The Restoration And Build Thread For My 1992 FJ80

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

New axle is in. Ended up not having to swap e brake cables. The semi float cable is longer. Just trimmed it down and redid the crimped on ends that hold it into the brackets. After several attempts of bolting things to the axle, I figured out the best way is to secure the upper control arms first. Then rotate the axle with a jack on the driveshaft flange. Then get the lowers in place and then use a ratchet strap to pull it into place for the panhard. The sway bar then bolted up fairly easily once it was at ride height.

It’s amazing how much better my cruiser now handles with the FZJ swaybars. Very happy I swapped both.




Stripped flares. New gaskets.


Fresh monstaliner on everything that was originally bed lined with rustoleum. Also coated the snorkel and fender liners to match the wheel wells.


Fresh VHT graphite and PPG clear on the center caps, bumper trim, HI-Lift handle, sliders, and machined spindle caps. For some reason, despite doing the same prep, same outdoor temps, and same materials, the PPG clear reacted with the VHT graphite. It used to lay down as smooth as glass. It didn’t turn out quite perfect this time as the center caps show a little texture but it gel’d together somewhat after sitting overnight.




I also swapped out the rear bumper brake lights. The previous set had a strip die in one of them fairly early. I tinted these less than the others for better visibility in daylight. I also upgraded the stupid connectors I had used on these to weather packs.


Just need to attach all of the drawer faceplates, but the new wing set up is awesome.


Also finished soldering the extensions to the tiny tiny tiny wires found inside the RCA connection and power supply to the reverse camera. That was so tedious and the wires were so small, the wire strippers wouldn’t strip them.



Locker wiring from the locker was pretty easy to run. I basically ran it up the center brake line and then over the frame and in front of the rear cab body mount. Then there is a nice grommet that enters under the middle row step that I pushed the wires through.


I now have over 100 miles on the new axle and I will be finishing up the locker wiring tomorrow and testing that out. I may also splurge on a set of KM3s because my current Kendas are cracking again. I’ll be talking to my tire shop in the next day or two.

 

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

With the help of a friend and his 3D printer I now have one locker indicator. I’m currently working on the artwork for basically a switch overlay for this like you would see on a 3x locked cruiser’s dash. I’m going to go ahead and do a front locker indicator as well so I have stuff that matches for when the time comes. Other than that and installing the part time spool, all of this summer’s work has been completed. The cruiser hasn’t been this dialed in a long time.

I’m still not sure what will happen with my tires, but I’ll probably end up buying new ones worst case. I am kind of surprised that the new BFG KM3 in the 35x12.5r17 doesn’t have a raised white letter option. I really want to run white letters again.

 

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

Went ahead and ditched the Kendas and ponied up for the new(ish) Yokohama Geolandar MT G003. Pretty sick tire and after driving 300 ish miles yesterday, I realized how loud and rough my Kendas had become. I never really felt like they were loud or rough but these are just so good.







What was odd was that after a loaded down drive to tulsa, I stopped at a gas station and the cruiser was like vapor locking. I’ve never had the issue unless I have been at altitude. The truck wouldn’t even accept fuel despite needing half a tank. We went and ate dinner at a Braum’s across the street and 30 minutes later the cruiser filled up and started like normal. We then drove to Bentonville, AR and pulled in problem free.

 

[T-Willy]

How many miles on this 3FE now?

 

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

How many miles on this 3FE now?

By the time I get home from Arkansas today, 410k. Then I’ll be changing the oil, greasing the drive shafts, throwing on the RTT, and heading to NM and CO

 

[T-Willy]

By the time I get home from Arkansas today, 410k. Then I’ll be changing the oil, greasing the drive shafts, throwing on the RTT, and heading to NM and CO

That's great. And, nice rig. I've got a 92 as well. At 229k, it feels as strong as ever. I wonder what the high-mileage record is for a 3FE?

 

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

That's great. And, nice rig. I've got a 92 as well. At 229k, it feels as strong as ever. I wonder what the high-mileage record is for a 3FE?

Yeah I have no idea. I have never seen one higher than mine but I’m sure there are some out there. The 4.7 V8s have some crazy high numbers on them, but that makes sense with them being as comfortable to drive as they are. Most people don’t have the patience for the 3FE.

 

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

It appears that fans only last so long.

It’s never crossed my mind that I should replace it, but hindsight is always 20/20. En route to the Solid Axle Summit, about 15 miles from Durango, I felt a clunk and saw debris in my mirror. I thought I had run over something in the road or had a center cap or something fly off. Within about 100 feet, it was obvious the problem was more severe. I pulled over into a large shoulder and hopped out. That’s when I noticed large amounts of coolant pouring out. Popped the hood to find pieces of the fan all over and a destroyed radiator and shroud. Luckily the belts all appear to be fine. Radiator should be in Durango on Friday and hopefully Toyota can get a shroud and fan by then. Unfortunately I have to wait until 7 am to check with them.

Pretty gutted as this has been the first breakdown my cruiser has had. I’m not sure what the deal is, but I also had fueling issues and vapor locking going on driving Red River and then again from Red River to Pagosa Springs. I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to source a fuel tank strainer and also replaced my fuel filter while also going over everything I could think of. A new VC120 charcoal canister is sitting at autozone in Durango. Hopefully that solves that issue and I can have the cruiser back on the road by Saturday.

 

[Gohere]

Bummer, from what I can tell your Land Cruiser it the epitome of all Land Cruisers. Well maintained, thoughtfully modified, and meticulously kept, shame to see it on the side of the road.

