Box Rocket 1995 FZJ80 Build

I picked this up over the weekend. It was briefly owned by Greg@RME a year or so ago so it's coming home to Utah in a way.

There are a few dings etc consistent with what you'd expect from a 20 year old car. Like a lot of 80s the front seats were trashed, split leather and bad foam. Before going to get the truck I got a lead on a pair of front seats in decent condition that were at a shop there in GJ. I arranged to go take a look at them after I bought the truck. It worked out great. It was a shop I'd never heard of called Metric Offroad that specializes in Cruisers. They had 20-30 trucks in the yard at the shop and the owner said he had another lot with another 40 trucks. A whole range of trucks from 40's to 80s and some 4runners and minitrucks too. Really cool guy and the seats he had were pretty dry but the leather was fully intact. We worked out a good deal on them with my new bad seats as partial trade. So the worst thing on the truck was fixed before I even got it home.

The rest of the issues with the truck are mostly cosmetic. The clearcoat is peeling on the hood, roof and flares. The front axle needs to be serviced and a couple other minor things looked at but it runs great and everything works. Even has lockers. The drive home was nice and it felt soooooo good to be back in an 80. The plan is to swap everything from my '93 over to it in the next few weeks. I'll use my OME J spring suspension, bumpers and sliders. I've ordered a set of 345/75R16's to go on the OEM wheels. So it should be ready to rock within the next month. My old 80 will get the suspension from this truck and keep the 315's that are on it and get the stock bumpers and then get sold cheap.

I already started cleaning up a few things. I painted the handles and the flares black and it is looking much better. I didn't get pics with the flares done yet so all you get is the handles.

Details:
1995 FZJ80
Moonglow Pearl
Tan interior
Factory lockers
Rancho 2.5" springs
285/75R16 General Grabbers
Naked roof (no roof rack from the factory)

Plans:
OME J springs, L shocks (from old 80)
Adjustable panhards (from old 80)
Slee Caster Plates (from old 80)
ARB front bumper (from old 80)
Wildyoats rear bumper (from old 80)
custom sliders
PrInSu roof rack
Tepui RTT
345/75R16 BFG KM2s
4.88's sometime down the road.
maybe a snorkel
address the peeling paint.

Here's some pics from tonight.






blacked out handles


peeling flares


peeling hood

 

[Box Rocket]

Was able to get a few pics this morning of the painted flares and a few other small things I've been able to address since getting it home on Saturday. The flares cleaned up nicely I think and look good with the black handles. There are a few interior shots too to show the seats. First off the flares.
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Before:

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After:

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Before:

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After:

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Now the seats. This is the only photo I have of the original seats. Both front seats were similar condition. The leather was torn and the foam was deteriorating badly.

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These are the seats I was able to replace them with. They came out of a '97. Like I said they are pretty dry right now, but I'll try to soften them up with some conditioner over the next few weeks. Power features work perfectly and they clean up the interior feel quite a bit.

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So a bunch of small things for now. Like the cupholder, cover for the steering wheel and some new floormats. I've got a crazy week this week so I'm not sure exactly how much time I'll have to start tearing stuff off of my '93 and getting it onto the '95 but I hope to find some time. One other little hiccup is that the 345 KM2s are on backorder so I may need to wait a bit for those.

 

[Thursty]

Nice!

 

[Greg]

Wow Adam, you don't waste any time! The seats, door handles and flares already look great, nice work! I haven't dealt with Metric Offroad, sounds like they really helped you out!

I bought that from a guy in Orem, it was listed on KSL and I bought it as a fixer-upper in almost the same condition that you got it. I was going to swap my Isuzu 4BD1T diesel engine into it and spent some time finding a good fixer that I could spend money & time on. In the end that would have been a massive & expensive project and I was tempted by Rot Box's built 100 Series and about a month after buying that 80, I listed it locally for what I had into it... and had it sold 24 hrs later!

Looking forward to seeing this progress!

