F(Z)J80 v8 (1 Viewer)

[SNLC]

Guess we are not going camping for the 4th...

That is 3-weekends away so yes we still may be.



Cheers

 

[SNLC]

Just ordered up a Slee short bus front bumper, Warn 9.5 winch and 14" LED bar to top it all off. Bumper is back ordered until the end of the month but otherwise done deal. This should bling bing the truck up a bit!

Now if I get super lucky I will have it all done and ready to go for a trip on the 4th of July.

Cheers

 

[mgilvan]

wow nice , love the work you done ,
i saw a video on youtube of your patrol with portals that thing was sick
a general question
If I were to swap a diesel in a fzj 96 but I want to use a fj transmission would ECU have any problem with that regarding the check engine light?
Or it’s as easy as disconnecting the wires?

 

[SNLC]

Sneak peek at what is in the works...

The rust spot that needed repair was just to the right of the inside mirror along the seam where the windshield gasket goes. You can see it is long gone now!

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

9ft long roof gutter rails showed up locally last week. Toyota finally charged me for all the parts I ordered 2-weeks ago on Friday so hoping they shipped out then or today. Body & paint work should all be done before the 4th of July, including all the new rubber. Up in the air on the Slee bumper, winch and LED bar. Regardless, I am planning a 3-day camping trip for the 4th.

Cheers

 

[Booger weldz]

White roof to lessen the heat? I considered this as my rig is a freakin sauna(emerald green) to jump in when its 105+ out. Let us know how well it works!

What does toyota want for those rails? Mine are kinda loose/beat from a PO rack mount or something

 

[SNLC]

White roof to lessen the heat? I considered this as my rig is a freakin sauna(emerald green) to jump in when its 105+ out. Let us know how well it works!

What does toyota want for those rails? Mine are kinda loose/beat from a PO rack mount or something

Lessening the heat is a benefit but it doesn't get to hot here. 90-95 about it and just a few days a year of that. The main purpose was to fix the very crappy paint on the roof. Dirt and junk in it when it got painted by a p/o so a sand back and fresh paint easiest way to fix it. Rather than try and match up colors I went white, also because I am doing a white side accent stripe.

I paid about $95 each on the rails, without any discounts as you can only get them from your local dealer. To long and delicate to ship. I will post up pics when the truck is all done next week and you can decide if it looks good with white or if the rails look worth $95 each. We were just going to paint my rails black but my body guys said much easier to just replace.

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

 

[SNLC]

Got my Cruiser back at about 4pm today. I dig it. All new rubber in the whole truck is real nice. Tomorrow morning a bro and myself are off to go run the Morrison Jeep Trail and camp for the next 3-days. Have a good 4th all!!

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

Slee short bus front bumper in route along with the Warn 9.5 (with synthetic line) and a 16" LED bar. That will take care of the front, pretty stoked!

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

Just one more good reason to go v8

New addition to the shop

Slee gear showed up today, looks like I something to do this weekend.

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

So I picked up a Slee Short Bus front bumper, Warn 9.5XP-s and a Ridged Industries 14" LED bar. I bought all this from Slee. On their website it shows these items being all used together. However, they are not plug and play, Slee didn't say anything about having to do some custom work either. I was hoping it was all plug and play but that is not the case.

First up, The Slee bumper is sweet, I always liked the looks of them. While not the strongest bumper I have seen it is fairly light weight which I like. It fits like a glove, very nice fitment on the frame rails. My only real complaint is that the recovery points are a bit light duty.

The Warn 9.5 fits great into the Slee bumper, however there is one major issue. To run the LED bar the winch control box has to be relocated. I searched on the internet and the only guy I could find with this combo is a dude who goes by "Treeroot" on forums. His truck is also the one pictured on Slee's site with this combo. He relocated the control box to behind the winch between it and the radiator, down low. I decided I didn't like that location so came up with my own method. I relocated the control box to my engine bay. To do this I had to make my own wire leads. So I went about soldering up some new #2 wire leads that are 5ft. long. I then made a mounting bracket to hold the control box, using stock mounting bolt locations in the engine bay. It worked out well but took some time and thought. I just bought the wireless upgrade/option from Warn as I plan to go that route with this winch. I honestly don't like the control box mounted on top of the winch anyways, it is just a preference thing as far as looks go.

Next, the Slee mounting brackets for the LED bar are no good, at least not for me. I screwed around with trying to use them for at least 2hrs and could not get them to work at all. So I gave up and just made my own mounting brackets, which all up took me about an hour to make.

Here is pictures......

The beginnings of my relocation bracket in the engine bay for the control box.

Control box relocated and mounted. Like I say, I am going wireless so this location will work out well for me.

Mounting tabs I made for the LED bar.

And the finished set up.....

All in all I am stoked on the new set up. I had thought about going in cab winch controls and almost bought the stuff to do that. But with the wireless option no need for that at all. Plus wireless means less wires to deal with and no switches mounted on the dash. I got pretty frustrated with the Slee mounting tabs for the LED bar. I am not sure if they sent me the wrong ones (look exactly like the ones on their website) or what but I could not figure out how to use them at all. They do not line up in any way shape or form that I could figure out. I could have saved a lot of time by simply making my own brackets from the start. I was also pretty disappointed Slee gave me no warning that I would have to relocated the control box to run this set up. That would not have changed my mind on this purchase but I would have been more prepared instead of having to run to the auto parts store 3x's on a Saturday. I will probably upgrade the hook on the end of my winch to something much better. I don't care to much for the Warn fairlead, it is kind of bulky but for now I will just run it.

