KingKong Checking In

[KingKong]

Hey all, been trolling here for a while now and though it time to officially introduce myself.

So I had been looking for a 4x4 for about a year. Started off with mini trucks and first gen 4runners. Kept on finding nice ones on CL but they were always sold before I could even find time to take a look (high school student with free time on weekends only). I finally found a really nice 86-87 or so with a SAS and a couple of other nice doodads. However, when I finally went to go test drive, I found out my 6'3'' self couldn't fit in the dang thing, and it was an extended cab too . So moved up to Jeep Cherokees , but could never find the right one. Then one day my dad suggested a Land Cruiser. I started doing research and was impressed. Solid axles, 4 linked rear, rear FF, gear driven t-case, lockers etc. About a week or two later I saw the truck I drive today on CL. Had everything in my sig except for part-time and PFrans. After a test drive I was hooked (except the fuel mileage took some getting used to), and for $7500 it was sold.

Anyway, on the rear of the truck was an ACC sticker, and the guy I bought it from kept on raving about Brian and Mike. Living in west Decatur, I had passed by ACC a couple of times, and thought that I should go talk to the guys. So after meeting Brian, he told me I had just scored the best deal on Craigslist! And after talking further, I was offered an internship for the summer!!! So now I'm ACC's intern, and learing A LOT about Yotas. I did the part time conversion myself, save for cutting the axles, and have worked on tons of trucks.

So I just want to say hey to y'all, and can't wait to meet some of you that I haven't met in the shop and those of you that I will meet at GSMTR (especially Georgians ). Pics to come in a sec.

 

[Lc80series]

Cool! You're going to learn a lot from those guys and save big bucks by being able to do work on your own truck. Good call on going with a LandCruiser over a Cherokee too!

 

[KingKong]

Lol thanks. I haven't even had time to take it off road yet (save for driving around in my back yard), so I'm really excited about GSMTR.

 

[KingKong]

Here are a few pics of the truck. The first is the day I got it, the second when I put on the hubs (don't have a lot of pics ripping into the t-case), and the third installing my PFrans.

 

[CruiseOrlando]

Nice truck! I'm at GSMTR now - ill look for you!

 

[FloridaCruiser813]

Posting while in the woods huh ?

 

[cody c]

Nice rig, Im envious of the colour actually. Probably much better suited for a cummins 80 with the fuel turned up.

 

[KingKong]

Orlando I won't be there until Friday but I'll keep my eye out for you when I get there. And Cody ya I would love to do a diesel swap. Either a 1hdt with hydro A442 or 4bt with nv4500, but that's way down the road

 

[robustbambi]

Thought id bring this back to life cuz this 80 is fxxxing Sick!!
Asher's an ok guy too, I guess

we'll get some pics next time we go, Asher

 

[KingKong]

Thought id bring this back to life cuz this 80 is fxxxing Sick!!
Asher's an ok guy too, I guess

we'll get some pics next time we go, Asher

Haha thanks dude. Ya I forgot about this, maybe I should just start a build thread .

 

[KingKong]

Ok I've decided to make this my build thread. I'll get some pics posted up. Here's one of the first mod's I did. Traded the stock 80 spare for a Tacoma/Tundra rim and bought a new 285/75R16 BFG All-Terrain and painted it to match the rest of the rims.

 

[KingKong]

Next came the part time conversion. Because this rig has Longfields in the front, I was told that the full time 4wd would eat away at them, and that unless I wanted to step down to stock axles, the conversion was needed. Why would I want to downgrade?

 

[KingKong]

The axles needed to be cut to length for the hubs and a new groove needed to be made for the C-clip. I didn't have the guts to cut into my shiny, expensive axles, so Brian stepped up and did it for me . I used new Longfield hub gears to maintain the warranty for my axles.

 

[KingKong]

The next part of the conversion was to tear into the transfer case and switch out the spider gears with a welded unit, as well as removing the viscous coupler. Also during this time I noticed that my brake lines needed to be extended. I plan on switching them out with a set of Ironman extended brake lines.

 

[KingKong]

Here's the spider gears, and the difference between the open unit and the welded unit.

 

[KingKong]

Next I installed some PFrans. Was really tired of the dim reverse lights. Bought the 5w CREE reverse lights as well as a set of interior lights. Really happy with them. Backing up at night is much safer and finding items in the truck at night is a lot easier.

 

[KingKong]

Here are the few pictures that I have of the truck at the 2012 GSMTR.

 

[robustbambi]

Awesome! I'm glad you had those build pics. This thing warrant a build thread for it haha. Nice work

 

[KingKong]

More GSMTR Pics. Had just rained, and without lockers and M/Ts, I couldn't trail, so I went and played around in the mud pit.

 

[KingKong]

Here are a few pictures from a trip me and Peter too up to Amicalola. Had High hopes, but apparently everything has been graded, and the Honda Element proved that point. Peter told me that when he went there last with his Land Rover, there were much better trails.