Builds Almost beautiful HDJ81 (1 Viewer)

[ZeGerman]

This thread...

Entertainment, check...
Information, check...
Diesel, check...

This might be the best thread ever...

Now, where'd you get the replacement leather for your seats and how hard was it to reupholster?

You need to get out more. best thread? not yet It just cost too much to become best thread.

Seat cover replacement? I found it quite easy. You need a pimp hand. without a pimp hand you will get horrible results. The seats will not do what you want them to.

What you need is PIMP HAND TRAINING. All you need is a soft surface like a couch or a pillow. What you do is stand in front of said surface. Stretch out your arm and swing full throttle at said surface while screaming expletives. The pimp slap will put the seat foam in its place under the cover.

 

[ZeGerman]

Craigslist is the gift that keeps on giving. I struck JACKPOT yet again. This dude had rusty ass axles in his backyard and wanted them gone. Drove 50 miles and took a look. Saw what I needed to see, really liked what I saw even though I was not sure what I saw but i suspected . I paid the man 50 bucks for the ratty axle with all suspension components still dangling off of it.

Here is what I took off of it when I got home:

What we have here is a complete Slee 4" suspension complete with caster plates drop brackets and adjustable everything. Yes, hate me all you want and I will rub this in your face as well as my $500 Slee rear bumper Oh yes, I almost forgot that the driveshafts were still attached also including a double cardan driveshaft for the front.


So then I started thinking. If you have a 4" lift then you must have large tires which in turn requires re-gearing. I was going to take apart the rusty axles anyway to remove the birfields and rear axles to have as spares so I also removed the third member to see what kind of gears were in there. Guess what? JACKPOT YET AGAIN: 4.88 Nitro Gears

Well, I guess its time to ditch the 33" tires and go bigger.

 

[ZeGerman]

Im not going to be putting on nasty ass rusty control arms or anything else on the cruiser so it was time to refurbish stuff.
After a lot of degreasing, cleaning , wire wheeling and sanding, it was finally time to respray the control arms. I used chassis paint for this application.

remove the masking tape and reveal the sweetness of a sexy smooth control arm:

This week got to run to Toyota to grab me some new bushings.

 

[ZeGerman]

If you are somewhat smart, you may have figured out that I jump around. Not literally but from project to project. I drive this thing all the time so I never have it all completely apart to a point where I can not drive it at the end of the day. Even when the interior was ripped out, I still drove it. Milk crates still prove themselves to be useful

The suspension is on the side burner while I wait on bushings so I went ahead to the next point of annoyance on this cruiser. Every time I put on the air, I would get a puff of some kind of vegetation in my face and the cabin. This sucks on multiple levels. No body likes anything come shooting out at their face. NOBODY. Plus I foolishly decided to go all black on the interior, so every speck is visible. Im good about keeping my vehicles clean but fxxx you Toyota and your non filtered face spitter of an HVAC unit. The time has come to investigate.

This is what I found after removing the Cowl. At least I think its called a cowl. Im not sure. For now lets call it a cowl.

That is a lot of crap in there. It was really nice of Toyota to add those filter clip in thingies in there but why are the holes so damn big? Im convinced that this system was designed by a vengeful chick. "See how the guys like having a surprise flying at their face".

Time to remedy this. add mesh that is small enough not to let the little crap into the Ac but large enough to not clog up during pollen season. Went to Home depot for some bug screen. An entire roll just for a tiny filter.

Cut screen material larger than the size needed. Spray the glue all over the filter frame and place the screen on the glued surfaces:

Then trim the excess material and you have a new and improved pre filter to your HVAC unit;

 

[ZeGerman]

MY CRUISER IS STILL UGLIER THAN HELL

I have been really struggling with what color to paint the cruiser. I look around mud and see so many great options and I just can not decide. There are rigs like @jcardona1 rig, which is so bad ass and so freakin awesome. But I do not possess the skill nor the cash to hire someone with such skills to even get close. His rig is what got me into the Land Cruiser game.

Then one day on the headliner thread a user by the name of @MDarius called the cruiser THE BLACK MAMBA due to the black interior. That gave me an idea.

For those that don't know this evil piece of crap serpent that will chase you down because its friggin territorial and will bite and kill your ass quickly in the most painful manner ever; here is what it looks like:

The inside of this snakes mouth is black. Thats where it gets the name. So Im going with this color scheme. chose a color on the snake. Came up with Graphite metallic. Since the cowl was off the car, I proceeded to sand and prep the thing for paint.

