Finally got my FZJ80! 1997 $2500 (1 Viewer)

[Kirrawee]

Looks great,
Did you buy it raptorized or did you have it sprayed afterwards and is it low or high psi texture. I’m thinking about getting mine coated. Any issues with chips scrapes or lost skin?

Do all Aussie rigs come with LX style wheels like that?

Those rims are off my ‘97 40th.
My son is happily trying to destroy it now.
I bought this ‘96 with 164k km on it for $5k
It was pig filthy but cleaned up ok for less than a thousand bucks. Fluids brakes time etc.
It had std steel rims on it, looked evil but I knew it had a good heart as soon as I drove it.
Those wheels will come off after Christmas.
I have a plan....

 

[60 toy ota]

Congrats on the purchase! What part of Minnesota are you in? My wife grew up in the Plymouth / Maple Grove area

 

[Kirrawee]

My additional suggestion is to go through all the hoses. Especially the ones at the back including the riser to the heater control valve and back into the firewall and out again. That riser runs right by the block and does get exposed to a fair amount of heat. And I'd also do a good flush of the cooling system with focus on the heater core--I'd do that even if the PO says that they had cooling system work done. I've also been seeing Mudders suggest carefully inspecting the heater control valve because the plastic gets brittle with age.

I'd also suggest using wire-type hose clamps rather than the screw type:
View attachment 2430698

Nice work, looks great and worth the time spent.

 

[sogafarm]

Congratulations on the great deal on the 40th with lockers. $2500 leaves a lot of room in the budget for baselining and upgrades. Post some more pics!

 

[cahill]

To each his own but for a vehicle that is going up in value, has good factory paint, why would you apply bed liner to the vehicle? If you want to change the color or add durability why not do a 3M wrap instead and preserve the paint and value of the vehicle. Most people say they will never sell their 80 but I've seen too many times when people have life circumstances change and need to sell. Raptorlining will limit your potential buying market and drop the vehicles value by a lot - especially if the 80 series prices continue to rise.

Nice find by the way. Don't ruin it

 

[Broski]

To each his own but for a vehicle that is going up in value, has good factory paint, why would you apply bed liner to the vehicle? If you want to change the color or add durability why not do a 3M wrap instead and preserve the paint and value of the vehicle. Most people say they will never sell their 80 but I've seen too many times when people have life circumstances change and need to sell. Raptorlining will limit your potential buying market and drop the vehicles value by a lot - especially if the 80 series prices continue to rise.

Nice find by the way. Don't ruin it

I fully agree with this the paint looks to good to mess with , keeping the factory paint well retain the most value. You have a lot of base lining to do first.
Give that green a chance, it will grow on you.

 

[sogafarm]

I agree with keeping it original paint.

Think about this for a minute:
You've got one of the most sought after years, edition(40th) and options(lockers) and the fact your going to have the engine rebuilt and do the baselining, you will have a valuable collector's cruiser. If done right with the right touch, you could easily get in the upper teen's to even the 20's as far as resale value for the near future. It's your vehicle so do what makes you happy, but these days, it's like a piggy bank that you can go off roading in.

 

[Yoche]

Congrats on the purchase! What part of Minnesota are you in? My wife grew up in the Plymouth / Maple Grove area

I live in that area now but grew up in northern MN.

To each his own but for a vehicle that is going up in value, has good factory paint, why would you apply bed liner to the vehicle? If you want to change the color or add durability why not do a 3M wrap instead and preserve the paint and value of the vehicle. Most people say they will never sell their 80 but I've seen too many times when people have life circumstances change and need to sell. Raptorlining will limit your potential buying market and drop the vehicles value by a lot - especially if the 80 series prices continue to rise.

Nice find by the way. Don't ruin it

I fully agree with this the paint looks to good to mess with , keeping the factory paint well retain the most value. You have a lot of base lining to do first.
Give that green a chance, it will grow on you.

Unfortunately the paint has some deep scratches here and there along with some pea sized rust bubbles that need to be taken care of. If it had less miles I'd consider a new paint job but with this many miles I think Raptor line is probably the way to go. Pics make it look green but it's actually black.

 

[cahill]

315k miles isn't all that bad. Once monsterlined it is hard to go back to paint. Not impossible but it is a ton of work to remove it all an prep for paint. The monsterliner will look ok for a while but it will fade over time and accumulate dirt/dust in it and scratches too. When the monsterliner starts looking bad the only option is to cover it up with more monsterliner which starts to add up a lot of weight and bulk or to remove it and start again. I would consider having the spot areas of rust fixed and painted and polish up the paint scratches. You may be surprised how well the paint can come back. Again, to each his own but it always makes me a little bummed when I see a good looking land cruiser get monsterlined. These vehicles are becoming scarcer as time goes by and there isn't much out there that compares to an 80 series as far as replacement options go.

