Dingo Do Over (3 Viewers)

[shermantank55]

2020 marks the 10th anniversary of Dingo's adoption by our family. And Dingo's 25th birthday!
Dingo has been a loyal and trustworthy companion, logging thousands of off pavement miles through California, Oregon, Nevada and Utah.
The original build thread is here: Builds - Introducing FZJ 80 "Dingo"
While I have stayed up on regular tasks, I decided it was time to give Dingo some more in depth maintenance, cleaning and some upgrades.

Hope this thread gives others some ideas, as I have taken hundreds from other posts over the years. More to follow.
Current status:
1995 FZJ-80
276K miles (about 40k on engine rebuild)
Supercharger
Ultragauge monitor
OME 3" heavy spring suspension
Cooper ST/Maxx 255/85 tires
ARB front, rear bumpers with custom 3 can holder
Warn XD9500 winch w/ synthetic cable
Blue Sea dual battery setup
HID converted spot lights with LED light bar in front
ARB touring rack with Tepui awning and LED lighting
Brush wires
Safari Snorkel
ARB steps (converted to sliders)
Al's bed liner
BMW seats
Drawer/Fridge system with cargo barrier
Custom flip up cargo doors with LED lighting
Onboard air (viair 400c) with tanks
GMRS radio
Backup camera
20mm Ammo can center console

 

[shermantank55]

I have been fortunate enough to move to Free America where we could buy some land and build a shop bigger than our previous home in CA.

Plans:
Clean up 10 years of wiring clutter throughout
Tune up auto transmission (shift kit, adjustments)
Install 2nd air compressor and upgrade wiring
Rewire main battery terminals
New Stereo with android and bluetooth and backup camera monitor
Wire aux fan with switch
Install sound proofing inside so I can actually hear a phone call
New windshield
Fabricate aluminum extrusion roof rack
Wire rack lights independently
Update dual battery system
Detail exterior black trim
Install rear awning
Air bags in rear springs
New cargo drawers/kitchen design
Skid plate under transfer case

It begins:

 

[shermantank55]

Here's some before interior photos:

 

[shermantank55]

My son Alex and I removed the rat's nests of wiring, and most of the interior so we could install this sound deadener and foam (products are from Noico and seem to be great quality and reasonable cost)

 

[shermantank55]

Spent this weekend cleaning up under the hood. Installed a new Blue Sea Systems dual battery controller-ML-ACR so I can have manual control over connecting the two batteries. Also installed a 120v battery charger, military style terminals and a dual 300 amp fuse block on the positive terminal. One for the vehicle electrics, one for the dual compressors. And...based on discussion with Viair I purchased a second 400C compressor so now I have two compressors and 5 gallons worth of tanks.
You may already know not to do this... but I had connected my compressor to the aux battery which constantly caused issues with charging and draining. I now have both compressors and the winch connected directly to the starter battery and run the engine when using the compressors or the winch.

 

[shermantank55]

Alex prepped and painted the grille and headlight trim back to semi-gloss black. I reworked the aux battery with two circuit breakers, and installed the second compressor where the spare used to ride.

 

[shermantank55]

Inside the rear quarter panel I built a sub-panel for the rear electrics; routed the air compressor filters and diff breather into the space and fashioned a bracket to mount them. The rear panel will provide power for the rack mounted LED lights, the spare tire mounted LED work light, the interior LED lighting, a USB outlet, and the refrigerator.

 

[shermantank55]

Progress: Finished up rewiring the interior. There are 6 slot Buss fuse blocks in left rear quarter and under right toe kick.
Reworked the center console I had made from a 20mm can ( New Dingo Project-ammo can console ) -uprgaded cup holders ( (AC-015-F) 15 Series Nylon Cup Holder w/mounting hardware (M5 x 16mm Flat Head & QT-015-M5) | TNUTZ | TNUTZ )
and added new USB outlets at the rear of the console.

( Amazon product ASIN B07P2CPC5G ).
We repainted with Krylon "Otter Brown" which goes well with the original interior colors ( https://www.lowes.com/pd/Krylon-FUS...r-In-One-Actual-Net-Contents-12-oz/1000460213 ).

Got the BMW seats reinstalled and the electrics working on them.

 

[Goforth]

looking great Greg! I ordered the usb charger for my own project. let me know if you need any wiring loom, I still have plenty!

 

[shermantank55]

Cleaned up the dash with new Kenwood Android Auto unit ( Kenwood Excelon DMX706S Digital multimedia receiver (does not play CDs) at Crutchfield ) (eliminating phone holder, backup camera screen and Garmin GPS. Added the blue sea dual battery controller. Wired the electric fan to a switch. Reinstalled "Monterey Jack" in his overwatch position.

 

[shermantank55]

looking great Greg! I ordered the usb charger for my own project. let me know if you need any wiring loom, I still have plenty!

Thanks Charles. I followed some advice from the Expedition Overland guys and have wrapped most of my wiring with this. I think it's what you have? I like it because it is heat resistant and won't retain water like the solid plastic loom. I used it in 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2":

Amazon product ASIN B07FW4M7Z8

While rewiring, I found several frayed wires where they had simply rubbed against each other or the body or something, which could have been bad!

 

[shermantank55]

Received my GMRS external speaker today. It's bigger than I expected, but was able to fit it into the passenger side factory dash speaker space once I removed the non-functioning amp. It's the Uniden Bearcat 15 watt speaker.

Amazon product ASIN B009PIRPG0
Fits perfectly.

 

[shermantank55]

Roof Rack!
I decided to let my trusty ARB touring rack go. It's carried a lot of stuff, heavy stuff, and it's heavy.
Instead I thought I'd try to build my own. Based on some other threads here, I sketched the dimensions and ordered aluminum extrusions from Tnutz. 10 Series Extrusions | TNUTZ
I used 1x2 horizontal bars and 1x1 quarter round for the perimeter. I ordered Smittybilt's 8 pack of clamps.
Not bad for a paper sketch and measuring the ARB rack. Happy to share my parts list if anyone else is interested. Took me a day to put together (including my time figuring out how to attach the clamps to the aluminum... Total cost was around $750 with shipping.

 

[shermantank55]

And on Dingo...

 

[Goforth]

And on Dingo...View attachment 2381464View attachment 2381465View attachment 2381466View attachment 2381468

Looks fantastic!!!! I’ll bring over Domo for the next one

 

[shermantank55]

Got the lights installed under the rack and a side and rear awning.
The slotted aluminum makes cable routing clean and easy with these: (AC-015-A) 15 Series 1/4-Turn Drop-In Cable Tie | TNUTZ | TNUTZ

 

[shermantank55]

Dingo's Adventure Garage Update: Decided to rebuild the drawer system. Salvaged what I could from the old one, refinished the cabinet and designed a new kitchen using locking slides and 1/2" baltic birch plywood. Smells like Ikea inside.
Progress pictures:

 

[shermantank55]

Kitchen is now complete. I used RV levels on the drawer to level the stove. Aluminum trim around birch plywood drawer fronts and spring loaded pulls finish the system.

 

[Dissent]

Great work overall, I really like how the rack came together. Love that kitchen pop up shelf to double your surface area for sorting through that box.

 

[shermantank55]

Great work overall, I really like how the rack came together. Love that kitchen pop up shelf to double your surface area for sorting through that box.

Thanks Dissent. Last kitchen required moving gear to get into the box. These struts are awesome and allow me to keep gear on the table and to sort thru the rest.
Don't take up much space at all.
The rack saved me about 100 pounds on the roof. Easy to mount the awnings.
Cheers,
Greg