Builds Schmutz FZJ80 build thread
- Thread starter Schmutz
- Start date
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Hi Schmutz. congrats on your 80! my 80 came to our family 11 years ago. with 50,000 miles.( now with 192,000) was our family truck until February of last yr. when my wife said...... i think we should sell the land cruiser and get a new car....... and I say....... NO!! I will take it and sell the ford f250 that i had. so we did!
Best decision ever!
our 80 is not locked either, not a big deal. I am in the process of getting rear air lockers just like you are thinking. in the past year I have done rear bumper, with dual swing outs. ( by sean Huston) very happy with it and a great guy to work with. front ARB bumper, safari stile just like you like. Gobi Ranger rack ( Great rack and nice communications with Paul) OME heavy lift. and a few other thinks.
I like the way your build is going. Don't powder coat your rims.... not worth it. just use rattle can paint from Auto Zone. A good Black primer and a flat black paint will do it.
Good luck with your build and keep us posted!
frisman
Best decision ever!
our 80 is not locked either, not a big deal. I am in the process of getting rear air lockers just like you are thinking. in the past year I have done rear bumper, with dual swing outs. ( by sean Huston) very happy with it and a great guy to work with. front ARB bumper, safari stile just like you like. Gobi Ranger rack ( Great rack and nice communications with Paul) OME heavy lift. and a few other thinks.
I like the way your build is going. Don't powder coat your rims.... not worth it. just use rattle can paint from Auto Zone. A good Black primer and a flat black paint will do it.
Good luck with your build and keep us posted!
frisman
- Thread starter
- #23
Thanks for the suggestion. Guess I'm just afraid that with all the grime and brake dust that has accumulated on the rims over the years I might not achieve good adhesion for paint on those stock rims. What material are they - aluminum? I certainly like the price tag of your suggestion
So any ideas on how best to prep them for paint? I suppose hit them with a degreaser, scrub them down, and then pressure wash them really good. I bet there's a thread on this somewhere...But I welcome your input.
@Schmutz Duplicolor makes a wheel paint, I've had it on my 97 for over 2 years and no failures whatsoever. You clean with dawn dish detergent, then sand everything good, then dawn dish detergent again, then paint. The only difficult areas will be if your rims have that nasty aluminum corrosion on them, its a pain to sand through that stuff.
I used Rust-Oleum Sandable primer Black. And Rust-Oleum Acrylic Enamel paint Flat Black.
Before paint
I washed them good with water and soap. then used a degreser cleaner i got from auto parts. then used one of those green pads they sell to scrub. I did scrub them well. washed them again. let them dry and them with a clean rag, cleaned them good with thinner. let them dry and then prime them. i did like 3 light coats of primer and let then dry good. then i did like 4 light coats of finish paint. if you want you can apply flat clear on top of the finish paint. your choice. i will post a couple of pics. 2 of my rims were in bad shape. after the paint, they look great.
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- Thread starter
- #26
@half k cruiser, @Frisman -I'm sure this must seem like a stupid question, but did you remove your tires off the rims to paint them, or just mask off the tires?
No, I did not remove the tires. get a pc of cardboard and cut the radius of the wheel . ( hole ) then cut it in half. or just use blue tape.
FloridaFJ80
Roaming Land Cruiser Heaven
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Great Thread!!! And welcome... Here is a neat little trick I used when I plastidipped my wheels.. Take a deck of playing cards and just put them on one by the corner of each card, they are thin enough to fit in between the wheel and tire and big enough to cover the tire from overspray.. turned out awesome when I did this..
Use playing cards
- Thread starter
- #30
@FloridaFJ80 @half k cruiser wow! the level of cunning and ingenuity around here never ceases to amaze me. Thanks for the trick!
1973Guppie
Supporting Vendor
oh man this is a great idea! this will save me so much time.....
- Thread starter
- #32
I'm ready for the next round of mods with my latest purchases. For on-board air (and air-lockers later
) I decided on the ARB CKMTA12 compressor; three 12v power ports for running and charging all the family's devices (two will go in the back of the center console, and one in the PS rear quarter panel for the Koolatron fridge -which only needs 4 amps. I found a nice little fuse box with 10 circuits, which will be a neat and convenient way to power all the auxiliary stuff as I add it. Speaking of auxiliary stuff, I found some decent but inexpensive lighting: 42" LED light bar; 4" LED back-up flood lights; 7" HID spotlights. (Actually bought the spots for a previous vehicle, but they were too big to fit in the bumper. Hopefully I can implement them on the front of the 80). I'm actually getting ahead of myself here, since the light bar and back-up floods will be installed on the roof rack, which I will be building this month, once I have all the materials.
