Builds Just another 79 build..... (1 Viewer)

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At some point over the holidays, I decided that I need more lighting. I should have bought a deluxe ARB with the fog lights(I really just want to add fogs more than anything....pretty sure the light bar will light up whatever I need to light up).....so I think what I'm going to do is add some @sleeoffroad ARB steel foglight inserts into the ARB I have. This will allow me to run a nice Baja Designs or Diode Dynamics fog light assembly....and an LED turn/marker light. I'm going to modify them a little bit I think so they don't look so added on but they should be pretty cool.

My poor attempt at photoshop......I should stick to watercoloring :)
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Where did you find a hill in Central Florida? 😀
So one of my buddies is involved with this event Southeast Overland & Offroad Expo - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/southeast-overland-offroad-expo-tickets-132682401635

We went to go see the property this weekend....the guy who owns the property where the event will be owns 40 acres that hosts some large motocross events...he wanted us to go see it as it might be suitable for a future event....if the event is a success.

Neat property....the track is in a bowl of sorts...you kind of look down at it. Huge piece of land. Covid has pretty much cancelled everything planned for it last year. It was fairly overgrown. Fun though. The hill looks small in the pics...then again....I've been in FL a long time so any change in elevation, such as a steep driveway....is a huge hill. Ha.
 
Picking away at my list of remaining things this week......I think as quickly(or slowly) as I scratch things off.....I end up adding more.

I needed to drop my bump stops in the rear of the truck and I wanted to try these Timbren units. Amazingly enough I found a company to take my money and send them to me :) Pretty slick....and very well liked by people that use them. Bolted right in with no sweat as they're for an 80.

These are not solid rubber....they're hollow inside so they have a large amount of squish(not sure what the technical term of a bump stops, well, squish is). I'll try to get the truck on some uneven terrain and have a look at how they do. Not really building a rock crawler so I think they'll be fine but if we need to adjust, easy enough to cut and weld.

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I went old school on my mockup fog light inserts for my bumper. Cut some black vinyl out and went one step further with chrome simulated marker lights and foglight. Kinda like a Nascar :)

I like the look.
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Might go with yellow fogs......but it's starting to get a little too Tacoma-ish I think and the yellow fogs may be too much.....I own a Tacoma so I can throw those accusations around :)

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Squish = collapsing coefficient or ratio.











...... and yes I just made that up. 😊
Hahahaha......I had to do a double take on who posted this. Lol.
 
And a very strange development........something I really didn't think I'd ever do, I did this......

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I had bought some KC Hilites Cyclone spot LEDs to play around with a while back. Really a trick little light which I didn't get a pic of before I mounted. They have a central mounting point which makes them very easy to mount.

The VDJ hood has 2 ideal spots that angle the lights down. Maybe Toyota had planned on this all along :) I figured I'd surface mount them but the hood really opens pretty far with the hood struts....kind of pointed them right at your eyes. Would have been easy to build a little wedge spacer to get them to point down.

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Popped the lights onto the insulator....ran some wires and connected it to this switch. A simple waterproof on/off toggle wedged into the fuel filter bracket. Like it was meant to be.

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So now when I go to car shows I won't feel left out....I'll have fancy lights too :)
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I've decided to go with a Wholesale Automatic Transmission Nomad Extreme valve body........sending this core out to @orangefj45 so they can send it down under for some work. I have a spare 442 in my parts stash so we borrowed the VB out of it. I didn't want my truck to be down while the valve body is being worked on.

The HDJ81 that gave up it's motor, trans, transfer, wiring, etc., to my truck came with cruise control....but the trans doesn't appear to have the solenoid on the side. So something weird went on there. The spare trans has cruise control. Front what I can tell, the solenoid does something for the 4/3 downshift when cruise is engaged...just not sure what. In any event, we've been told the cruise control valve body can go in the non-cruise trans. So that's the plan. There's not a lot of info out there on these transmissions....hopefully this helps someone out.

I have been considering ditching the OEM cruise control anyways.....I want to free up some room for battery #2. The OEM throttle/cruise control box takes up a lot of room.

Cruise control trans....A442F full hydraulic with an HF2A transfer. I'm guessing 90-92 HDJ81 is what it came out of. The dog is a 2016 model best I can tell.

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This is how you tell if it has cruise....Wholesale Automatic Transmissions and I exchanged emails to determine what I had. The plug with the wires goes to a solenoid in the trans.

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Here's the solenoid
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Valve body goes out tomorrow
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You will love that valve body. I have one, they ROCK.
 
You will love that valve body. I have one, they ROCK.
Everything I have read about them echoes exactly what you said. I can't wait....especially when the Gturbo and intercooler go on.
 
We were able to drive this gorgeous little truck out of the shop today under it's own power for the first time...one of our 3FE conversions. It's one of the most original 40s I've seen in a long time. Well it was. Not so original any longer :) but much improved and ready for another 40 years of use.

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Chris-

Are you guys using the stock ECU and stock MAF on these conversions with a manual transmission?


Yep....stock ECU, MAF and a 4 speed. The wiring harness is heavily modified obviously. It's a nice package...the 3FE with the 4 speed is a great combo in these trucks.
 
I always enjoy catching up on your build thread Chris!

You'll love the WAT Nomad VB, send me the tracking number when you ship the core out

Thanks again!

Georg @ Valley Hybrids & Cruiser Brothers
 
I always enjoy catching up on your build thread Chris!

You'll love the WAT Nomad VB, send me the tracking number when you ship the core out

Thanks again!

Georg @ Valley Hybrids & Cruiser Brothers
Going to be a nice mod. Can't wait!

Tracking number will be headed your way later today once this thing is bagged up and in a box.
 
And a very strange development........something I really didn't think I'd ever do, I did this......

View attachment 2554493

I had bought some KC Hilites Cyclone spot LEDs to play around with a while back. Really a trick little light which I didn't get a pic of before I mounted. They have a central mounting point which makes them very easy to mount.

The VDJ hood has 2 ideal spots that angle the lights down. Maybe Toyota had planned on this all along :) I figured I'd surface mount them but the hood really opens pretty far with the hood struts....kind of pointed them right at your eyes. Would have been easy to build a little wedge spacer to get them to point down.

View attachment 2554497


Popped the lights onto the insulator....ran some wires and connected it to this switch. A simple waterproof on/off toggle wedged into the fuel filter bracket. Like it was meant to be.

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So now when I go to car shows I won't feel left out....I'll have fancy lights too :)
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This is a pretty good idea to file away. Nice work as always.
 
This is a pretty good idea to file away. Nice work as always.
I've been on a KC light buying spree lately and I brought in a couple of these to mess with. They're very solid lights and the single hole mounting makes them nice to install for guys like me who don't like drilling holes :)

I used the diffused version of the night.....they have a non-diffused as well.
 

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