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 finally got a shakedown run with the new 80 over the weekend. A couple weeks before I bought the cruiser my brother-in-law also bought one. He bought a really nicely built LX470 from my next door neighbor. So both of us needed to get some dirt miles on the new trucks and see how they were working. We loaded up our families and headed to Moab. It was a great time to be in Moab. Weather was pretty nice until today when it got cold and started snowing a little. There was almost nobody on the trails. We saw a few side-by-sides but that was it. It was great to have the trails to ourselves. We got a mild warm up trail on Hells Revenge on Friday. It was a fun day and I got to try Hells Gate and Tip-Over-Challenge. We skipped Escalator this time. My 14yr old Bjornn even got some seat time. I like to give him as much time driving on the trails as I can just to get him more comfortable behind the wheel before he starts driving for real in a year or so.
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On Saturday we ran Kane Creek. It's been years since I've been on Kane Creek and it's become more difficult in a couple places on the canyon floor and the climb out of the canyon is a fun challenge with big ledges. We had a great time except for a couple moments of carelessness that resulted in a scratched rear flare. Otherwise a fun, uneventful trip. Here's some pics.
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Hells Revenge

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nnnnnate

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Location
WVC, UT
Those are awesome pictures Adam. Did your brother buy his 470 built or has he been building it up as you've done yours?
 

Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
Having owned that thing for a short while, I love seeing it built up and getting used how it should be! Great work Adam, it's now a spectacular example of an amazing 80 Series Land Cruiser!
 

Box Rocket

bored
Location
Syracuse, Utah
Having owned that thing for a short while, I love seeing it built up and getting used how it should be! Great work Adam, it's now a spectacular example of an amazing 80 Series Land Cruiser!

Thanks Greg. It's got a few things to work on still but it's slowly coming together.
 

Box Rocket

bored
Location
Syracuse, Utah
Is that a ruggedized Autana?? I'd like to check it out in person sometime.

Yessir. Sure thing. Let me know when. You're welcome to come to my place in Syracuse to see it or I'm occasionally driving the truck to SLC to work. If I know even a day in advance, I can just plan to drive it to work if it's easier for you to see it in SLC.
 

zmotorsports

Hardcore Gearhead
Vendor
Location
West Haven, UT
Hey, I passed you yesterday on West Hill Field road. You were heading east about 3:30pm, I was heading west just past the fire dept. I first noticed the tent packaged on top then as you drove past I noticed the lettering/decals on your rig. Looks great.

Mike.
 
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