Project Hundy Build Thread - 2000 UZJ100 Land Cruiser (Deathstar)

[PabloCruise]

Hmmm, that is interesting. The 1999 doesn't show a different instrument cluster for lock/non-locked so I'd assume that means the icon is there

Thank you for looking up all these differences in your system!

 

[PabloCruise]

And now that the build thread has reached the end of the 48 hour build weekend topics. Time for the video



Big thanks to my pal Jason for capturing all the footage of the build before and during. The post build pictures are courtesy of my pals in Canguro Racing and some of my own shots. And last but not least Steve from Stan Productions here in Utah for the editing and compilation of the video. Started in 2013, Stan Productions is a film company dedicated to creative short videos that highlight companies, product, and projects. If your interested in having them help with a project, I'll vouch for them. Contact them direct @ stanfilmproduction@gmail.com


Well, what do you think?

I think that is great!
Getting a little lunch break fix on this thread.
There is a good looking GSD wandering in and out of the video - shop dog?

 

[PabloCruise]

The new LED light bar proved to be a great addition though it wasn't quite apparent initially. I fired the light a couple of times on the lonely highway as my buddy Ryan and I bombed south towards St. George where we were launching for an off-road adventure. The light was extremely visible but lacked any real 'reach', which makes sense as I opted for the flood pattern rather than the spots. All was well, the upgraded headlights kept things illuminated and the aux IPF lights on the bumper were there just in case. Fast forward a few days and a particularly soggy and washed out section of trail above Panguitch in southern Utah. Our group of 6 vehicles found ourselves winching, road building, using the Maxtrax and digging, progress slowed drastically as we literally had to coerce each truck through washouts and muddy ravines. Enter the LED light bar, it proved invaluable as a work light for winching and recovery operations as well as a fantastic 'trail light' as we led the group off the mountain. Couldn't be happier with its performance.

One of many recovery situations, Adam's Tacoma and the 100 lighting up the night
(Photo by Adam Tolman)

While on the trip, Ryan and I had some on-going discussions about the many merits of HAM, one of which was the APRS tracking. I've used the APRS for several years now but my setup has been a standalone system that literally just plugs into a 12V outlet and does it's thing. Family and friends back home can watch our progress (on sites like aprs.fi) and I can check it late to recount our route and pace. Turns out there was a far easier solution and of course Ryan would know about it. Green Light Labs makes a module (Part# GPS-710) for my Kenwood 710 Series 2M. It allows my unit to act as the APRS radio while still allowing me full access to communications. Even one better, the Kenwood 710 allows me to real-time track other APRS users, send text messages or get real-time weather readouts from weather stations operating in the area. I was sold... while we bounced down the trail I ordered up the GPS-710 module and crossed my fingers it would show up before I rolled out for the Moab to CruiserFest trip in just a few days. I placed the order on Thursday and it must have arrived Saturday as I was greeted by the box when I returned home Sunday. The install took literally 5 minutes and after adjusting a few radio settings, it was working. Tuesday night I rolled out for the CruiserFest trip with the APRS sending out beacons as planned. Ryan's group was meeting at City of Rocks, Idaho the following day, as planned I was able to see Ryan's real-time location and track him as we converged on our planned Simpson Springs meeting location. Totally nerdy? You bet. Practical application for remote travel? Absolutely!

Moab to CruiserFest convoy on Left, City of Rocks to CruiserFest convoy on right - Converging.
(Photo by Jason Goates)

That is pretty darn cool! I am still not licensed yet, but I have been eyeing a stand-alone unit that I could move from vehicle to vehicle. I would like to use the APRS and text.

I have much to learn...

 

[cruiseroutfit]

I think that is great!
Getting a little lunch break fix on this thread.
There is a good looking GSD wandering in and out of the video - shop dog?

Yup, that is Jada, our 8 or 9 year old GS. She is a fantastic dog and serves as the greeting committee.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

That is pretty darn cool! I am still not licensed yet, but I have been eyeing a stand-alone unit that I could move from vehicle to vehicle. I would like to use the APRS and text.