 

[NC-Trooper]

can honestly say that this is my favorite build on all of expedition portal

 

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

It’s amazing how good the cruiser community is. After talking to a friend, he referred me to Justin and Shaun of High Country Cruisers. Great guys with some sick builds in their shop. They graciously gave me the slightly damaged shroud and green hub fan clutch/fan that they had pulled out of Justin’s cruiser during his LS swap. I’ve got a radiator that should be in tomorrow along with a fuel pump strainer and new fan clutch nuts. If all goes to plan, I should be back up and running by tomorrow evening.

To fix the slightly damaged shroud, I traced out the broken section onto cardboard, then outlined it on my old shroud, then used a dremel to cut it out. Luckily mine had cracked just outside of the section that I needed for the “new” shroud.

Old and less old. After scrubbing the fan with purple power, it actually looks like new. I don’t see any hairline cracks or anything that would lead me to believe that this one won’t last for quite awhile.

 

[Joonwilds80series]

Hey man, first off like all the others superb job. What do you do for a living? Just got into wrenching as a hobby about 2 years ago and am a plumber. Super excited to take the rebuild journey in the future. Anyway, quick question, when you painted did you also paint the engine bay? And if you did, did you pull the motor? And last what did that cost you?
Thanks a lot.

 

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

Hey man, first off like all the others superb job. What do you do for a living? Just got into wrenching as a hobby about 2 years ago and am a plumber. Super excited to take the rebuild journey in the future. Anyway, quick question, when you painted did you also paint the engine bay? And if you did, did you pull the motor? And last what did that cost you?
Thanks a lot.

Thanks I appreciate it. I am actually a full time college student. I build and sell swing out kits when I have time and then do odd jobs here and there to fund my trips and whatnot. In regards to painting the engine bay, we kind of did. I would have loved to do it all, but it just wasn't something that was going to work time wise. If you go back to page 2 and look at the OBA install, you can see where the engine bay painting stops and where the original white retains. When I get around to a 2UZ swap, I will be painting the rest of the engine bay at that time. Paint, tape, rubbing compounds, and other supplies were right around $1000. My dad had quite a bit of paint actually left over from one of the the fj40's he painted. Up until this summer, nothing I have done has been truly financially costly, but there is no telling how many thousands of hours that have been poured into all the projects.

 

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

I kind of forgot to update here after the last trip. Anyways the cruiser hasn’t even had any shut off issues since driving through Kansas so I haven’t been able to check for spark issues, but I am fairly certain it is some weird electrical gremlin at this point.

Recent trip summary:

2100 miles
8.87mpg

OKC -> Red River, NM -> Pagosa Springs, CO -> Ouray -> Telluride -> Crested Butte -> Aspen -> Denver -> I70 east to Salina and then I35 south to OKC.


Unfortunately, we ended up having to cut time out of certain parts of the trip due to being pressed for time after the breakdown, but all around good times were still had.

Outside of Red River at my go to campsite



Making repairs at my neighbor’s place in near Pagosa. He just finished building a huge shop and I’ve never had such an enjoyable time wrenching. Perfect temperature, no humidity, clean space etc.




Gold King Basin. We went up higher than where I camped last year and in the process had to traverse a sketch, extremely loose, off camber rock slide section late at night to get to this spot. The next morning we were packing up when a Jeep rubicon and 3rd gen Tacoma attempted getting to where we were camped at. The rubicon was sliding down and nearly rolled down from there. It was balanced precariously on a small shelf of loose rocks, and if a door had been slammed on it, they would have given away. The guy’s wife was absolutely freaking out and he was trying to throttle his way out when I got over to him and told him to stop and winch out.



Out on Last Dollar Road. We ended up camping at this awesome spot right on the edge of a cliff, but an evening sprinkle kept us in the tent so I didn’t take any pics there.



Running up some random road after crossing the Slate River near Crested Butte. This led to probably the best campsite I’ve ever camped at. Or at least one of the best...



Definitely a top 3 campsite. We tried to go up to the top of the road the following morning but an uncleared rockslide prevented that as the road became extremely narrow and off camber. I’m not even too sure a dirt bike would have made it.



When we were leaving Crested Butte and trying to get to Idaho Springs for Beau Jo’s, we faced two options. Pearl Pass, a short 30 mile drive, or a long nearly 200 mile drive on pavement. The choice was easy and we even thought we could save some time by taking Pearl Pass. Pearl Pass started out looking like a used mine field. Giant holes everywhere and it was of course very dusty. I had totally different expectations of what the pass would be like going into it, but it ended up being probably the best pass I’ve ever been on. It was extremely rocky and had quite a few technical spots where I was glad I had the Harrop. Near the top at somewhere around 12,000 feet we were in a rock garden that I tried to just crawl with the rear locker on. In Low and Low, the cruiser wasn’t having it. Luckily, with the rear locker and three bumps later, we were through.

I definitely want to run this pass again sometime but with a lighter load and no bikes. That really slowed progress as we took them off several times for the clearance we needed to make it through sections.



Oh and it also ended up taking significantly more time than the estimated 3 hour drive on black top, but the summit was unlike any other summit I have seen. It was pretty wild.

Upon returning home, one of our neighbors sold their house and moved to an area where they could not store their 1st gen 4runner. It wasn’t running (had been sitting next to a barn for several years) and it needs a lot of work. I wasn’t really interested in buying a non running project, but basically he said if you can get it running and don’t want to purchase it, I’ll pay for your work on that.

Needless to say, I got it running. It’s a base model 1988 with a 22RE (~200k on it) with a w56 5 speed. One drive around the neighborhood and I knew I had to buy it. $500 later it’s now mine. I’ll be starting a build thread at some point, but short term is to get it base lined/road worthy and clean up the extensive use of wire nuts and questionable wiring...

 

[MikeWeaver]

Fantastic build! Good luck with it! LS or 2JZ is what I dream about from time to time.