Loaded up the sprayer and started spraying.

I quite like this color. Chose to do it in Satin. So I will be doing the entire rig in this color with black accents and interior.

 

[ZeGerman]

So that is where I am currently. Up to this point the thread is a very much simplified version. A s*** ton of work went into it so far. Lots of little and not so little injuries. I don't always wear protection and generally do not know what the hell Im doing. Thanks to this site and all its members I am somewhat able to move forward and make sense of this thing. I really hope that I will be able to contribute to this community as much as I have gotten out of it.

 

[Lumpskie]

You need to get out more. best thread? not yet It just cost too much to become best thread.

Seat cover replacement? I found it quite easy. You need a pimp hand. without a pimp hand you will get horrible results. The seats will not do what you want them to.

What you need is PIMP HAND TRAINING. All you need is a soft surface like a couch or a pillow. What you do is stand in front of said surface. Stretch out your arm and swing full throttle at said surface while screaming expletives. The pimp slap will put the seat foam in its place under the cover.

So, the big question is: Which replacement seat cover did you go with?

 

[ZeGerman]

Lol. I forgot the most important question

I gave the old ones to an upholsterer and had them copy me a new one.

 

[ZeGerman]

Screw you "Black Mamba"!! You may not bite me and inject venom but you will slowly kill me with making me sand all the time! IH8SANDING. Sanding sucks.

All this time I kept saying the cruiser is but ugly. Well it is. I attempted to put lipstick on this pig by plastidipping the peeling disgusting hood. Of course I did not put enough coats so now I can't peel it of cleanly. How fun!! Also there were a ton of rock chips on the hood that started rusting. Nothing major. So I have to get that cancer out also.

PS - You're still ugly

 

[ZeGerman]

The Restoration Blues

Ta ra ra ra rat
I had a real ugly hood
Ta ra ra ra rat
Had to do something about that hood
Ta ra ra ra rat
so I sanded down the hood
Ta ra ra ra rat
now I got flat spots on ma hood
Ta ra ra ra rat
but the rusty cancer is gone off my hood
Ta ra ra ra rat
I went ahead and bondoed ma hood
Ta ra ra ra rat
Then I sanded some mo
Ta ra ra ra rat
I used up to 500 grit
Ta ra ra ra rat
Now Im ready to prime that hood
Ta ra ra ra rat
Started priming the hood
Ta ra ra ra rat
I ran out of primer
Ta ra ra ra rat
The story of my life
Ta ra ra ra rat
I got the restoration blues

 

[Webster77]

Subscribed! Love the road trip story!!

 

[ZeGerman]

So I ran out of primer. Unmasked the cruiser and drove the car that I am currently painting to get paint to finish the paint job of the car Im currently driving. Why did I not just take another car? I have no fu***** clue. Halfassedly remasked the cruiser and finished the primer coat. Sanded some more. I was very happy with the outcome.

Meanwhile there was a sinister plot by some avians. They look at me working hard in the Georgia sun to give the cruiser a nice paint job. The birds wait for the most opportune moment to carry out their devious plot. Meanwhile they see me filling the paint gun with what would be a glorious first coat. I load the air and proceed as smoothly as I could to get even coverage on the hood. I do my final pass felling very satisfied with what I have accomplished. A smooth even coat (in my mind)

As I turn around to disconnect the air this bird dives and releases its turd. Splat!!!!! Was I pissed? No. I am kind of relieved actually. Now I can blame all the imperfections of my paint job on a bird.

I am thankful to this bird for taking the pressure off. So in the spirit of adventure and camping I busted out my camp stove and pan. I went to the fridge got 4 eggs and made myself scrambled eggs THATS RIGHT YOU STUPID BIRD THATS WHAT I DO TO BIRD CHILDREN. I FxxxING EAT THEM. CRAPPING ON WET PAINT YOU MOTHER****** YOU!!!

Of course I should have put a tent awning over it.

 

[ZeGerman]

I forgave the Bird.

The hood is done as is the Cowl. Fenders are next followed by roof. The cruiser is no longer butt ugly. Now its just ugly.

 

[ZeGerman]

Have not done too much to the cruiser lately but this week I finally got some crap out of the way. Finally decided on a water to air intercooler. It will be a custom job that will be nicely tucked away so trail repairs will be easy with everything accessible. Also ordered a custom radiator. I somehow don't trust the original one anymore.