I have much to learn...

The APRS is pretty fun and I still enjoy using it. I wrote a more recent synopsis on my APRS liking here:
Why do I want APRS??? - Page 3 - Expedition Portal

 

[PabloCruise]

Yup, that is Jada, our 8 or 9 year old GS. She is a fantastic dog and serves as the greeting committee.

Oh man, I have stop hi-jacking you here, but there is nothing like a good GSD! We got a little puppy back in June, he is not quite up to welcoming committee, and the ears are still not upright:

 

[cruiseroutfit]

No worries on the hijack, all good chat.

 

[PabloCruise]

Final prep... I think.

The last big item was tunage i.e. radio. My stock Toyota head unit had followed many others and swallowed a few CD's, refusing to play them as well. This left the tape deck or AM/FM, not super ideal for cross-country traveling. My good pal and Canguro Racing team mate Ryan started down the path of his home audio (Ratio AV Inc.) career as a car AV installer and is known in the LC circles as an 12V guru. He had a head unit in mind and was able to source the needed goodies from his supplier and offered to help me with the install. We'll have access to tunes and movies as we spend 75-80 hours in the 100 the next few weeks and perhaps watch a movie or two in the pits as well

New tunage!

Time to roll.

Did Ryan replace amplifier and speakers? I am going through lots of threads, and hear about the merits of replacing speakers, plus the challenges of tying new head unit into factory amp...

Thanks!

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Did Ryan replace amplifier and speakers? I am going through lots of threads, and hear about the merits of replacing speakers, plus the challenges of tying new head unit into factory amp...

Thanks!

Negative, just a new head unit plugged right back into the factory harness with a converter pigtail. It would benefit from new speakers and such but I'm not exactly an audiophile and generally be found listening to crappy punk rock of the 90's... better speakers won't fix the music

 

[PabloCruise]

Negative, just a new head unit plugged right back into the factory harness with a converter pigtail. It would benefit from new speakers and such but I'm not exactly an audiophile and generally be found listening to crappy punk rock of the 90's... better speakers won't fix the music

So true... Suicidal Tendencies probably weren't striving for acoustical excellence.

Source for converter pig tail? Did Ryan make this for you? I might be in a different boat w/ the '99 LX + Nakimichi.

Thanks!

 

[cruiseroutfit]

So true... Suicidal Tendencies probably weren't striving for acoustical excellence.

Source for converter pig tail? Did Ryan make this for you? I might be in a different boat w/ the '99 LX + Nakimichi.

Thanks!

He sourced it through his AV supplier, basically a specific connector that went right from the head unit to the factory harness plug. They make them for a variety of different Land Cruisers so make sure you get the year, make, model specific one.

 

[PabloCruise]

Update time!

The 100 has been serving me most splendidly, I've had it out on a dozen or so trips since my last update and each time I grow fonder of its cross-section of abilities and comforts. To further emphasize my absolute pleasure, I finally committed to selling my beloved Tacoma and it now resides with a new owner, more on that here. With nearly 180k on the clock and little service history beyond the minimal service records I could find in the glovebox, it was time for the 90k service including timing belt, water pump, thermostat, etc. I'm fortunate to have Toyota mastertech and 100 guru Will C. in my neck of the woods and was able to recruit him to rock-out the upkeep. He's done a grip of these services and makes quick work of the project. Thanks again Will During that same time, I did some minor maintenance on the front end, lower ball-joints, upper ball-joint boots and sway-bar bushings & front links as mine were hammered.

