The Restoration And Build Thread For My 1992 FJ80

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

I’m getting ready to move to Kansas City for a summer internship so I have been addressing some things that have needed attention.

First off, my driver’s rear air bag stopped holding air. Turns out the line got slightly kinked just below the bag. I trimmed about 1cm off of it and it’s holding air.

Second off, the wiring prongs for my Harrop locker pulled out somehow. I don’t think the wiring was too short as it followed the same path as the flexible brake line going to the axle. Nonetheless, I cleaned out the connections, and got everything to click in securely. Maybe it was a stick or something that got it. At least it wasn’t a torn air line haha

Thirdly, while under the cruiser, I noticed a worrisome amount of oil all over the rear axle and passenger side frame and lower control arm. I had replaced the gear oil in the transfer case with synthetic before spring break. Despite even having a recently fresh rear output seal and bearing and not leaving drops of oil on the ground, it had emptied over half of the oil I guess while driving along. Regular 95-140 went back in.

I’ve also been really wanting to replace my light bar for quite sometime. The double row was quickly outdated in 2014 and better performing options come out each year. I have been looking at single rows, but nothing really fit the bill until I stumbled across this 180w 40” 6D bar. $114 shipped in 5 days from China via a seller on aliexpress was too good to pass up. I added extra silicone to it before installing it to ensure that it lasts.



Here’s the old light bar. It produced a lot of glare on the hood as it threw out nearly a 180* vertical blob of light. I only ever used it on slow overgrown trails to help identify things I needed to dodge.


Here’s my lightforce with the amber combo filters. In white light spot configuration, they go much further, but I prefer more of a flood generally. And the amber really cuts down on dust reflection.


Here’s the new bar.



It has a very tight spot beam that is easily aimed via my roof rack mounting system.


About a week ago I won a set of Blackhawk HD lower control arms and adjustable upper arms in a giveaway. Thanks again Endless Horizon Outfitters for putting on the giveaway.



I installed them yesterday. The lowers went on no problem. I did them all one at a time. The uppers took a little more effort. After putting the first one in, I noticed it was way too tight so I opened up the channel by ~3/16” on each side for both upper arms.

I’ve since got the pinion visually parallel to the transfer case output, but I am going to pull the rear driveshaft and get it as perfect as it can be here in the next several days. I’m expecting this to solve a rear driveline vibration I have had at higher speeds for as long as I can remember. If it doesn’t, I’m going to go ahead and put new u joints on the rear driveshaft.



I’ve got a couple other little projects I’m working on over the next 10 days or so, but I’m also really diving in deep on some 4runner projects. I’ve got the hardtop completely stripped down and about ready for paint. Once the hardtop is as good as new, I’ll be servicing the front hubs and brakes.

 

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

The cruiser has been chugging right along up here in Kansas City. It rolled 420k the other day on the way to work and I’ll probably be hitting 421k this weekend

Unfortunately, my transfer case rear output seal has continued to leak even after draining out the remaining synthetic and filling it back up with 85-140w. What’s odd is that it doesn’t drip a drop of oil. Just flings it out while driving.

Yesterday I met up with Jess, @cjmoon on mud, and we test fit/installed one of his awesome crossmember/transfer case skids. They were designed around the longer length transfer case found on later models, so he modified it in order to access the drain plug. Not a huge deal, but on the 3FE or non vicious coupling transfer case 80’s, draining fluid will collect on the skid, but with some brake cleaner and a rag, looks to be super easy to clean out if that rust proofing isn’t desired.

I’m pretty stoked on this added piece of mind and the fact that everything is still accessible for maintenance and it doesn’t add a huge weight penalty like a full belly skid.

 

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

I had to replace the alternator a couple weeks back as it randomly went out. Dealing with orielley’s for the lifetime warranty replacement was kind of a hassle this time around. The replacement alternator failed within 40 miles on my way out to a mountain bike race. Getting home took several stops to charge up the battery with jumper cables and a friend’s vehicle. In addition to that faulty one, several replacements came in with bad sounding bearings. It seemed like either I was all out of luck or their quality had really dropped. Anyways, I finally got one that seemed fine, installed it, and went to race bikes again.