Can anyone tell me why Toyota decided to run the transmission cooling lines into the radiator? This makes no fxxxin sense. Are we trying to heat the transmission or cool it down???? Anyway a transmission cooler is going in as well.

Exciting for me. I finally got to lose that aluminum bumper. I can't believe how light the thing is. In its place comes a legacy bumper. A bumper that has hit just about every trail in the US. It has all the battle scars to show for it. It came off of @beno old 80 cruiser named the Raisin.

Funny story how I wound up with this bumper. Onur was parting out his beloved truck and the vultures descended on Onur house and stripped the cruiser clean. Of course I came late and there was nothing left. Then one day I meet up with Dana aka @rc51kid. He was checking out my cruiser at my place and we were talking. I told him the story of how I missed out on the bumper because some ass grabbed it before I could to which Dana replied "I am that ass".

Long story short; Dana brought me the bumper!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

I hope that I will beat the crap out of that bumper like it deserves to be beaten. The bolts on the old bumper gave me hell but I got it all off. The beaten ARB on the other hand just slid right on. It was meant to be.

 

[OGBeno]

Sexy. And the classic ass-fawk-face owner before me was @Junk (Mike Kear from NJ). You do have some heritage in that bumper.

Here is what it looked like when I installed it at a rest stop on I-80 in eastern NJ after picking it up from the suburbs of NJ back in the day in 2005:

Look how beautiful my truck was.

 

[ZeGerman]

SWAYBAR BLUES

Started with the Slee 4" suspension install. Did the front first followed by the rear. Ran into a few snags - of course!! Guess the swaybar drop blocks on the front are different from the Japan and US model. The bolts on the Japan model are spaced closer together and I need to drill out new holes on the spacer block. Crap!!

Then the rear. 3 of the 4 bolts of the sway bar drop bracket broke loose and while turning them out, they fxxxin broke!! More Crap. Then one of the lower shock mount threads was slightly crap too so I can't get the nut on. Tried removing the the upper control arms in the rear and upon trying to remove the last bolt the load sensing garbage brake thing got in the way. Thats three strikes! Temporarily abandoned the s*** and will get back to it tomorrow.

The weird thing is that on the lower shock mount, on mine its a threaded bolt that you slip the shocks on to and then screw a bushing and nut. On the US model the shock slips over a sleeve and a bolt goes into that sleeve. Now Im bring to figure out which is the better system because its the same amount of work to weld the US system on the axle or repair that damn bolt. Decisions decisions.

 

[ZeGerman]

Got back on it today. It helped that I was no longer irate. I took a little bit off the level sensing brake thingy so I could back out the bolt enough to get the new upper control arms in.

I guess in the past someone broke the bolt in the shock mount. They cut the whole thing out and rewelded new pieces. Instead of a sleeve where the bolt goes into it was a threaded rod. Unfortunately the threads wore down so we could not really get a nut back on. Recut all the threads and got a fresh nut and all is well in the world.

Then came time to drill out the 4 broken bolts that were to hold the rear swayer drop bracket. Retapped all the holes and got some grade 8 bolts in there so I will never have to deal with that crap again. Big thank you to Scott @toadshade for all the knowledge and help. You have managed to keep me sane today.

So all was done and Im happy and all I want to do is put it all back together. So came the time to remove the old sway bar bracket and put the new one on. Then this happened. MOTHER F*****

This is not a bolt with messed up threads. Its a seized nut on a metal stud holding up the swayer. Its just all twisted.

Well here we go again. But Im determined to get the Cruiser up and running today again.

 

[ZeGerman]

Big thanks to @Douglas S for the info that the 1989 FJ62 compressor is a direct bolt in. You saved me quite a bit and I owe you several drinks when we cross paths.

 

[Webster77]

Big thanks to @Douglas S for the info that the 1989 FJ62 compressor is a direct bolt in. You saved me quite a bit and I owe you several drinks when we cross paths.

Score good info!

 

[ZeGerman]

The 4' Slee lift is in. I know its in because I used to be able to just slide into the truck. At 6'5" I now actually have to lift my ass into the truck. I should have rethought this lift

The ladder on the Slee bumper is starting to make sense now. I do however need a step stool to work on the engine compartment. Working under the truck is a breeze now due to the height.

It was not as easy as I thought it would be. The old bolts are stubborn as fxxx and a total of 5 bolts broke. Thanks to the 2 Scotts @smittycrusher and @toadshade for all the help, guidance and keeping my sanity through this. Now for new shoes.

Here is the Cruiser as she stands now: