Build Ochenta sin Nombre Moves to San Diego

[perrobravo]

Recently picked up a 1990 HDJ81 and am happy to be joining the fun on the 80 forum! The truck has ~300K kilometers, is completely rust free, pretty much stock, and overall is in great shape. Let the fun begin!

As the truck (currently lacking a name, unlike garage mates Righty and Lefty) looked on the day I brought it home...all JDM and whatnot

Same day after a few deletions. Getting that pink window tint off was not fun.

After a fun morning at DMV, the truck is now officially registered in California!

Started doing some baselining and some small tweaks including painting the wiper arms and putting some new Toyota replacement rubber

With @beno 's help, a new fuel cap (exciting stuff!) and a few other bits

Got some extended braided brake lines to mate with a future lift and since I was flushing the brake fluid anyway, thought I'd throw those on

Under the hood, decided to try a fancy Mishimoto oil catch can to keep the 1HDT breathing freely

Replaced these so called BEB or connecting rod bearings in an oily, messy morning with new Taiho bearings from @Radd Cruisers

With all that out of the way, a few more baselining things taken care of, and a bit of clean up, it'll be on to some mods! Suspension, tires, exhaust, sliders (@reevesci is hooking me up!) ...and most importantly, some time in the dirt.

 

[OGBeno]

That's just awesome Jeff. Solid work man.

 

[elripster]

If you have time, the local TLCA club CA- Beach-n-Toys meets at Mike's BBQ in Escondido the first Tuesday of each month. We'd love to check out your rig.

Frank

 

[Dan2722]

It's about time you made it over to the 80 section! Looking forward to the many mod posts and seeing it in the dirt.

 

[AlbertoSD]

Beautiful truck and great work on the 81!!!

Hope the 74 doesn't feel neglected

Keep up the good work, Jeff!

-Alberto

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Jeff,

Sliders are done. Just need to clean them up and get them shipped out.

Jason

 

[LS1FJ40]

Nice!

What'd you do with the window visors?!?! If they are still good I'll trade you 70 Series visors for them!

And you'll love you sliders. I haven't beaten on mine that @reevesci made but they sure look cool!

 

[4G63 POWER]

Looks nice, all you need to get the tint off is a cordless garment steamer from walmart. Sell me those running boards. I'll trade you for a jdm fender mirror.

 

[ZeGerman]

Welcome to the madness that will bring you endless joy and endless empty wallet syndrome. Its madness I tell you. Its absolute madness. This is one rabbit hole that can go very very deep

You have been warned! That being said, That is one great looking oil burner. You found @beno so you already are on the right track.

Looks like you are off to a great start. Some of your next mods should be a boost gauge and egt gauge. Do that before you make any modifications to the fueling and changing the boost. Once these things get messed with, they get really hot very quick.

How many garbage bags full of useless accessory wires have you pulled out so far?

 

[koifish]

Wow, what a collection there! How many Land Cruisers you got? I swear saw this on the road in Poway last Saturday.

 

[decoco]

how did you take off that pink tint?

 

[perrobravo]

Thanks all! Pretty fired up to be in an 80 and looking forward to putting some miles (kilometers) on it. Took the truck up to Lake Arrowhead and it ran great. Temp gauge didn't budge, air conditioning blew cold air, got more than 18 MPG, and I was even able to keep up with traffic going up the mountain.

Didn't get a chance to hit any of the local trails, but I did drive to get tacos. And, naturally, took a picture.

@elripster , thanks for the heads up on those meetings. I'll get out to one as soon as I can. Always good to hang out with other Land Cruisers!

@AlbertoSD , your builds have been great. Helped me learn quite a bit and drained my wallet proportionally! Honestly you're a big part of what got me focused on the 1HDT. Thank you! And don't worry, Righty the BJ74 is still getting preferential treatment.

@LS1FJ40 , I still have the front window visors if you're interested. Shoot me a PM and we can find a way to get them headed your way. The rears were cracked and nasty, so went into the trash.

@4G63 POWER , unfortunately I also discarded the running boards. Maniacally reading CL for 80 series trucks, I saw a ton of running boards for sale and not selling, so figured they were of limited value. That and my growing pile of take off parts, even the JDM pieces, don't seem to appeal to others in the household, or my neighbors, or the home owners association.

Boost and EGT gauges are high on the priority list as you recommended, @ZeGerman . After installing those in my BJ74 (pictured above), I feel like I'm driving a bit blind for now. How many trash bags filled with stuff? Not sure. I went straight to the big trash bin and couldn't close the lid when I was done.

@koifish , I'm missing more than a few Land Cruiser variants so have a ways to go before I'd call the trucks I have a collection...but I have probably exceeded what one would call "normal". If you saw me in Poway, I was probably on my way to/from the Toyota dealer there. I go there pretty regularly to pick up small things I forget to order from @beno .

@decoco , to remove the tint, I used child labor (my son) on the inside pulling and scraping while I stood outside with a heat gun to soften the glue. The old tint didn't want to come off easily, so for most windows we just pulled as cleanly as possible and then scraped/cleaned the glue off the glass after. A sharp razor blade and all of the Windex we had on hand did the trick. I'll get the windows tinted again at some point.

In the next week or two:

1. Sliders from @reevesci
2. 3" exhaust (appointment scheduled next week at a place @Dan2722 and I have had good luck with)
3. Boost and EGT gauges

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Sliders are boxed and scheduled for pick up today.

Thanks J

J

 

[4G63 POWER]

Yeah with a garment steamer it literally falls right off. Important around defrosters.

 

[Tapage]

no name = la innombrable . .!

 

[perrobravo]

Added Trail Tailor slider (yes, just one) from @reevesci . Thanks Jason! Am scheduled tomorrow at the exhaust shop to route 3" pipe inside the frame rails and will mount the other slider when that comes to fruition.

Painted (Toyota forklift gray) and bolted up

Tucked right into the JDM mud flap

TT bling

Almost ready to go drag on some rocks!

 

[Mighty690]

Come up and visit Julian sometime! I've got a JDM HDJ-81 too.

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Good work Jeff! Please send me some pics when the exhaust is complete on the PS.

Thanks again,

Jason

 

[Heckraiser]

Fancy nokians. If they were 16's I'd ask for them when you go to something bigger

 

[perrobravo]

Had Ed Hanson's Muffler weld up a 3" exhaust from the turbo back. Routed things inside the frame rails and removed all those factory mufflers and resonators, replaced with a single straight through MagnaFlow. The truck feels like it can breathe a bit better and has a subtly more aggressive sound to it without being obnoxious or droning.

In surgery

Used factory hangers where possible and actually ended up with more clearance over the rear diff than the original smaller pipe

Single MagnaFlow shed a ton of weight and hopefully some restrictions to exhaust flow

Running along the inside of the frame rails allowed the (Trail Tailor @reevesci ) slider to bolt right up

Speaking of sliders, on the driver's side (RHD), I had to work around the coolant lines for the rear heater. Nudged them around gently, then added a sleeve made of heater hose to protect things from rubbing on the slider hardware.

Slider installation officially complete!

Next up:

1. Headlight upgrade (have some LED bulbs I bought on impulse...fingers crossed the light pattern isn't horrible and will buy me some time to find a better alternative)
2. Install boost and EGT gauges received yesterday
3. Tires? Deciding whether I "need" 16" rims now or later.