Builds Just another mall Cruiser rescue--Plain Jane (1 Viewer)

[GDA62/100]

About a year ago, I finally extricated myself from Northern California suburban hell and landed 200 miles due north in the forest, still CA, but an awesome landscape with miles of forest roads to explore. Last summer, I was looking at Craigslist ads for a Samurai. I reasoned that the diminutive size would be perfect to navigate overgrown forest roads. But, Samurai prices were high and no doubt it would need lots of creative modifications. Heck, I could get a decent FJ80 for that price and I knew a fair bit about Land Cruisers (I've had an FJ62 since 1994). As luck would have it, I soon spotted an ad for an unmodified, sunroof-less 1991 Land Cruiser just five hours away in San Jose. It was not perfect, but with no rust to speak of, everything else could be fixed. I called and a friendly (sleezy) used car salesman answered; proceed with caution. I was undeterred. It didn't have a sunroof. It was white.
I didn't bother to read the FJ80 tech FAQs, I trusted myself.
My wife and I drove down that weekend and I ended up driving it back. She bought it for me. She's good to me.
Here is what I got:

This was her best side. There were lots of things to put back in order, but there is a lot of good here, too. Did I mention, there is no sunroof!
More to come another day.

 

[GDA62/100]

Fast forward to today. Taking a little time out for fun.
I've done a lot of baseline maintenance (not done), minor fixes, and made a couple mods, so far.
Plain Jane in her element:

 

[JimmyMc]

What kind of spare tire mount is that?

 

[GDA62/100]

What kind of spare tire mount is that?

That's the Summit Cruisers spare tire swing out.

 

[scottryana]

No sunroof, no roof rack, no rear sliding windows, no rear wind deflector. That is a poverty pack truck! Not many of those around.

Does it have electric windows? I am assuming cloth seats?

 

[DDabs]

awesome cruiser

 

[chap79]

Where in NorCal did you end up? There's some really good cruiser guys up that way and some excellent wheeling. I'm from Paradise originally.
And great looking truck, the perfect starting point.

 

[GDA62/100]

Plain Jane is a work in progress.
I started with a long To-Do-List in Excel. I didn't get fancy, I just need to write things down. I should take more photos.
I got right into baseline maintenance:

Fan belts (PO's mechanic didn't have a clue as to how to adjust them, so they slipped, squealed, and glazed)
Plugs (rear to front, I could have unscrewed them all with a screwdriver handle, number 5 was especially loose)

View attachment 20161031_204112.jpg

 

[GDA62/100]

Where in NorCal did you end up? There's some really good cruiser guys up that way and some excellent wheeling. I'm from Paradise originally.
And great looking truck, the perfect starting point.

Thanks, I'm really happy with the way it's coming along.
I'm in Lewiston. A friend of mine has a FZJ80 in Weaverville. There are a few Cruisers around. I've spotted a few good ones in Redding.

 

[GDA62/100]

I failed to mention that it had a little less than 163k when I bought it.
It's a CA Cruiser, so there's no rust except for a dime sized spot under the right rear window gasket where the black paint is. The clear coat is peeling on the flares. Oh, well. The side steps were removed before I bought it. Yay. It'll get sliders some day.

Oil pan gasket--Every 3FE I've ever seen for sale has leaked from the oil pan gasket. This one was no different. Again, the bolts were barely finger tight and whoever had done the previous replacement had used some kind of gasket goo that had failed, no prying or scraping required
I got the OEM gasket from @beno (and a few other things) and got it done. No more dripping, for now.
When I drained the oil I was shocked to see chocolate milk. And when I dropped the pan, there was a little streak of cream. Argh!
But, I relaxed, put it back together and am watching it.

Referring to Slee's before you buy: be wary of a new radiator, it may have overheated. This one has a pretty aluminum radiator. (I convinced myself not to worry as my FJ62's radiator failed at about the same mileage and vehicle age.) I suspect the new radiator was done recently and a little bit of coolant contaminated the oil via the radiator. That's my theory for now. The oil I put in still looks good a little over a thousand miles later. I'll look at the filler port this weekend.

