Builds Evolution of a Land Cruiser: My 80's build thread (2 Viewers)

[jcardona1]

ROOF RACK PART III

Well yesterday I posted an album of the rack to Reddit's DIY section. That s*** blew up! 2600 upvotes and 550 comments. It also blew up on Imgur. As of right now it has 421,290 views in 24hrs Who would have thought a stupid metal rack would have been such a hit. Yesterday while working on the truck in my driveway a guy walking his dog recognized the truck and said "Hey - you know you made it to the front page of Imgur right?" The internet is a strange, strange place.

I also pissed off the internet and gave them all blue balls since I didn't post pics of it installed. I installed it last night after work. So without further adieu, here's pictures on the truck! At this point it wasn't bolted down. I just laid it on there to mark the holes in the mounting plates. I then had to take it down again, drill the holes then get it back up there. All with one set of hands. That really sucked. Good thing I had the Monstaliner otherwise I would have destroyed the paint.

I'm getting anxiety just thinking of taking it down again for painting.

Check out the clearance Not even room for a bee's dick. The most rearward d-ring actually scrapes the whole way in. Grazed the paint of the house. The truck can absolutely NOT go higher if I want to keep the rack on and fit in the garage. If I take a big enough dump in the morning and relieve myself of 5lbs I may not make it out of the garage.

 

[pilotuku]

It's a good thing you have a sick on board air... Just deflate and inflate... Lol...

If I hit the mega lotto i'll buy your rig... name your price ..

kiddin' aside, that is a bad ass rig Jose... I hope to get a good glimpse of it on the lake basin trip...

 

[TYM4FUN]

So you got my order I put in for my rack, right???......

 

[lumbee1]

I saw your post on Reddit earlier today

 

[tirewater]

Perhaps you could slot the towers where the two button head bolts are to lower the rack? Not that you'd want to do that for eight towers.

Any chance accelerating into or out of the garage would cause the ends of the racks to touch the lintel/head part of the garage door opening?

 

[Finnyfam60]

J

 

[Razor One]

How much more involved do you think it would be to cut the fenders with a 2.5 lift and those 37s?

 

[jcardona1]

So you got my order I put in for my rack, right???......

LOL, I don't think you want me building you a rack...I can't imagine how crooked and warped it is

Perhaps you could slot the towers where the two button head bolts are to lower the rack? Not that you'd want to do that for eight towers.

Any chance accelerating into or out of the garage would cause the ends of the racks to touch the lintel/head part of the garage door opening?

You know, I have been thinking of that. I think that will be my next route if the truck needs to be raised a bit. But I'd have to cut the studs down too since they're already making contact with the mounting plates of the rack.

J

WAT

How much more involved do you think it would be to cut the fenders with a 2.5 lift and those 37s?

The front should be the same amount of work really. The problem is going to be the rear. There isn't much room to trim because of the rear door. You'd have to do a lot of cutting and body work on that rear quarter panel.

 

[jcardona1]

TRIMMING FOR THE 37s

Since I never really did post full details of the tire install here we go. This is what the truck looked like right after installing the tires. I could drive it, but barely. The tires would rub at even the slightest turn which I was expecting.

As I've mentioned before, I don't want to lift the truck any higher. For one, it has to fit in my garage. Two, it's already tippy enough and all the trails in my area are off-camber over rocks. I don't feel safe going higher. And lastly, handling on a lifted 80 is already crappy, I didn't want to make it even worse by going taller.

So I took off the fender and saw what I was working with. The entire inner fender would need to move up and out of the way. You can see the tire was also hitting my slider. I ended up cutting about 2" off of the slider.

I made several straight cuts into the inner fender then proceeded to bend it up and out of the way.

I then cut a 3" arc out of the front fender. This should be enough to clear the tires for most of my driving. Crawling won't be a problem now, but we'll see how it handles hitting a big bump at decent speed. I'll also need to come up with a plan for attaching the inner fender to the outer fender just so it looks decent.

The rear was fine for typical driving but I knew it would rub when offroad. And I got a good taste of that yesterday. Went to lake for a swim with some friends (the rack worked great to hold the kayak by the way )

On the way out I like to take a pretty difficult climb which is steep and very rutted. It makes the truck lean and stuff the rear tires a lot. Here's an older pic when I was on 35s

With 37s the fender was NOT having it. The tire stuffed inside and on the way out it caught the lip and bent it pretty bad. It even warped the body panel a bit.

