This is my first thread on Mud and my first Land Cruiser build, a 1994 triple locked FZJ80. Even though I'm new here I'm not new to Toyota crawlers or 4WD's, this is actually my sixth 4WD 'yota. My current DD is a stock '17 Tundra Crew max in SR5 trim, it's a great truck. My previous DD was a '04 4Runner, lifted it slightly with Bilstein shocks & FJ springs and had 31" KO2's on it, it served me well for many years. Before that I built a few early-to-late '80's mini trucks and 4Runners, all Rubicon ready, blah, blah, blah...
Anyway on to this new-to-me 80 series which my 5 year old has dubbed "Marshmallow" (I know, there is another member with a white 80 series that is also called "Marshmallow" but my 5 y.o. didn't know that at the time so she gets naming rights in my book). I've been dreaming about getting a Cruiser for about 8 years, basically since I sold my last built-up rig which was a '87 4Runner that sold due to starting a family. I've always liked 40-series but with the skyrocketing prices and not being particularly family friendly I started searching for an 80-series on Craig's List. Low and behold this truck pops up local to me; 258,000 miles with a newly installed '96 engine that has 160,XXX on it. The ad stated it was an unfinished project and transmission was not in it...all for a screaming deal. It has the non-winch ARB bumper on it but that's the only modification to this other-wise stock vehicle. After inspecting it and seeing it was rust free and no signs of major damage I bought it on site. Here is how she looked the day I made the deal:
Anyway on to this new-to-me 80 series which my 5 year old has dubbed "Marshmallow" (I know, there is another member with a white 80 series that is also called "Marshmallow" but my 5 y.o. didn't know that at the time so she gets naming rights in my book). I've been dreaming about getting a Cruiser for about 8 years, basically since I sold my last built-up rig which was a '87 4Runner that sold due to starting a family. I've always liked 40-series but with the skyrocketing prices and not being particularly family friendly I started searching for an 80-series on Craig's List. Low and behold this truck pops up local to me; 258,000 miles with a newly installed '96 engine that has 160,XXX on it. The ad stated it was an unfinished project and transmission was not in it...all for a screaming deal. It has the non-winch ARB bumper on it but that's the only modification to this other-wise stock vehicle. After inspecting it and seeing it was rust free and no signs of major damage I bought it on site. Here is how she looked the day I made the deal:
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