All I have left to do today is wire up the light, otherwise it is a done deal!

Cheers

 

[sleeoffroad]

Unfortunately the solenoid box and light can't exist in the same place. I agree we probably should do a better job on advising people if they buy this combination.

As for the light tabs, please see attached picture. The confusion might be that they are attached to the light tabs in the "valleys" and not the top light tabs. We will document this and include with future orders of the light tabs.

 

[SNLC]

Unfortunately the solenoid box and light can't exist in the same place. I agree we probably should do a better job on advising people if they buy this combination.

As for the light tabs, please see attached picture. The confusion might be that they are attached to the light tabs in the "valleys" and not the top light tabs. We will document this and include with future orders of the light tabs.

View attachment 928290 View attachment 928290 View attachment 928291 View attachment 928291

Hey Christo, thanks for that and the pics. I am done with my install though!

The confusion with the tabs was because I only tried a few times to use them with the RI tabs included with the light. So for the other 1.75hrs I was trying to use them stand alone without the RI mounts and also on the inner most tabs. Not possible and not going to happen. Obviously by your pictures the RI mounts are retained and bolt to your brackets. Not a big deal at all, as you can see I fabb'ed my own. However, you may want to put together a short instructions note that simply says something like, "Use these mounting tabs with the supplied RI tabs". Part of my confusion also came from looking at Treeroots pics and his appear to be mounted using the inner tabs and no RI tabs.

Like I said, no big deal on the relocating. It simply would have been nice to know ahead of time. And for anybody reading this who may be thinking of going with this combo, #2 wire is roughly $3/ft. So I have over $100 in the re-location of the control box, add that to the expense if going with this combo.

Cheers and thanks for the help though Christo!

On another note, I drilled the RHS of the bumper and tapped it for mounting my license plate. I am sure there will be a picture of that sooner or later!

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

So I went to wire up my LED light bar the other day and the wiring harness that came with it is to short to get the switch in the cab. So I am going to have to extend the switch wires a bit. Once I knew this I decided to upgrade the switch so I bought an Otrattw "LED light bar" switch. In addition to this I bought some items from Factor 55 to upgrade my winch. I also bought a Blue Sea fuse block, 12 port. Some of my wiring bugs me and I have way to much junk hooked up to my battery. So going to clean it all up and run it through the Blue Sea block, including the new LED light bar.

link to the new switch,
http://www.otrattw.net/CONTURA-V-LED-SINGLE-LIGHT-BAR-UPPER-LED-INDEPENDENT-V1D1GCHB-PZCS6-1LB.html

Just about ready to buy a new air box assembly. And I nearly have my castor riddle solved, not going to spill the beans on that yet but the solution is simple, reasonably cheap, super heavy duty and very soon I may buy all I need to do it.

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

Warn wireless all wired up and installed under the hood. I like it and it works well.

LED bar all wired up and switch in the cab. Have not installed the switch as I really hate taking the dash apart on this truck and am procrastinating. Soon though. Have tested the light at night onroad though and really like it, super bright!

Drivers seat is going down pretty hard, into the second layer of foam in the center of the seat. Amazing though, these cloth seats hold up much better than leather. 23yr old seats, still comfy and not wasted. But after 245,000 miles the drivers is showing it's age. I am going Procar and may just do one at a time. Kind of expensive ya know and the passenger seats doesn't have a tear in it.

Next up for me...

Headers and exhaust. Been complaining about this awhile, leak at down pipe on one side is really bugging me.

RuffStuff Y-link steering with GM 1-ton tres. Then a cut & turn to set my castor.

New airbox. Really leaning towards the UMP 8" or 10" unit but it will be a very tight fit by my measurements. Maybe just build my own, undecided.

Shocks, Fox or Kings, still have not decided.

Sliders and rear bumper. CBI Off-road DIY. Having them bend and notch it all up and then I will weld it all to save some cash. Rear bumper will only carry the spare tire and likely doing tube skinned to keep weight down.

Besides this, only a little bit of OEM Toyota parts here and there. Oh and some wiring to clean mine all up which includes installing the Bluesea fuse box. After this not a lot I want to do to the truck, think I will just chill out of it after this and enjoy it. Possible trip to Baja at the end of the year. For sure a road trip to Oregon in the fall.

Cheers

 

[SNLC]

Bought a ProCar Elite Lumbar seat yesterday for the drivers seat. I went with cloth in black. Should see the seat next week! Only doing drivers right now, will do passenger sometime in the future.

Cheers

 

[Booger weldz]

I think slee owns the sexiest front bumper title by a large margin

 

[SNLC]

Y-link from RuffStuff is in route. RHD steering arm is in route. Just need a reamer for the 1-ton tres. Then I am cutting and turning my front axle. Haven't decided on shocks yet but it is King or Fox.

Procar seat should be here any day.

Cheers