For the past two years I’ve been looking for an FZJ80 to restore/refresh for my personal daily driver. I caught the Land Cruiser affliction back in 2018 and have had a couple dozen of Land Cruisers since. This is my first 80 and I’m thrilled to share the progress with all of you and some fun little things about the build.
A little bit about the rig - it’s a 1997 Desert Dune on Moonglow with Oak factory triple locked cruiser that spent 1 year in Pennsylvania and the rest of its life in Port Angeles, Washington. 2 owner rig and it was owned by an older couple and was the wife’s daily driver for 18 years. I purchased it in January and it was in great condition - albeit it was neglected with some major services/restoration I was willing to tackle.
Here are some photos from the classifieds listing and a photo after I drove it home next to a 100 series I had for a couple months
My first major project was to have it professionally dry ice cleaned and remove all signs of that first year of life in Pennsylvania. It’s incredible what a thorough dry ice cleaning can do.
Once the dry ice was finished the first major mechanical project was on deck.
Rebuilt the front end, added substantially improved braking via DBA rotors, pads, stainless steel lines and was able to do a full Dobinsons IMS suspension. My friends at Proffitt’s Resurrection Land Cruiser swear by the Dobinsons kit and I was blown away. The final piece was ordering around $1200 worth of OEM bushings, motor mounts, and other goodies from PartSorq to make this truck basically drive like new.
My preference and aesthetic is always for an OEM+ look so I went with the 1.75inch lift with comfort shocks for the IMS - drives better than most of the 100’s I’ve had.
Factory Wheel Outlet here in Portland helped with a restoration on the wheels and mounting up some 295/75/16 (34 inch) Toyo Open Country AT3 wheels. They were able to replicate the factory machined finish perfectly and we did all 5 with a matching spare.
Probably my favorite update to date was the interior refresh. I was able to source some OEM Toyota foam seat bottoms + backs to pair with the Mosley Motors leather kit. My upholsterer was impressed with the set and so far they have held up well (3 months or so).
Reupholstered the steering wheel, automatic transmission lever and fixed some carpet on the doors. We also added heated seat elements to the front two seats and sourced some new JDM OEM seat heater switches.
I decided to replace the fake wood trim and found a supplier in Florida that had the cherrywood match - I haven’t decided if I will keep it but it does make the interior period correct.
One small detail that I also obsessed over was the key for the truck. I’ve done some crazy keys for other projects (air cooled 911’s have the best toys) and felt the truck needed something special. I decided to match the and do a two tone key in factory colors with the LC logo.
Thank you and agreed. I have some drivetrain plans which I will share in the Fall once I get more information on if I’ll be doing a full rebuild or not. The compression is great on this truck but compared to our 200 series it’s a tractor
I looked for a couple of weeks for an OEM windshield but couldn’t find anything in new condition but we went ahead and replaced all the window gaskets, matte black window trim, door gaskets and window regulators.
The truck has OEM glass all around and the new trim made a tremendous difference
Disclaimer: This is where it got a little obscene as I decided to replicate some OEM+ stereos I had done with previous builds.
The sub-enclosure, tweeter pods, and speaker brackets were all custom fabricated and the objective was to hide everything so you’d never know. The final result is incredible but cost more than the purchase price of the truck
First step was a full sound insulation of all doors, panels and cargo compartments
We decided to go with a DSP system and my friend surprised me with a custom bracket with iconography.
All new speaker wiring along the main wiring looms and we replaced the vapor barriers which had been popped (surely some window motor fixing in the past)
I’ve learned long ago that the smaller and more minimal something is - often the more expensive. Have done a lot of custom Land Cruiser Stereo’s but never an 80. These doors and thin and we had to leverage custom brackets and 3D modeling to get these Morel Nano Carbon’s to fit
The rear doors provided the most hassle and a modern BMW spec’d speaker can fit with some custom bracket work. You can see the comparison from the OEM speaker in the last photo
One of my main requests was to have independent volume and sub controls available next to the shifter. I hate on modern head units pressing the up and down buttons and on a lower mounted spot like the 80 it’s a terrible driving experience.
The center console was a prime location for this (along with the usb port) these were custom fabricated out of billet and should be able to have these made again for others
The tweeters were also challenging - 4 seperate prints and we still couldn’t get fitment right. Had to step up the Morel Nano Carbons and the mount is OEM+
They will be able to make these out of ABS plastic for sure next time
Here is the full set-up with the panels back on and the head unit installed with the custom center console.
We leveraged a USB-C fast charging port alongside a traditional USB port. The USB-C can charge the iPhone and the Sony Head Unit is wireless CarPlay/android auto. I’ve used wireless charging mats in the past but had to draw the line somewhere
After stereo did some paint touch up - with a restoration of the running boards, mud flaps, bumpers, fender flares and gaskets. I also removed the trailer hitch and cleaned up some scratches from the hardware.
The truck could use some touch up in more Desert Dune spots and will tackle that next Spring
