Our 1st 80 Series build

[Social Casualty]

Our 1st 80 Series build "Thank You Everyone"

Well we finally did it, decided to sell our 06 Ford SD and pick up our 1st Cruiser. Its a 1994 FZJ80 201400m with factory lockers. As it was originally a Southern Arizona truck its completely rust free and luckily the body is extremely clean, paint is good and other then a cracked up dashboard from that killer heat in Phoenix where we purchased it the interior is surprisingly clean. Only issue and its a dozy, there was a loud knock which seemed to me to be a spun rod bearing. So long story short after taking the drive down to the valley, looking it over we walked away with it for 2300.00 not a bad deal I feel as that with a little bit of labor and about 2200.00 in oe Toyota parts and rebuild fees we will have a 94 80 series with 0 on the clock for under 5000.00 (fingers crossed) which leaves me with a nice budget to spend on all the other equipment.

At this point not much has been done other than that the engine has been pulled, dissembled and is now at the rebuilders. We're using factory Toyota parts in this build including oil pump, water pump, timing chain with tensioner/guides, oem gasket rebuild kit and a couple others so I'm hoping to get another 200k plus out of it which to my understanding is not so hard with basic up keep.

Well we located the knock, no real major damage and with new pistons,
rings, cut 20 thousandths over & new bearings nothing to worry about.

 

[hks3sgte]

will be keeping up with this! looks to be promising!

 

[Social Casualty]

Payed off, Searched and finally came across a clean dash to replace my Sun beaten cracked one. Came from a privet party out of a 95 in Southern Cali and looks absolutely great cost less then the parts yards too.

In the process of removing that Sun beaten Purple tint

All clear of the old tint. Total tint removal time for the eleven windows was
about 2.5 hours including removing and cleaning all the rubbers except for
the tailgate rubber.

Out with the o'l powered antenna and in with a simple hard to break solid
mast jobbie.

 

[Airmonger]

Your getting at it! I still have a box with a new antenna that I have yet to install. Taking off the front fender looks like it makes the job easier enough.

 

[Driver-Navigator]

Looks good so far, looking forward to watching this thread over time...

 

[SoCal_80]

Congrats on a good find and welcome!

 

[Social Casualty]

This weekend involved removing the two front seats and replacing the drive gears that had been worn out do to the alignment caps going missing on both seats later to find that the passenger seat's motor is also dead. Also working on cleaning up the engine bay getting it all in order for the rebuild to go in this week.

cleaning up the engine bay

Just a quick weekend test fit, can't wait till the full set is in permanently.

 

[redthies]

Great deal! Factory locked with a new (soon) engine! You'll have a lot of years to come from that beauty!

 

[Social Casualty]

So a bunch of parts showed up a few weeks back and the wife and I have been having a great time installing some of the stuff. First off the engine rebuild is completed and doing great. In addition to the engine rebuild we installed an Old Man Emu 3" kit w/ 4+plus brackets, a set of Black powder coated oe 16" fjz80 wheels I purchased from a fellow LC owner in Phoenix, a set of Toyo 295/75/16 Cross Country A/Ts, ARB bumper, Warn winch a set of PIAA fog lights and we Blacked out some of the Chrome parts with the good old rattle can.

Pros & Cons:

OME 3" suspension kit w/ 4+plus brackets and steering damper

Kit was basic to install only problem we ran into was that the 4+Plus brackets needed to be filed on the back side so that the main frame bolt would line up in addition one of the two aft bolt holes (the inner one) would not line up and had to be lightly opened up with a little grinding. This was a problem for both left and right side brackets.

ABR bumper & Warn VR10000-S

This is my second ARB bumper and once again I am impressed with design and quality. The bumper actually installs easier then the factory 80 bumper since the brackets slide over the vehicle's frame holding it in place so starting the bolts is a breeze. As for the VR10000-S since it is a smaller frame winch it will either need the ARB 3500050 spacer kit for 50.00 or you can make the spacers yourself.

 

[Driver-Navigator]

Nice. I like the looks of that fairlead too.

 

[Social Casualty]

Was thinking of picking up the leather cover kit and new foam inserts but with a price tag over 600 and our passenger seat's forward/reverse motor is dead I looked for alternatives and found one. We came across a pair of Subaru seats in great condition asking 200obo but instead he traded me for a SO 3/8 Air Ratchet I was looking to let go of. So wallah new seats in the 80!

also got the air tank back from the powder coaters and bolted it in.

I did construct a debris shield for the compressor that is out at the coaters also I'm planning on relocating the compressor's air filter higher up in the engine bay. The photos are pre plumbing and wiring.

 

[Mauka2Makai]

Now thats the way to start a build... a complete engine rebuild, Nice. Those Subaru seats look great and I bet it saved you a ton of weight as well. Were they able to bolt right into the original holes? Nice LC... keep the updates coming.

 

[nuclearlemon]

looking awesome!

 

[cumminscruiser]

FJ80 Build

Nice build, Might want to protect that air compressor by the frame.

 

[Social Casualty]

Mauka2Makai: Thanks, as for the seats they are not a straight bolt in and actually is a bit of a job making mounts. The original seat rails/mounts are just at 13.5" spaced but these Subaru seats were at 17.5" so as you can imagine there was a bit of cutting and bracket making going on. I did though only modify the seats, I did no modifying of the LC's mounting holes so the original seats still fit and if I ever decide to sell the Subi seats to someone with an 80 they'll bolt right in.

nuclearlemon: Thanks Mate!

cumminscruiser: Thanks I have it already worked out, the Debris shield is at the coaters and I'm waiting for its return.