Now what? Out comes the grinder. I cut about 1" from the rear fender, removing the enter lip that curls in. If you look inside your rear wheel well, I cut so curve of the inner fender is flush with the outer fender.

This is the gap that's left after cutting. I plan to add a thin strip of metal and weld the two fenders shut again. I'll need to do this sooner rather than later as the inside of the cab is now exposed to dust and mud and water.

After cutting! If you look closely under the door you can see where it's a bit warped from when the tire was stuffed. This should give me plenty of room now. Nothing for the tire to get caught on. Worst case scenario is that it bends the inner fender up more while flexing.

Wish I could cut out more from the rear to make it look "level". The truck is level but the amount I cut from the front makes it look uneven. Oh well

 

[toyotaaddict83]

José, Your rig still has a bad a$$ stance to it. My complements to your chop shop division. Now go enjoy that cruiser and post more of your pictures on Instagram, cause they are way awesome too.

 

[AMMO]

Folsom Lake?

 

[Razor One]

Do you have bump-stop extensions?

 

[jcardona1]

José, Your rig still has a bad a$$ stance to it. My complements to your chop shop division. Now go enjoy that cruiser and post more of your pictures on Instagram, cause they are way awesome too.

Thanks man, I'll keep doing my best

Folsom Lake?

Yes sir!

Do you have bump-stop extensions?

Yup, I have the FOR lift and the extensions that came with that kit. You can see them here.

 

[UniquE]

Why you no swap cruiser with me

Awesome job on the roof rack. Wish I was as brilliant with basic sheet metal as you are

Could you tell me the color of your rims and the antene you are using for the radio, does it fit well with the snorkel?

 

[jcardona1]

Why you no swap cruiser with me

Awesome job on the roof rack. Wish I was as brilliant with basic sheet metal as you are

Could you tell me the color of your rims and the antene you are using for the radio, does it fit well with the snorkel?

Thanks! Glad you like it

The rims were painted with this color here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009XB3HM/?tag=ihco-20 The antenna is a cheap rubber unit from a local auto parts store. The snorkel requires modification to fit around any antenna. The easiest way is to heat it up and mode the shape of the antenna into the snorkel.

 

[RockJock82]

I vote for Toyos... I have 3 years of daily driving on my mt's and wheel the piss of them and still have 1/2 tread.. The nittos would look cool if you grooved them

 

[RockJock82]

I vote for Toyos... I have 3 years of daily driving on my mt's and wheel the piss of them and still have 1/2 tread.. The nittos would look cool if you grooved them

 

[newtomelx]

Jose, what are the dimensions of the FOR bump stop extension? Is that a 1 1/2" x 3 piece of rectangular tube?

 

[OGBeno]

So, a few enquiring minds want to know:

Are you ever going to wheel this thing or are you just going to continue posting shots of this thing going to places that Subaru wagons go to stock?

I mean 8 pages ago thing thing was ready to do the Rubicon and Fordyce...

.... I'm all for nicely done mods and uber bling (you have both, pages and pages of it).

Can we see this thing become its destiny or what?



Thanks. Back to the photo montages.

 

[jcardona1]

I vote for Toyos... I have 3 years of daily driving on my mt's and wheel the piss of them and still have 1/2 tread.. The nittos would look cool if you grooved them

Too late, I went with the Toyo Mud Grapplers a few pages back!

Jose, what are the dimensions of the FOR bump stop extension? Is that a 1 1/2" x 3 piece of rectangular tube?

Yeah pretty much. They're 3" tall, 2" wide and 5" long.

So, a few enquiring minds want to know:

Are you ever going to wheel this thing or are you just going to continue posting shots of this thing going to places that Subaru wagons go to stock?

I mean 8 pages ago thing thing was ready to do the Rubicon and Fordyce...

.... I'm all for nicely done mods and uber bling (you have both, pages and pages of it).

Can we see this thing become its destiny or what?



Thanks. Back to the photo montages.

Man, every time you post in my thread you're talking s***. My truck bug you that much? All that hate is clouding your ability to read. When's the last time you drove a Subaru through Snake Lake? Or Slick Rock? Or Signal Peak? Or the black diamond trails at Hollister? You said you lived in this area, did you run Fordyce too?

Just stick to what you're good at - selling car parts