More stuff:
Fuel filter (that was a bear to do)
Shocks and steering stabilizer (KYB, originals were shot, steering stabilizer was okay, but bent)
Plug wires
Cap and rotor
Air cleaner
PCV valve
Differentials serviced
Transfer case serviced
Battery box and hold down--the box bottom was detached and the hold downs were gone. I got a new box off eBay and made a hold down from some angle I had. J-bolts from O'Reilly's.
Brakes--excessive pedal travel and little stopping power, despite new front pads and rotors by the seller. After a consult with Onur, I replaced the master cylinder and booster. After a few bleeds, they are a lot better, but not great. I plan to check the LSPV adjustment, maybe rebuild the calipers and pistons, as well as try better pads. I stuck with the original 15" wheels, so I'm not going to upgrade to 4Runner bits, yet.
Tires--I went with BFG KM2s, 33x10.5x15 I like the look, ride, and performance thus far. The 3FE seems to do fine with the bigger shoes.
Spare swing out--Summit Cruisers kit. Not too hard. Works good.
Exhaust--WTF? the pipe was resting on the transfer case and rubbing on the driveshaft flange. The muffler hung a little low in the front, but there was no sign that it had hit anything. I ended up cutting the Y-pipe just behind where they combined, jacked the muffler up to where it should be, tacked the pipe back together, pulled it out to weld it up, and put it back in. That was easy, but why was it screwed up to begin with?
Driver's seat--SOR foam and upholstery on the bottom and I patched the lumbar upholstery with some material I cut out of the old bottom. I need to do the passenger seat bottom some day. I'd rather have Recaro$.
Steering wheel--It looked good, but the rubber was loose on the steel structure at the top (thanks to CA UV rays). I bought a new one.
Transfer case shifter boot--original was shot. SOR makes a nice replacement.
Rear seat hardware--for some reason, the PO had removed the rear seat and it was missing a bunch of hardware and trim. I got most of the pieces I needed from a part-out here on Mud. I got a couple headrests off eBay.
Door bezels--I noticed one was cracked. Well, three were cracked. I got three new ones.
Mirrors--yup, both were shaking. I pulled them apart and used some wire, some zip ties (welding rod), and a soldering iron (torch) to rebuild the tabs. So far, so good.
Wiper blades--why do people let them deteriorate to nothingness? I got OEM refills from @beno, I had old blades leftover from my FJ62, some metal splines, and I made it work. I just repainted the arms with some Ace Satin Black. Looking good.
Washer fluid pump--front one was dead, my friend parted out an FZJ and had one for me.
Driver's seat belt--frayed, so I had it rewebbed by seatbelts.com
Stereo--the OEM speakers were shot, aftermarket is cheap, so I replaced it all with a double-DIN Pioneer head unit, dash and door speakers, 8" sub, 4ch amp for the fronts, 2ch amp for the sub, and a Kenwood backup camera. Reused the original speaker grills. No complaints. Works good.
Driver's door upper hinge--they all get sloppy, I got a new one.
Removed the aftermarket anti-theft thingy--it was just a piece of crap that was merely spliced into the ignition wire. The ground wire was laughable. It was unnecessary, non-functional, and poorly installed. It's gone.
Right headlight and turn signal--PO had bumped into something, cracked the turn signal lens and broke part of the headlight case where the turn signal assembly interfaced with it. The turn signal came from eBay and I got another headlight assembly from my friend's part out.
Body work--the right front and rear corners were lightly damaged by the PO. The bumpers were whacked, too. I straightened things out and still have to put a little filler on and finish the job (it's been too cold until recently).
The little rust spot under the right rear window--I sanded and picked out the rust as good as I could, hit it with Jasco (phosphoric acid), primer, and a little paint.
Rear hatch defroster--only the center two wires were heating up. There was a crack in the circuit. I'll have to wait until next fall to see if the brush on stuff worked.
Steering column clamshell--it was broken, I bought a new one.
Speedometer cable--I'd noticed it was noisy when I first drove it home. I pulled it and lubed it, but then the speedo went whacky. But, the cable seemed quiet. I replaced the cable with a new one, the speedo would still go whacky. But, the day after I called a speedo shop to see if they could work on it, it started getting better. It's okay now, but it doesn't go all the way to zero. It reads about 3mph high, but the bigger tires go about 14% further per revolution than the originals, so speed is just relative.
Parking brake lever--the plastic was deteriorating and flaking off. I just scraped the loose oxidized plastic off and hit it with some Scotchbrite. It's good for now.
Cruiser clunk--I pulled the driveshaft, cleaned and lubed the slip joint, lubed the U-joints, and put it back together. Better, but not perfect.