) I decided on the ARB CKMTA12 compressor; three 12v power ports for running and charging all the family's devices (two will go in the back of the center console, and one in the PS rear quarter panel for the Koolatron fridge -which only needs 4 amps. I found a nice little fuse box with 10 circuits, which will be a neat and convenient way to power all the auxiliary stuff as I add it. Speaking of auxiliary stuff, I found some decent but inexpensive lighting: 42" LED light bar; 4" LED back-up flood lights; 7" HID spotlights. (Actually bought the spots for a previous vehicle, but they were too big to fit in the bumper. Hopefully I can implement them on the front of the 80). I'm actually getting ahead of myself here, since the light bar and back-up floods will be installed on the roof rack, which I will be building this month, once I have all the materials.
- Thread starter
- #33
First course of action today was to locate a suitable place for the fuse box. Engine bay is cluttered and dirty, so I elected to place the fuse box down in the DS kick-panel area. Since it simplifies the process immensely having all the relays nearby... first I had to fab a wee mounting bracket:
- Thread starter
- #34
then attached the relays and fuse box:
Those other two relays await future accessories...
Those other two relays await future accessories...
- Thread starter
- #35
mostly wired up...
- Thread starter
- #36
and finally...installed in the DS kick-panel
Now I need to find a chiropractor to straighten me out after all the contortion required to install this
Now I need to find a chiropractor to straighten me out after all the contortion required to install this
- Thread starter
- #37
still at it...
Just found this thread. Good looking ride. I'm also of the opinion that rattle can wheel color is the way to go.
With me, I just got my wheels clean, after sanding as much as the nasty corrosion I could get, sprayed them with alcohol to get as much grease as I can, and then shot them with some rust-o-leum wheel paint and some rust-o-leum bumper and trim paint. I imagine you could also get acceptable results from plastidip spray cans as well.
With me, I just got my wheels clean, after sanding as much as the nasty corrosion I could get, sprayed them with alcohol to get as much grease as I can, and then shot them with some rust-o-leum wheel paint and some rust-o-leum bumper and trim paint. I imagine you could also get acceptable results from plastidip spray cans as well.
- Thread starter
- #39
Did you use the wheel paint as the base coat, and bumper & trim as top coat then? As far as the Plastidip goes, I wonder if it would be as durable as the paint. I wheel through a lot of low-lying brush and scrub up here, and am afraid the Plastidip might chip/peel more easily. The Sagebrush which covers our foothills is very abrasive
- Thread starter
- #40
Joy, joy... late last night I started to replace interior panels. Waited till darkfall, so I could admire my handiwork and see how the switches look when illuminated. I like the soft red glow of the LEDs. Soothing on the eyes, (Like the interior of an Audi or BMW at night). Everything works fine so far. Even hooked up the LED lights temporarily to ensure none of them are faulty. WOW! They are all very bright. Can't wait to get them mounted on the roof rack...
I have One issue, however: As I dim the dash lighting, the lower LED on my three new switches brighten, and as I brighten the dash lighting, the switch LEDS dim. I have switch pin #6 connected to the white-with-green-stripe wire from the Dimmer switch, since when I attached my test light to it, it dimmed and brightened in sync with the dash lights. I used a separate ground wire for pin #7, however it does run to the same grounding location as the ground wire from pin #8. Will try a different ground location to see if that helps. Otherwise, does someone with electrical experience have any ideas why my switches dimming is reversed?
I have One issue, however: As I dim the dash lighting, the lower LED on my three new switches brighten, and as I brighten the dash lighting, the switch LEDS dim. I have switch pin #6 connected to the white-with-green-stripe wire from the Dimmer switch, since when I attached my test light to it, it dimmed and brightened in sync with the dash lights. I used a separate ground wire for pin #7, however it does run to the same grounding location as the ground wire from pin #8. Will try a different ground location to see if that helps. Otherwise, does someone with electrical experience have any ideas why my switches dimming is reversed?
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