JunkCrzr89
Competent Ignoramoose
Feeling spry today so figured I’d take a stab at starting a “build” thread for my dumpster with a 6-banger. I have no idea how to add the build prefix to the title, but F it.
I’ve wanted an 80 since around ‘92, when my dad’s buddy bought one and clowned my dad’s 40 for being a rust bucket. We started a frame off resto of the 40 three days later and finished about 10 years after that.
Said 40, which my dad bought new in 1973:
But I’ve always been a cheap bastard who loves Toyota 4x4 jalopies. I found this 1994 FZJ80 a couple of months after we moved to Colorado. It was listed for sale on Facebook Marketplace by a 30-something lady who bought it 4 years prior as a project that she and her dad could work on together and restore. Unfortunately, her dad passed away a year or so later and the dream never came to fruition. But she had a friend who was a mechanic and did some engine and drivetrain maintenance/repairs for her over the years. However, she had reached the end of her pocketbook and didn’t want to keep throwing parts at the 80, so she decided to sell. I messaged her and she drove this beauty from Vail to Denver the next day so I could look at it.
The truck had 351k miles on the clock, was throwing a code 24, and the battery died and the A/T oil light came on both in the parking lot while I was checking out the truck. The battery was 4 years old and toast and the fitting in the bottom of the new radiator for the A/T cooler was leaking like a damn waterfall. She had it listed for $3k and I got the keys for $1,700 of my wife’s money. I then went across the street to Advance Auto and bought a new battery and a quart of ATF, tightened up the cooler fitting at the bottom of the radiator, and the 80 was good to go for a 1-hour drive back to Longmont.
Despite the high miles, torched paint, and general exterior ugliness, the truck was an absolute gem on the inside and in the engine bay. Cloth seats for the win!
And, surprisingly, not a spec of rust anywhere on the frame/chassis.
I’ve wanted an 80 since around ‘92, when my dad’s buddy bought one and clowned my dad’s 40 for being a rust bucket. We started a frame off resto of the 40 three days later and finished about 10 years after that.
Said 40, which my dad bought new in 1973:
But I’ve always been a cheap bastard who loves Toyota 4x4 jalopies. I found this 1994 FZJ80 a couple of months after we moved to Colorado. It was listed for sale on Facebook Marketplace by a 30-something lady who bought it 4 years prior as a project that she and her dad could work on together and restore. Unfortunately, her dad passed away a year or so later and the dream never came to fruition. But she had a friend who was a mechanic and did some engine and drivetrain maintenance/repairs for her over the years. However, she had reached the end of her pocketbook and didn’t want to keep throwing parts at the 80, so she decided to sell. I messaged her and she drove this beauty from Vail to Denver the next day so I could look at it.
The truck had 351k miles on the clock, was throwing a code 24, and the battery died and the A/T oil light came on both in the parking lot while I was checking out the truck. The battery was 4 years old and toast and the fitting in the bottom of the new radiator for the A/T cooler was leaking like a damn waterfall. She had it listed for $3k and I got the keys for $1,700 of my wife’s money. I then went across the street to Advance Auto and bought a new battery and a quart of ATF, tightened up the cooler fitting at the bottom of the radiator, and the 80 was good to go for a 1-hour drive back to Longmont.
Despite the high miles, torched paint, and general exterior ugliness, the truck was an absolute gem on the inside and in the engine bay. Cloth seats for the win!
And, surprisingly, not a spec of rust anywhere on the frame/chassis.
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Close! Big Stone Gap. My dad’s 40 was Ashley Judd’s daily driver in the terrible movie 