 

[Kiel]

Don't lie, I'm sure greg wrecked the seats. Why the switch form the 93 to the 95?

 

[Box Rocket]

I have no doubt that Greg wrecked the seats. He's clearly no lightweight!

Here's my response on another forum regarding the switch from the '93.

The old 80 is hard to explain. It's actually still in pretty good shape for its age. But it's got over 300K miles on it. I've owned it since 2000 and bought it with 100K miles. It's been virtually trouble free most of its life with me until about 2 years ago. It stopped running one day and all signs point to something electrical. It blew the fuseable link, which I replaced but it would still just turn over and not start. So it's been parked on the side of my house for a couple years now. The truth is I've just been lazy about digging into the issue. I suspect a couple of possible reasons for the problems. Either a dead ECU or some wiring shorts in the harness. If you're familiar with 80s you know there is part of the harness that runs back across the back of the motor near the transmission and it's not uncommon for those wires to get cooked by the heat over time and the insulation on the wires dries out and disintegrates and can cause shorts. I have a spare ECU, that I could install. I'd need to chase down a harness to make the wiring repairs. But as I considered my options, even if I fixed those things it was a truck that still had over 300K on it and the truck was starting to show it's age. I need to get back into an 80 so that my whole family can come with me on trips and be comfortable. We've done a few trips in my Tacoma but it's just too small for all of us. So I need an 80 that can take on the primary duty of long family trips so I need it to be reliable. Fixing the electrical on my '93 would be part of it, but to really get it to the level of reliability I'd be comfortable with I think it would need a motor rebuild. And since it's sat for a while there are likely other things that might need repairs.
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So as I started weighing my options and the cost involved it was clear that the cheaper option would be to find a lower mileage 80 in decent shape and swap everything over from my old one. So that's what we are doing. Now the debate is whether to sell the old cruiser as is, or maybe part it out. Either way I can recoup some of the purchase cost of the new 80. Parting out the old one would probably net more money than selling it as is so I'm leaning toward that, but not looking forward to the work involved in tearing it down, so I still might just sell it as is. It would make for a very cheap project truck for someone and could probably be back on the trail with minimal effort if someone didn't want to dig into a motor rebuild just yet.
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So that's the story and the reason behind all of what's going on. I'm very anxious to get the new truck and start getting it put together. The goal is to have it all ready to go by March with all the planned "mods" completed.
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Oh, and the Tacoma isn't going anywhere. I'll still use it a lot and it will probably remain my daily driver and it will get taken on

 

[Box Rocket]

Anyone have experience with Maxxis Creepy Crawlers (non-stickies)? I'm considering a set of these but I've never had a set of Maxxis tires.

 

[Box Rocket]

Looks like everyone all over the country is out of the 345 KM2s so I've had to change plans on tires. Decided to go with some 315/75R16 Goodyear MTRs for now. They'll be a bit more driveable for now until I get the gears done then I'll look and moving up to 37's. The MTRs should be here right around Christmas time so it will likely be the first of the year before I've actually got them on the truck.

I did however, get the ARB bumper off my '93 last night. The bumper has definitely seen better days. For starters its a modified bumper with all the lower skirts cut off. I like the better clearance it has. It's been well used on my '93 for more than a decade so it's got a couple of little dents and tweaks. Also since it's been sitting on the side of my house for a couple years the weather has been working on it and there were some rusty spots. I got it pulled off a couple nights ago and cleaned up. Sanded it down to bare steel and rattlecanned it with Rustoleum Satin since it has a finish that looks similar to the original powder coat. I got it mounted to the new truck this morning and moved over my HIDs from the Tacoma. It's starting to look a bit more like a real cruiser now.

 

[Greg]

Amazing how an ARB bumper and lights can really change the look of a Cruiser... I love it!

Which HID's are they? Are you pretty happy with them?

 

[193kyle]

Big improvement already! I am excited to see this come together, if it turns out half as nice as your Tacoma it will be awesome!

