The Ocho's "I think all FJ cruisers look the same" FJ build thread.

[The_ocho]

Hey all, here is a thread for my FJ. It's nothing super special, I'm trying to keep this build functional and quality. I always seem to take my rigs and over the years stack more and more on until its not something I would want to drive across the country in or take a long trip. I now have a dedicated wheeler, so I wont be going over board with the FJ. I want this FJ to be capable of long trips but it will mostly be used for day trips and weekend camping. Anyway heres how it sits now

It's an 07 6 speed that I bought in April with 70K on it and bone stock. while I was signing the paperwork at the dealer I was on my phone ordering sliders and 5100s

2.5" donahoe racing coilovers
Camburg 1"uniball UCAs
2.0" Icon rear shocks
Allpro sliders
RCI engine, tranny, and tcase skids
Knock off snorkel
Cobra 75, allpro mount, 4' fire stick.
285/70R17 Wangler MT/Rs
China knock off LED lights.

 

[The_ocho]

Here it is when I brought it home

Few days later the sliders showed up and went on

And then the 5100s went in and leveled it out

It wasnt but a few days later that I remembered my friend had some coilovers from his old Tacoma. I called him up and bought home these sweet bad boys for a $200

A quick call to ICON and another $200 spent and I have new seals, bearings, top plates and misalignment spacers. I got to work on the rebuild, shafts had some minor pitting and the bearings were beyond dead. I had to cut both top plates off as the bolts were seized in. They were full of crap aswell

Lots of polishing got the fronts done, another $300 got the rear shocks.

Out came the 5100s which I sold off, The original money I spent on these was refunded to me by the dealers corporate after I showed the dealer that the factory shocks were blown and they refused to warranty them. so all in all I spent $500 for my coilovers and rear shocks.

Then my friend who I bought the coilovers from gave me the UCAs to match them, $300 to camburg got me a full rebuild kit

Now the suspension is done. I moved on to other things, Rear storage and interior lighting being some of them

For rear storage, I went to a local surplus store and picked up some alice packs and clips. Then went to the local HW store and got a 3ft aluminum bar, some spacers and bolts. End result was less than $80 and lots of room, I have my first aid kit, chem lights, zip ties, deflator, some recovery gear, and lots more in there.

Interior lights, I spent $20 on ebay and got these 96 5050led panels. Wired two up into each dome light. results are a little too bright but at least now I can see everything inside. Seriously though its brighter than daytime inside there.

 

[The_ocho]

RCI skid plates I picked up when they were having a sale a few monts ago. I like the engine and trans skid, hard to mess those up but the tcase skid leaves a lot to be desired, Ill probably swap it out for an all pro one when money permits. This thing hangs down so low, like 2 inches below the factory tcase skid.

exterior lighting came in the form of ebay china leds. at less that $20 a piece there is no reason why you wouldn't get them, especially since they are IP68 rated. I mounted two up front to cowel brackets, and two in the rear to the roof rack. wired them up to some OTRATTW switches

The snorkle happened when there was a sale, $150 shipped it was too good to pass up. Given I live in vegas and the dust here is crazy I wanted to do every bit to help. I ruined a cone filter in my jeep in a few hours one day.

I had an extra mag light and mounts so I tossed it in the back

Body mount chop pics because why not

 

[screwball48]

Any link to the seller on those lights?

 

[The_ocho]

Any link to the seller on those lights?

these ones? I offered him $75 and he took it

 

[screwball48]

Thank you.

 

[bikerjosh]

Really nice, well thought out build. Any plans for a front bumper?
Still on the fence about buying a 4th gen 4runner or an 07-08 FJ, keeping busy working on the Tundra :coffeedrink: , but man that thing is wide and long when off road.
J

 

[The_ocho]

Really nice, well thought out build. Any plans for a front bumper?
Still on the fence about buying a 4th gen 4runner or an 07-08 FJ, keeping busy working on the Tundra :coffeedrink: , but man that thing is wide and long when off road.
J

Thanks, for a front bumper I'll probably either make one or get the trail gear one. It's the cheapest at just under $500, I have always been a bit partial to tube bumpers over plate ones, and to be completely honest there isn't a single bumper on the market for the fj that actually looks good in my opinion. The trail gear I think is best but I will have to cut it down a bit as I don't like how it hangs so far off the fenders on each side.

That's a tough decision to make as to which one to get though. I was between the fj and a 4 door Tacoma, what it came down to for me is which one I found first in a manual. There was no way I was going to buy an auto. I used to have a 2nd gen runner like 6 or 7 years ago. I loved it, not a single thing about it I didn't like. I have had a few vehicles since then and nothing was able to match it so I figured it was time to get a Toyota again. Whichever way you go research the problems. The 07 FJs had brittle rear gears and like to break randomly, I would say most have already been replaced by now but it's worth it to crawl under and check the build date on the diff. Also if you are looking for a manual beware of the throw out bearing issues, the auto read up on the surging issues. Every vehicle will have its faults it's just picking what you can handle, I can rebuild manual trans, changes clutches, and set up gears no problem so it wasn't a issue for me to get an fj.


Here is some more stuff, the local fj group did a group buy on some custom trasharoos so I picked myself up one

Also a few weeks ago I added a power steering cooler, the system needed a flush as I replaced all the fluids when I bought the truck except for the ps so why not add a few more bucks and save some pump life.

 

[The_ocho]

I Picked up a bumper last week, The deal was too good to pass and I wanted to grab it before the website got updated, $450 shipped to my door. I am not a fan of any of the bumpers out there for the FJ, and Im too lazy to make my own since all my fab time is going into my jeep. This one was half to cost of any other bumper, still holds a winch high and tight, and has a front receiver too. Ill just have to get over how it looks, but with some help. I cut about 6 inches of width out of it. Trail gear doest have the best design for their FJ bumpers they are bulky and I guess they were trying to protect the flares. Now to save up for a winch.

Not a very good angle, the sun was way too bright for pictures.

My battery also crapped out on me Friday, its been getting slow but never had a problem starting until now. Went out to eat dinner then drove home and everything was fine. Go out in the morning to start it and dead, pull the battery out of the jeep to jump it, let it run for half an hour and shut it off, within a minuet its down to 11.8V. Do this a few more times and then head down to sears to pick up a Die Hard platinum. Too bad the FJ has reversed terminals or I would just run my jeep battery.


Also Snapped this pic the other day, oddly its one of my favorite ones of the fj, I did about a 50 mile trail a few weeks ago and after driving to work every day this is all the dust still left, mini sand dunes. GPS tracks for anyone who cares

 

[The_ocho]

got to go out and play on labor day, Im still hate this RCI t case skid.

And we had two people think their rough country lifts could take anything

 

[blkhwk]

wow! those things snapped like twigs.