Builds ROTW- Cruiserhead05

[Cruiserhead05]

Alright, here goes nothing.

First off, thanks to the Mods(past and present) for setting this up and keeping up with it. Its been awesome to get a more detailed looked at some really cool trucks.

My 80 is a 1994 which my parents bought in 1997 off of a 3 year/30k mile lease. They had previous bought a 92 which was totalled but really saved my brothers life and they also bought a 1985 fj60 brand new from the dealer, which we still have and is almost at 300k miles.

Nevertheless, the 94 became my moms DD, grocery getter, and general family trip vehicle.

It served its purpose greatly and lasted her about 6 years or so, unfortunately never seeing much dirt and only having the factory lockers engaged a few times. She drove it regularly until about 200k miles when the Headgasket blew a few hours away from home.
FWIW, this may serve as a testament to the amazing 1FZ, but she drove it 3 hours home on a blown headgasket, and thankfully didnt do any damage.
After this, the search was on for something else for her and the 80 was quickly replaced. How it really happened, i dont know, but at some point the 80 became mine. I guess they figured the truck was worth more as a backup vehicle then the 5-6k we might be able to get if we sold it.
Here she is, stock.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

When I first started driving the 80 regularly, i wasnt allowed to mess with anything. I was a junior in highschool and the plan was for me to drive this till i graduated and pass it on to my little sister for her highschool transportation. At this point, i had been on ih8mud for some time, mainly in the 40's section b/c that what I initially drove. B I had always loved built 80's but pretty much disclosed the whole idea of doing anything to the 94.

After much persistance, i convinced my parents to let me take the runnning boards off and replace the factory P.O.S. cd player with something better.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

So as time went on, I , like many others im sure, spent more and more time surfing mud...only to see more and more awesome stuff and great ideas.
I was itching to lift the truck and go to 285's badly but everytime i tried, it was a dead end. I might also add, i wasnt looking for anyone to buy this stuff for me, but just allow me to do it.

Since lifting the truck seemed totally impossible, i looked for any other stuff i might be able to do to the truck, so i added a yakima loadwarriro basket, and took it out wheeling for the first time on the stock 275 michelin's.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

After much begging, I finally was allowed to lift the truck via a OME 2.5 Heavy load lift and get 285 BF Goodrich At's.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

After lifting the 80, i was pretty much done for awhile as the lift and tires set me back some. At this point CMCC was coming up so i added a Uniden 510 cb and a 4 foot firestik. I mounted the firestick on a firestick door jam mount, next to the rear hatch. I also added an Osram maplight, camry cd pocket, and mounted the the cb below the dash.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

So after CMCC and driving the 80 for a little over a year, i was tired of the stock front bumper. I was on my 3rd front bumper, as a deer and previous fender bender had eaten up two.

After working a little more, and saving some $$$, i ordered an ARB winch bumper.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

After the ARB, i wanted to address the rest of the stereo as the speakers were going on 11 years years and with the alpine head unit, they needed to be replaced.
I picked up a pair of 5 1/4 Eclipse 3 way front speakers as well as the 4 inch 2 way rear speakers.

The installation went great on these, and it made a huge improvement. To finish off the stereo, i added a 10 inch Pioneer subwoofer, powered by a 600 watt kenwood amp.
Eventually, i want to add a 4 channel amp for the speakers, but for now, it works perfect.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

Next,

I sold the yakima and wanted to go with something with a slightly lower profile, plus i love WILDYOATS j-moose roof rack idea.
I searched around on ebay for awhile and was able to find a perfect ramp and some yakima crossbars. The ramp is attached via 6 u-bolts and has a few 1/2 ton(i think) eye bolts.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

After the roof rack, I added a pair of IPF, JO1's with dual driving/fog bulbs.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

After a short wheeling trip to GWNF and having a really close call with the rockers, sliders became the next thing on the list.

I, however couldnt bring myself to spend upwards of 1000 dollars for a pair of sliders. Plus, i couldnt really afford it. I know that both slee's and hanna's are of great quality, but financially, i couldnt swing it.

I started looking for an alternative way of getting some sliders for the 80. I wasnt picky about how they looked or worked, i just wanted protection.

