overland life. I decided to take a off road class in Sept. In between this time, I wanted to build a basic drawer system to carry my tools, air up/down kit, and recovery tools. So off to the Home Store and buy some 3/4 inch plywood. Inspired by @REZARF and his basic build! I wanted a space for a fridge and two drawers. The basic dimensions are 42in by 40in. The height of the larger drawer is 10 inches and the smaller drawer is 5 inches both are 36in in depth.

My future plan for the drawers is to get a fridge/freezer into the left side, get some tie down system for the right side. Also, I would like to add a cargo barrier system and maybe build some type of separation between the fridge and rest of the drawer system. Finish of the drawers will be truck bed liner.

 

[civil offroad]

Worked on color matching the belt trim which "fell off" when I removed the fender flares. Another great plug for Automotive Touchup. The color match performs very well. My best friend told me that the color match is spot on and he's a pro painter for a living. Word of note here, use the 3M double sided tape and use the clips.

Finally, with everything at a decent place. I proceeded to an Introduction to Offroad Class at Prairie City OHV.