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

bored
Location
Syracuse, Utah
I like the Ultragauge a lot. The larger display is nice compared to a scanguage. It's much easier to read at a glance and there are tons of "gauges" to choose from for what you want to display. Reads/clears codes and all the other features you'd expect. My one complaint is that it does not display transmission temp. Other than that its great.
 

Box Rocket

bored
Location
Syracuse, Utah
**Prinsu Design Roofrack teaser.** I can't begin to describe how freakin cool this rack is going to be. Zach Scott is doing a fantastic job with it. We test fit the very first set of 80 Series rails on my truck today. *Don't mind the backward TEQ" , the guys that laser cut it forgot to flip the logo for this side. It's getting fixed. Rails are 1/4" aluminum. Might be hard to tell in the pics but the rail has one bend in it. It sits in the rail and angles in toward the center slightly and then goes vertical. The rails will be powder coated right away. Crossbars are black anodized aluminum and they are BEEFY. I love how this rack runs the entire length of the gutter to spread the load over a much larger surface. You can see 4 sets of 4 holes on the rail (laid out in a square), these will be where the mounting feet attach. so it will be held to the truck with 4 feet per side. It will have a wind deflector across the front and I like how the angle of it matches the angle of the windshield. I mentioned this before but this rack with require removal of the OEM roofrack. I wanted it to be as low profile as possible and it's about as tight to the roof as we could get it without worrying about any contact.
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Should have it powder coated and ready to go in the next 10 days or so. Just in time for an early spring Moab trip! Can't wait.

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Box Rocket

bored
Location
Syracuse, Utah
Finished up the sliders over the weekend. Not many people use the Trail Gear sliders, but I ran a set on my old '93 for years and was very impressed with them and how well they've held up. As will any slider, proper gussets at the frame are key to keep them from flexing. There is some fabrication involved with the Trail Gear sliders since they are made for Tacomas. The sliders ship with the main slider fully built but with the legs un attached so that you can set the angle of the slider where you want it. The forward leg that is supplied is too short so that what you need to handle on your own. I used some 1.5" 0.25" wall square tube for that front leg. It's crazy beefy but since it's a longer leg it helps to have heavier material. I made some big gussets from 0.5" plate. The sliders are welded to the frame using some 3/16" scab plates on the frame with the slider/gussets welded to the frame plates. On the passenger side I needed to bend the forward leg to pass under the cats. All in all I think they turned out nice and for the cost, they are the best bang for the buck sliders out there for the 80 IMO even with the extra work involved. Hard to go wrong for roughly $200. You'll want the 67" versions.
https://www.trail-gear.com/TG/Rock_Slider_Kit_58_/i_0_0_3212/_120001-1-KIT.aspx
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Box Rocket

bored
Location
Syracuse, Utah
It's surprising how expensive aftermarket can be for the land cruisers. Nice alternative!
Seriously. Especially for the cruisers. Slee sliders are $900-$1000. Metal Tech ones are $900. Those are two of the more popular options. Don't get me wrong, they are both very nice, but I couldn't justify spending that when I know there is something that works just as well for a fraction of the cost, even if it meant I had to do a bit of modding. Granted not everyone has the resources to make the mods needed or would rather just pay for the "right" thing. I can't fault those people, but man sliders for 80s are way too expensive IMO and don't need to be.
 

sixstringsteve

Well-Known Member
Location
UT
yeah. 100 series stuff is EVEN MORE expensive. Like you said, not that they're not good products, but it's great you found something a bit more economical
 