I bought a Milwaukee cordless fan to help with camping as it’s still been fairly hot and humid out. A couple weeks prior I had slept in my RTT on my 4runner and it was borderline miserable. With a chance of rain, and sleeping inside the cruiser, I wasn’t taking any chances. This absolutely saved me and allowed me to sleep before that race.


Then I finally scored a Wagongear tailgate lid. I know there’s several other options, and I even contemplated making my own, but I’ve wanted one ever since I saw one 8 or so years ago.

Install was a breeze. My tailgate has been bowed and getting worse over time so after cutting out the hole, I was able to straighten it out. I still need to add some sound deadener/insulation on the inside of the tailgate to prevent dents and rattles, and paint the cut edges as it was oddly cold yesterday. Once I pull it back out and do that, I’ll be putting blue loctite on the hardware.





And my single favorite feature of this lid is how the door opens outward. This allows the drawers to still be opened (mostly) rather than having the lid open into the vehicle. I also opted for the grip plastic hdpe for the lid itself and am so glad I did. In addition to opening up more storage for soft items like bread and sleeping pads, this lid really matches well with my drawers and kind of plays off the rubber diamond plate mat on top of them while the bed liner looks very good with the textured powder coat.

 

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

Started some fun stuff Saturday evening. Hopefully finishing up the axle and oil pan gasket replacement tomorrow when I get back in town. I’m hoping my oil pan gasket rear arch was the culprit of the oil leak that I suspect is the rear main, but I doubt it. I figured it couldn’t hurt to change it out anyways. I’m really dreading the changing out the rear main, but I bought one along with transfer case input and output seals, transmission input and output seals, and new front axle shafts since they’re so grooved, no seal at any depth will seal them up. In addition to all this work that I thought I’d finish yesterday, I’ve got new 555 tierod ends ready to go on as well.

 

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

Had a chance to work on the cruiser again this afternoon. Oil pan flanges are all cleaned up so I’ll be reinstalling that tomorrow.



After separating the axles from the birfields, I noticed some concerning little chips/stress risers where the metal has worn down and meets the cuts for the axle shaft splines.







The cracked time bomb of a birf was on the driver’s side of the truck, but the short side wasn’t too far off from cracking.

These birfs had 180k+ miles on them and were last replaced by my dad back in 2006 so I'd say it’s time for fresh ones...

 

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

Buttoned everything up late last night. Fresh 555 ends on the tierod and drag link, new Longfield chromoly birfs, OEM axle shafts, bearings, and knuckle wipers. Feels good to look under there and not see disgusting knuckles.

I also topped off the fluid in the t case, refilled the engine oil, and just drove it for an hour. Now all that I have left to do before the Lonestar Round up is fix my rear e locker wiring plug.

 

[kw90surf]

This is one of my favourite 80's on the internet.

Question for you, what did you use to strip the flares? Aircraft stripper? I have some bedliner I want to get off of mine but a bit concerned aircraft stripper might eat into the fibreglass.

Cheers

 

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

This is one of my favourite 80's on the internet.

Question for you, what did you use to strip the flares? Aircraft stripper? I have some bedliner I want to get off of mine but a bit concerned aircraft stripper might eat into the fibreglass.

Cheers

Thanks! They actually make a stripper for fiberglass. I used that, but I don’t recall it doing a lot besides kind of melting it. I still had to scrape it off because once it started melting, spraying fresh liner over that would be asking for trouble.

I’ve been working 80+ hour weeks on my 1st gen since mid March so the cruiser has been fairly neglected. I did take a trip out to the Ozarks to pick up a 4.88 diff and took a fun loop through the National Forest on my way home. I also took a day trip out to crossbar ranch to wheel with some friends before one moved to California. I’ll try and resize the photos and update this here later with them.