 

[Yoche]

315k miles isn't all that bad. Once monsterlined it is hard to go back to paint. Not impossible but it is a ton of work to remove it all an prep for paint. The monsterliner will look ok for a while but it will fade over time and accumulate dirt/dust in it and scratches too. When the monsterliner starts looking bad the only option is to cover it up with more monsterliner which starts to add up a lot of weight and bulk or to remove it and start again. I would consider having the spot areas of rust fixed and painted and polish up the paint scratches. You may be surprised how well the paint can come back. Again, to each his own but it always makes me a little bummed when I see a good looking land cruiser get monsterlined. These vehicles are becoming scarcer as time goes by and there isn't much out there that compares to an 80 series as far as replacement options go.

Damnit. Now you've guys got me second guessing my decision. The rust spots are nearly all on the tailgate and rear window area, maybe 10 of them. The scratches are on the rear drivers side door and one right across the gas cover. I'll have to buy a passenger side door and have that painted to match anyways so it probably wouldn't be much to bring the paint back to where it is attractive.

The liner color I'm planning to use is desert tan on the body since its less noticeable when it gets dirty. But we'll see. I'll check around and see if I can find a place to repaint the problem areas and get an estimate.

 

[lazy]

You can also get a replacement trailgate. I have a similar rust spot on the upper tailgate by the window. I got an upper tailgate assembly and 2 rear doors from a guy. All he wanted was some beer, (which i don't drink) so i had to have a buddy come to the liquor store with me to help pick out a couple sixers.

I think if it's going to be a true trail rig where you take it @nukegoat style to the hammers and don't care if you bust out windows, dent in sheet metal and have to spend weeks fixing your armor afterwards, monster liner is ok.

If you're going to take it on trail runs with new tacos, 4runners and rubis freaking out after the first pon stripe, probably better to stick to paint.

I think few people want to beat up their rig like monstaliner would imply. If this rig is for you and you're not a "flipper" do what makes you happy. I do agree with others, the monstaliner will be a regret one day.

 

[iwashmycar]

I am also of the opinion that Raptorliner is a bad move, especially in tan....but its not my truck.

You got a (oh lets say) $6K truck for $2500 and the liner will certainly make it a $2500 offroad rig sooner than later.

 

[Pippylongsausage]

Also not a fan of raptorliner unless its a bombed out trail truck. I die inside a little when I see well preserved 80's get lined.

 

[Broski]

If your handy at all and were going to do the Rator line then you could most likely do the touch up your self. There are a lot of YouTube videos on this.
Mine is a true trail rig nukegoat style and prefer to keep the factory paint and use Automotive Touchup. com they can get a perfect match on the color, have the basecoat and clear coat as well. Here's a fender I cut and re-welled to fit 39s with there paint. The color match was spot on.

If you do decide to go Rator Line look into Monstaliner that you keep hearing mentioned, it was developed as vehicle coating and not a bed liner, with out the rough abrasive surface 100% UV permanent.

The touch up paint Comes in a rattle can to

 

[Aeneiad]

I saw that one on CL and thought about going to look at it being it was only an hour away. I'm glad another Mud member picked it up!

 

[nukegoat]

You can also get a replacement trailgate. I have a similar rust spot on the upper tailgate by the window. I got an upper tailgate assembly and 2 rear doors from a guy. All he wanted was some beer, (which i don't drink) so i had to have a buddy come to the liquor store with me to help pick out a couple sixers.

I think if it's going to be a true trail rig where you take it @nukegoat style to the hammers and don't care if you bust out windows, dent in sheet metal and have to spend weeks fixing your armor afterwards, monster liner is ok.

If you're going to take it on trail runs with new tacos, 4runners and rubis freaking out after the first pon stripe, probably better to stick to paint.

I think few people want to beat up their rig like monstaliner would imply. If this rig is for you and you're not a "flipper" do what makes you happy. I do agree with others, the monstaliner will be a regret one day.

I didn't monstaline my rig

 

[iwashmycar]

I didn't monstaline my rig

Case in point. Lining a truck is never a good idea.

 

[SteelHunterFJ80]

I am also of the opinion that Raptorliner is a bad move, especially in tan....but its not my truck.

You got a (oh lets say) $6K truck for $2500 and the liner will certainly make it a $2500 offroad rig sooner than later.

I agree with this statement....in addition I'm not so sure painting is all that more work. I would think the prep work us close to the same

 

[Yoche]

I know Im going to break some hearts with this post but i decided to go ahead with lining the truck. Black is my favorite color on vehicles but more for sports cars. It's just too much to keep it looking good for this kind of vehicle. That and I personally like the look and durability of lining.

I do have an issue I ran into today while tearing it down. The plastic brackets on the fender. Some have broken off and I don't see a way to reattach them effectively. Has anyone had experience with this? I have to take the rear fenders off tomorrow and they look a bit more difficult than the front. Any advice is appreciated!

 

[clx16]

The Monstalined 80's thread

Well, Looks like JCardona and I have both gone you know what deep and completely Monstalined our 80's recently. I know there's a plethora of others who have done sections of theirs, and others have lined their rigs with various different liners. Post your lined rig in this thread, color...

forum.ih8mud.com

I am sure this thread has number of people with the same question that should help both remove stuff and also prepping info