Laying out the parts pre-install

With that behind me I had a few other modifications in queue including the installing the Front Runner fuel tank I had picked up from one of the employees at Proffits Cruisers. Jeremiah had mentioned to me that Bob won a 100 aux. tank at the Cruise Moab raffle and after a few calls I figured out that it was the 62L Front Runner gravity feed tank that was originally donated to the raffle several years earlier by Paul May of Equipt Expedition Outfitters. Paul was confident in the tank as a practical and reliable solution so Bob and I were able to work out a deal and get it out to Utah. There it sat on the shelf in the shop for nearly 9 months as other more pressing projects took priority, all until this weekend. I had a Saturday morning to spare and I was able to convince Olly (my shop tech) and Jake (one of my past employees) to come spend some quality time in the shop, they took the bait. Olly and I had previously reviewed the instructions and anticipated the project taking just a few hours. We were very wrong. Between a couple of missing parts and some shall we say 'lacking' instructions, it took the better part of the day on Saturday and a few hours this morning to finish it up. In the end the extra day worked out as I was able to get some good paint coverage on the parts. The stainless steel tank's original paint was flaking bad and the more I roughed it up with scotch-brite, the worse it became to the point 1/4 or more of the paint was gone. Between the scotch-brite, fine-grit sand paper and compressed air, I as able to get the failed paint off and start priming the bare areas with a self-etching primer. I applied a couple coats of primer and then 2-3 good coats of flat black paint. I'm less than optimistic that the paint won't blow back off with the pressure washer but at least I started with a fully painted tank and access is reasonable if I need to touch it up on occasion.

Prepping the tank for re-paint

The tank mounts in place of the factory spare tire carrier and includes provisions for lowering the stock tire carrier in the event you choose to run it. I've got my spare tire on the bumper and had taken off the factory tire winch and cross-member during the original build. So while I could have utilized a much larger tank, I weighed all the options in my mind and really 62L (16 gallons) is going to work out well for my needs. Additionally, I won't be too much weight to the already heavy rear end or losing any ground clearance. A full aux tank and the additionally weight of the tank itself is roughly 150 lbs, well within the load capacity of my current springs given I'm now going to carry two less 20L Scepter fuel cans. If I find myself wanting for more fuel in the future, Long Range has a 160L auxiliary tank.

8.5mm hole in the factory main tank

Balance fitting in place

Mounting the tank was straightforward but required we clean out and re-tap 4 holes in the bottom of the body, one of which is directly above a frame cross-member leaving very little room to access the hole. The part of the project that took the most time was plumbing, more specifically adding a balance line into the lower portion of the stock tank. Front Runner includes a specialized fitting made for this application and the instructions state that it must be inserted from the inside of the tank and secured on the outside with a nut. However the inlet of the factory tank as a spring loaded 'flapper' 6-8" down the tube so even trying to fish it through with a wire proved impossible. Perhaps the non-US diesel tanks don't have the flapper and thus the lack of detail in the instructions? We ended up pulling the entire inlet/vent assembly from the tank by removing 6-7 8mm bolts and carefully separating the gasket. With that removed we had better access and could fish some bailing wire and glide the fitting it place. In hindsight, I'd likely drop the entire tank which would provide easier and safer access. We cut the factory fuel neck as directed by the instructions even adding a 1" or more of 'cushion' room as a second cut is always easier then too short. However when we went to test fit the filler system, the provided hoses were not going to work as they were shorter than the instructions part list specified which was already 1/2" shorter than we wanted ideally. It simply wasn't going to work. Fortunately NAPA had a 12" section of fuel fill hose in stock and we were back on track, thanks for making a quick parts run Jake! Somewhere along the transport, one of the mounting brackets for the tank came up missing. Its design wasn't anything difficult to duplicate but it took some time to recreate the bracket using our sheet metal brake and weld gussets into place for a near identical mount. With that behind us we went back to watching paint dry, literally.

Reproducing the the tank bracket

Painted to match

This morning we were ready to rock and roll and in just a couple of hours we had the tank mounted, finalized the plumbing and were cleaning up tools. Thanks again for spending a couple of your days off helping Olly

Tank paint completed

I drove the Cruiser out of the shop and off to the first big fill, adding ~32 gallons before the machine clicked off at $100. I considered adding a few more to fully top off the tank but figured if there was a leak or and issue with the system, I'd rather have as little as possible to remove. I ran a few errands with it this afternoon and at each stop inspected the connections for any signs of leaking, so far it is bone dry. I'll go ahead and top off the tank tomorrow and again continue checking for any system leaks.