 

[bjulie]

I had to replace the alternator a couple weeks back as it randomly went out. Dealing with orielley’s for the lifetime warranty replacement was kind of a hassle this time around. The replacement alternator failed within 40 miles on my way out to a mountain bike race. Getting home took several stops to charge up the battery with jumper cables and a friend’s vehicle. In addition to that faulty one, several replacements came in with bad sounding bearings. It seemed like either I was all out of luck or their quality had really dropped. Anyways, I finally got one that seemed fine, installed it, and went to race bikes again.

I bought a Milwaukee cordless fan to help with camping as it’s still been fairly hot and humid out. A couple weeks prior I had slept in my RTT on my 4runner and it was borderline miserable. With a chance of rain, and sleeping inside the cruiser, I wasn’t taking any chances. This absolutely saved me and allowed me to sleep before that race.
View attachment 544104

Then I finally scored a Wagongear tailgate lid. I know there’s several other options, and I even contemplated making my own, but I’ve wanted one ever since I saw one 8 or so years ago.

Install was a breeze. My tailgate has been bowed and getting worse over time so after cutting out the hole, I was able to straighten it out. I still need to add some sound deadener/insulation on the inside of the tailgate to prevent dents and rattles, and paint the cut edges as it was oddly cold yesterday. Once I pull it back out and do that, I’ll be putting blue loctite on the hardware.

View attachment 544103

View attachment 544102

And my single favorite feature of this lid is how the door opens outward. This allows the drawers to still be opened (mostly) rather than having the lid open into the vehicle. I also opted for the grip plastic hdpe for the lid itself and am so glad I did. In addition to opening up more storage for soft items like bread and sleeping pads, this lid really matches well with my drawers and kind of plays off the rubber diamond plate mat on top of them while the bed liner looks very good with the textured powder coat.

View attachment 544101

I'm absolutely in love with how this looks! Kudos to you for keeping up so long and having so much patience! Great work man!

 

[MikeWeaver]

OMG that turned 420k. Keep it running man, it's definitely one of the best FJ80 here in the forum. Mine needs a lot of work to be done...one day I'll start

 

[Summit Cruisers Jr]

Unfortunately, the lonestar land cruiser round up last spring ended up being canceled, and the cruiser basically ended up in storage until several months back when I was finally able to swap it out with the 4runner and get it up to KC.

My commute to work just went from 16 ish miles to 2 so I’ve been getting it back out on some local-ish trips. About a month ago, I drove out to Rendezvous in the Ozarks with my dad in his 40. Within 10 minutes of pulling in, some of my friends with the KC Toyota club were leaving to hit some trails so I had to bail on the event.

It was super dusty and within a day, the truck was starving for air. I pulled the air filter, hit it with compressed air, and it was insane how much dust came out. The whole argument for snorkels being better for dust has got to be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.







Then last weekend I took it back down to the ozarks to meet up with some old and new friends for a couple days of wheeling and a night of camping.

The stuff we got into turned into a huge winch fest where we probably had 6 different pulls going on with three separate trucks within an hour of starting. The wet leafy terrain certainly made things more interesting.



I ended up suffering a little wheel rash and smoking my front bumper on a rock requiring a winch to pull it back out to open the hood. The guy in the 8000lb+ 200 slid into a tree with his quarter panel/tail light and an LX470 had his steel wheels digging into some rocks pretty good and suffered a little front fender damage. All said and done, everyone went their separate ways with no mechanical issues which was great. The 200 also had a trail repair the night involving some deep water crossings which ended up requiring removing the intake and dumping a couple gallons of water out after a lengthy tow through the woods. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a 200 out on a trail so it was cool to see one being out to good use.




Anyways, the cruiser is at 431k miles and counting...if I hadn’t bought that 4runner, no doubt the cruiser would be over 450k by now with a few more mods to boot but oh well.