What's next?

 

[GDA62/100]

I'll post some photos this weekend.
It's running good and I'm liking the way it drives.
The cloth seats and no sunroof put me in the ideal driving position. I'm 6' tall with a slightly long torso, so comfortable headroom is always a battle. I don't have to look around the rear view mirror.

Next:
Service the knuckles/birfelds. It looks like it's never been done, the knuckles were pretty dry when I checked. No birf soup and no noise, so I think I'm going to get to them in time. I got the kit from Cruiser Outfitters and I did the job successfully on my FJ62 20 years ago. I ain't scared.
Make a receiver hitch so I can use a hitch mount bike rack.
Install the Smittybuilt 10k winch I have behind the factory bumper. I need to buy some cable to install the control box under the hood.
Put a recovery kit together.
Finish the bodywork on the corners.
Have the injectors serviced.
Adjust the valves.
Check timing.
Get the brakes working better.
Transmission service.
Oil galley plug fix.
Onboard compressor?
New door window channel weatherstrip.
Tailgate storage (boat hatch thingies).
Handgun locker.
More 12v outlets.
Cupholders?

Explore the forest.

 

[GDA62/100]

The rear door speakers were the only ones with the cones connected to the frames. But, they had to go. I simply used the same Pioneer speakers that make this job easy.

 

[GDA62/100]

No sunroof, no roof rack, no rear sliding windows, no rear wind deflector. That is a poverty pack truck! Not many of those around.

Does it have electric windows? I am assuming cloth seats?

Wind up windows. Manual locks. Cloth, manual seats. No third row. Solid cargo windows. Just like my FJ62.
I really wanted the no sunroof option. She's uncommon, that's for sure. This was the one for me to get. I can add the fluffy stuff I want as I go. I'll post some interior shots this weekend.
If I could find a UZJ100 with no sunroof...

 

[LS1FJ40]

Dang! A true poverty pack! Nice find!

 

[GDA62/100]

This drift stopped progress this day. I might have been able to get over it with a little run up, but I had no recovery gear in case it sunk in the snow.
A week after I took this photo, we came back and drove over this drift. It was still at least 2 feet high and supported the mass of the Cruiser. No lockers, no problem. There was only about another half mile of drive-able road, then, much more snow. This, and getting up my steep driveway and over passes when snow covered, was motivation to hurry up and get another Cruiser.

 

[GDA62/100]

Interior, forward. New steering wheel, clamshell, SOR seat bottom foam and upholstery on the driver's side. Parking brake handle cleaned up. The carpet is a little fuzzy and the plastic matting needs a reglue. The black plastic on the dash is destined for replacement as the attachment points are brittle and falling to pieces. We'll see how my glue job holds up to the heat (probably won't). One good thing the PO did was use a dash mat some time ago. The dash is in great shape.

 

[GDA62/100]

Back seat, reassembled. Clean and functional.

 

[GDA62/100]

Center console, SOR transfer case lever boot. Squirrel mascot.

View attachment Squirrel.jpg



If anyone can help with the attachment so a viewer doesn't have to click on the link, please do or let me know how to fix it. The full image button didn't show up again when I uploaded the file.

 

[GDA62/100]

The new Pioneer head unit. I'm amazed all the wires fit behind this thing: stereo install adapter, two L/R RCA cables for audio, video cable, USB cable, speaker wires (I ran the audio for the dash and door speakers from the amp back through the factory wiring), and a wire to the microphone.

View attachment Head unit.jpg

 

[GDA62/100]

Under the hood, where most of the mechanical ineptitude resultant of the previous custodian of this cruiser was evident. Thankfully, it wasn't butchered and I don't suspect any long term harm will come of any of it.
The hood struts still work
I may have a minor power steering fluid leak on the steering box end... the PO had a new power steering pump installed at some point.
The red cable goes to a power distribution block and fuses for the amplifiers behind the passenger foot well kick panel. I plan to run a couple 12v power outlets out of the empty output terminals.

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