Wantaford

New Member
Location
West Point, UT
More Pics

Finished up the sliders over the weekend. Not many people use the Trail Gear sliders, but I ran a set on my old '93 for years and was very impressed with them and how well they've held up. As will any slider, proper gussets at the frame are key to keep them from flexing. There is some fabrication involved with the Trail Gear sliders since they are made for Tacomas. The sliders ship with the main slider fully built but with the legs un attached so that you can set the angle of the slider where you want it. The forward leg that is supplied is too short so that what you need to handle on your own. I used some 1.5" 0.25" wall square tube for that front leg. It's crazy beefy but since it's a longer leg it helps to have heavier material. I made some big gussets from 0.5" plate. The sliders are welded to the frame using some 3/16" scab plates on the frame with the slider/gussets welded to the frame plates. On the passenger side I needed to bend the forward leg to pass under the cats. All in all I think they turned out nice and for the cost, they are the best bang for the buck sliders out there for the 80 IMO even with the extra work involved. Hard to go wrong for roughly $200. You'll want the 67" versions.
https://www.trail-gear.com/TG/Rock_Slider_Kit_58_/i_0_0_3212/_120001-1-KIT.aspx
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Awesome sliders, can you upload some pics of how you mounted it. Those look great!
 

Kevin B.

Not often wrong. Never quite right.
Moderator
Location
Vehicular limbo
4xInnovations makes a nice cheap tube slider too, if you're not a fan of Trailgear. I bought the TG sliders for my last 4Runner and they work great though.

Your cruiser is looking great. That rack is tight, I love how it stretches down the whole rail.
 

Box Rocket

bored
Location
Syracuse, Utah
Awesome sliders, can you upload some pics of how you mounted it. Those look great!

I'll try to snap a couple pics, but mounting was pretty simple. There are scab plates welded to the frame and the sliders welded to the frame plates. With a big gusset on the top of the leg where it attaches to the frame.

4xInnovations makes a nice cheap tube slider too, if you're not a fan of Trailgear. I bought the TG sliders for my last 4Runner and they work great though.

Your cruiser is looking great. That rack is tight, I love how it stretches down the whole rail.

Yes, but the 4XInnovations sliders are not available for a Cruiser. I guess that was my point. The options available for the 80 series are almost all extremely expensive. The 4xInnovations ones are very similar to these TG ones and would require the same modifications to make them work. Personally I like that the TG ones are DOM rather than HREW like most of the other similar ones like the 4xI ones.

Thanks. The rack should be sweet. I'm anxious to see how it works.
 

Box Rocket

bored
Location
Syracuse, Utah
Few small updates. I was having some steering wobble but had a good alignment so I got looking at the brakes and the new wheel spacers. I took the wheel spacers off last night and so far the wobble seems to have gone away. I'll re-install them later and see what I can figure out. The brakes had been pulling to left slightly and from what I was able to do on my own everything looked good but I had the local dealer inspect them today to check for warped rotors and/or a seized caliper. Everything checked out perfectly. The pulling is a result of one of the stainless braided brakelines I swapped over with the lift. It has a very small leak and isn't pressurizing completely so it's pulling a little to the opposite side. I have a new brakeline to swap in so no biggie.
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I've needed to get my fridge, CO2 and Aux power sorted out a bit. I got my fridge slide mounted in the rear cargo area last night along with my CO2 tank. I added some bracing behind the plastic panel and the bracket is bolted to that so it's nice and solid. Also fed a simply 12V plug to that panel just behind the middle row so I can plug the fridge in. Nothing fancy but it will work.

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Box Rocket

bored
Location
Syracuse, Utah
Big props to Ratio AV for some help with interior goodies last night. New Pioneer touchscreen DVD/HD Radio deck in the dash with Bluetooth. As well as a dropdown DVD (10.3" display) with wireless headphones in the back for the kids. The overhead unit is 1080p with SD Card, USB, RCA and HDMI ports. Long trips will be nice moving forward. Pretty pumped about it all and looking forward to trying it out.

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Bluetooth mic on the A-pillar

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sixstringsteve

Well-Known Member
Location
UT
can you control your phone by touching the head unit? In other words, can you touch the head unit's screen as if it were your phone. That's what I'll be getting next.
 
Location
West Valley
Love it man! I went with some "Gen 4" 3200lm LEDs on my 80. Awesome how much of a difference they made. Especially when it comes to reflective surfaces. Very cool seeing the progress.
 
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