I am a bit worried about the proximity of the tank to the exhaust pipe, if nothing else the paint will fail and the cushion material between the tank strap and the tank might get baked? I'll likely fab up a little heat shield to help protect the tank. I'm headed out on a long road trip with a fair amount of bombing down dirt roads, it will be a great time to see just how hot the tank gets near the exhaust.

The biggest con, the total cost at the fuel pump

WARNING - Thread Revival (throw-back Thursday) in effect!

Hey Kurt, I had a few questions about the Front Runner aux tank install, not sure how much you will remember at this date...

1. When you say you had to clean and re-tap 4 holes. Are these the 4 holes that the spare tire winch cross-member mounts with?
2. Main tank fitting for the balance line - can this fitting be inserted by going in through the top hole that the fuel pump mounts in?
3. If I did not have access to a vehicle lift, would you still recommend dropping the main tank to accomplish this install?
4. Did you get any pictures of the inlet & vent assembly when you did this? I was looking for any additional visual clues for the removal and modification of the fill & vent assemblies.

Thank you for any details you may still remember!

 

[cainventure]

Kurt, My three year old absolutely loves the time lapse video. Well dad does to but it's neat to see my boy excited about offload and toyotas dad has to build his land cruiser now!
Thanks for this thread!

 

[cruiseroutfit]

WARNING - Thread Revival (throw-back Thursday) in effect!

Hey Kurt, I had a few questions about the Front Runner aux tank install, not sure how much you will remember at this date...

1. When you say you had to clean and re-tap 4 holes. Are these the 4 holes that the spare tire winch cross-member mounts with?
2. Main tank fitting for the balance line - can this fitting be inserted by going in through the top hole that the fuel pump mounts in?
3. If I did not have access to a vehicle lift, would you still recommend dropping the main tank to accomplish this install?
4. Did you get any pictures of the inlet & vent assembly when you did this? I was looking for any additional visual clues for the removal and modification of the fill & vent assemblies.

Thank you for any details you may still remember!

1. In the body. The straps hold the tank against the body
2. Possibly, I pulled the filler neck as it was easier to access
3. Yes, drop it a little bit. I did it on ground too
4. I'll look, I don't recall grabbing any vent pics but I might have them on my laptop

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Kurt, My three year old absolutely loves the time lapse video. Well dad does to but it's neat to see my boy excited about offload and toyotas dad has to build his land cruiser now!
Thanks for this thread!

Thanks for the kind words, glad you enjoyed it

 

[PabloCruise]

1. In the body. The straps hold the tank against the body
2. Possibly, I pulled the filler neck as it was easier to access
3. Yes, drop it a little bit. I did it on ground too
4. I'll look, I don't recall grabbing any vent pics but I might have them on my laptop

Thank you Kurt!

 

[cruiseroutfit]

So yeah, I still have the old gal. Despite many threats to sell I just haven't made the jump. I would have loved to have finished up the 200 by now (and feel lame) but I have not and thus the 100 still lingers. Plus, if you're headed to Mexico with 3 other pals do you really want them stinking up the new rig when the old one is seasoned?

 

[bryson]

So yeah, I still have the old gal. Despite many threats to sell I just haven't made the jump. I would have loved to have finished up the 200 by now (and feel lame) but I have not and thus the 100 still lingers. Plus, if you're headed to Mexico with 3 other pals do you really want them stinking up the new rig when the old one is seasoned?

Hey now, there were plenty of interesting things that came up on the trip, but I don't think smell was ever one of them (for once...)

But I digress. The MDSCF does it's job and does it well.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Hey now, there were plenty of interesting things that came up on the trip, but I don't think smell was ever one of them (for once...)

But I digress. The MDSCF does it's job and does it well.

Yeah, the 3 of us didn't want to mention it

Think of it this way, you were allowed Cheetos, Sun Flower Seeds, Doritos and open beverages. Not sure those would fly in the Fauxverlander.

PS, AC and key fob are fixed. I'm slowly working through your damage.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

It's a rare run these days when a 2000 is the new kid on the block