I had previously looked around at Richard Stubbs (stubbswelding.com) web page.
I'm sure a decent amount of people know him for his 4Runner and taco sliders. Because richard was located out west and i am on the east coast, i didnt think anything would come about of talking to him, but i did anyway. I dropped Stubbs an email and told him my whole situation. The same day, richard himself called me cell and talked to me for about 15 minutes. He was very optimistic about fabbing up his first pair of 80 sliders, though we would have to work together alot over email to make the whole thing work.

After alot of measuring and re-measuring, the plans for the sliders were finished and in about a week, they were done. My sliders are the same as richard's "deluxe" model and though the main bar is smaller and the actual mounts might be smaller then the other options, richard used .188 wall tubing and assured me they would suite the 80 fine. Richard also tapped the sliders for air and sent them off. They arrived at me door, raw. This is how the cost was kept fairly low. The sliders all finished and shipped were still much cheaper then any other options.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

You'll quickly notice that the sliders only have three mounting bars. This NOT how the final product was intended to be. Once the sliders were welded on the frame, i took the final measurements for the fourth, front bar which has to work around the CATS.
Richard is currently in the process of fabbing up the final bracket around the cats and when i get it in the mail, it will get welded on.

I cannot say enough about my experience with Richard Stubbs. Again, i have absolutely nothing against slee, hanna, and IPOR. But richard stubbs is an excellent person to work with and was willing to do anything i asked. I would happily suggest his services to anyone out there.

The next few pics are them in the garage getting a few coats of Rustoleum textured paint. As well as pics of them mounted on the truck.

Here is a link with more detail on the finished product.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=79278

 

[Cruiserhead05]

This is pretty much how the truck looks now. With roof rack, ARB, and sliders. As well as a previously posted river crossing.

 

[stuck in GA]

Sweet rig Brandon and good write up. Love the sliders. You are gonna love having them. Now we can both go back and try the "Ledge" again.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

Afte the sliders were done i decided i would try to do some type of rear storage solution.
I shameless took Maddbaggins idea and built something very similar.
My rear shelf uses 3/4 inch plywood and the same home depot garage door opener tracks.
At first, i just painted the top of the deck with grey primer but quickly decided the addition of some carpot would be nice.
I went back to home depot and right when i went to purchase some standard grade grey auto carpet, they informed me i had to buy a 20 foot minimum.

Needless to say, i left. I drove around town to several places looking for some carpet to just do the job. At my final stop, in the very back of a small mom and pop hardware store, i hit the jackpot.

They had a huge role of heavy grade grey carpet. I have seen the outback drawer system that slees sells and felt the quality of the carpet. The stuff is awesome and looks to be very durable. The role of carpet i came across at the hardware store is almost identical. So i walked out with a huge piece and used it on the top of my deck.

With the rear deck installed, it served as a great mounting place for the Kenwood amp, upgraded 1 farad capacitor, and the small 12 volt air compressor i got on the group buy.

When building the deck i also made sure that the top was the same height as the subbox so everything would fit tight and not move around.

 

[clarkrw3]

Very nice write up. The cruiser is looking great...amazing what a little lift and bumper will do for an 80. I assume that your little sis will come no where near it now?!

That river crossing is crazy!!! Now you need a snorkle

 

[PabloVTA]

Very cool.
your'e one lucky kid.

What's next?

 

[Cruiserhead05]

To mount the tire on top, i of the deck, i used a yakima spare tire mount, typically used on their roof racks.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

Very cool.
your'e one lucky kid.

What's next?

Pablo,

I agree, i am a very lucky kid and i know it. I'm extremely greatful to my parents for passing this on to me, but fwiw, i've done more maintenance on the truck in my two years of driving it then they did in their 6 years of ownership.
Sometime i feel like its almost a bad thing with the 80's....they can take so much abuse, its easy for people to forget about them

 

[Cruiserhead05]

After mounting and hard wiring the compressor to the battery, i decided it would be easy enough and pretty sweet to have a power switch on the dash. So thanks to tony, i wired in an ARB compressor switch which now control the rear air compressor.

I also hated the somewhat short air hose that came with the comp, so i spliced in a 50 ft. coil air hose with an air chuck that can hold itself on the valve stem, so i can walk away from it if needed.

 

[PabloVTA]

So how much have you spent on all of those mods?
Do your parents still have to approve of each one? Looks like they have lost control!!

I'm jealous. Looks great!