 

[Box Rocket]

They are 7" Hella Optilux HIDs. I picked them up used and the price was right. For a relatively inexpensive HID they've been great! I've been very happy with them. The orange filters are something I'm just trying out. I had two sets of clear covers for them so I sprayed one set with some Duplicolor MetalCast Annodizing Orange paint which is transparent. I've only used them a little bit with these orange covers. Light output is reduced a little but the light color is quite yellow which is just what I was after in hopes of helping with dust/fog.

 

[Box Rocket]

Here's some pics of the updates over the last few days. Some new 315s on the factory wheels. I'll be stripping and repainting the wheels in the next couple weeks just to get them cleaned up and looking nice. I also have a set of 1.5" spidertrax wheel spacers that will go on just to widen the stance a little.

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A few pics of the rear bumper. This thing took some elbow grease to get all cleaned up, but it turned out nice I think. I need to make final adjustment to the latch but it's all working well. This was a bumper kit designed by Wildyoats and there were about a dozen kits made a few years ago. I'm glad I got one of them while they were available. I really like the lines of the bumper and it works great.

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Finally a couple better photos of the ARB front bumper. This bumper is 15 years old and shows it. It took a lot of work to clean it up and there is a little pitting on the top surface, but it's still structurally sound. A winch will be added at some point but I like the clean front face and it will look nice with a haws fairlead.

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The front of the bumper was tough to get totally smooth so I did what I could to get it close and then used some scraps of carbon fiber vinyl I had and laid it down across the front. Turned out pretty good I think.

 

[SLC97SR5]

Looks great.

 

[Rot Box]

Nice rig

 

[Greg]

Its really coming together Adam, lots of nice additions very quickly!

 

[Box Rocket]

I have recently been reading about some LED headlight upgrades for the Cruisers on MUD and I went ahead and ordered a set. Label says they are 2000 lumens and they're straight up plug-n-play so it won't get much simpler. Should make for a much brighter whiter headlight. They are CREE LEDs. I ordered them from ebay.
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Came in this box

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packed like this

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[Greg]

Oooh, I'd love to see some before & after pics with the new LED lights if you can. My 100 needs better bulbs and the last 'upgrade' to the low beams didn't do much at all.

 

[Box Rocket]

I'll get some pics as soon as I can get them installed.

 

[Box Rocket]

Here ya go Greg. Headlights installed tonight. Conveniently I had one of the stock headlights that was burnt out so the following pics are of the one working headlight.

Before:


After:


Also blacked out the grill

 

[Box Rocket]

I got to work on the suspension swap yesterday. Turns out the suspension that is on the new cruiser is Skyjacker coils/shocks NOT Rancho like I thought it was. I was only able to get the rear suspension swapped last night, but hope to get the front done in the next couple days. The details of the rear suspension I'm putting on the new cruiser is some *well used* OME J springs, some 1.5" spring spacers, OME L shocks, Slee 2" bumpstop extensions, Slee swaybar brackets, Slee adjustable panhard. I took some measurements of the rear of the truck prior to starting and from the ground to the bottom edge of the fender flare was 38 5/8". After the rear J springs etc were swapped in the measurement was 42 1/2" so I got almost 4" of extra lift. It may settle a bit, but that's probably what it will be.
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Here's the BEFORE photo with both 80s in the garage ready for the swap, along with the Tacoma patiently waiting.

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In case anyone is curious my Goodyear MTRs are about an inch larger diameter than the used BFG ATs that have been on my old cruiser. Both are 315s.

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Skyjacker 2.5" lift coil

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Old Skyjacker shocks

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Here's the comparison of the OME J spring and 1.5" spacer next to the 2.5" Skyjacker coil.

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I didn't get any other photos during the process but here's a dark photo after the rear ends were all buttoned back up. Skyjacker stuff is now on the white cruiser and the OME stuff is on the new Grey cruiser. Pretty big change if you ask me (check out the height of the taillights compared to the BEFORE photo). It's stink bugged really bad right now until I can get the front swapped out, but I'm looking forward to seeing how it rides.