carbon
Dork
2/14/15 12:08 a.m.
I've always like landcruisers, so I searched long and hard to find one that was within my budget to begin a build. SWMBO stumbled upon this one a while back and we scooped it up just before the prices went up. So here we go….
The day I picked the old girl up, she looked like this, low mileage but in need of some freshening up and in need of a big rest mod.
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First thing first, the plow comes off and old factory suspension goes away, replaced with an Old Man Emu kit, a big clean up and buff of the old freeborn red paint. On go a pair of Hella 4000s to light up the trails.
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carbon
Dork
2/14/15 12:29 a.m.
The plan was to have this be a rolling restoration for the first stages then go a little more nuts once the suspension and driveline were freshened up but as we all know, things don't always go as planned. after driving the beast for 6 months or so, and leaving puddles wherever we went, the neglected old 2f 4.2 started missing a cylinder and I decided it was time to up the game a bit in terms of propulsion. I sourced a man-a-fre high-po crate motor and swapped it in.
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carbon
Dork
2/14/15 12:42 a.m.
The tires that came on the rig were old and dry rotted so I decided to order up some new wheels that would work better off road and update the looks of the old girl. I had Walker Evans racing make up some custom offset beadlocks for me. These wheels are used in desert, stadium racing as well as competition rock crawling and I think they are just the ticket for this build.
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On they go to check fitment and wait for some bf goodrich KM2s (we'll decide on final sizing once final suspension is sorted and ride hight is established.
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carbon
Dork
2/14/15 12:57 a.m.
As this is a full restoration, the interior is getting a freshening up as well so some seats were in order. I sourced some recaros and fabbed up some sliders. The interior will be retrimmed in tan cordura to match the soon to be rx330 bamboo pearl paint (tan in some lights and green in others) (with ford edge creme brolee roof and grill) with cargo pockets and integrated holsters on both seats for a mil-spec vibe, easy clean up and some storage and functionality.
I also picked up a hi-lift jack and an FJ-mount for it.
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Same color in both pictures 
The plan is a full cage/exocage, armor, rock sliders and lots of clearshield to keep it from getting mangled during light, off road to go camping etc.
I picked up a turbocharger because I just love boost, think whistling noises will be cool coming from a gas fj40 and have illusions of towing an adventure trailer that will be part of this build based on an m101a3 military trailer. I'm going to do a blow through efi setup based on tbi from a 4.3 vortec. The turbo is a td04-13t from a volvo xc70, I'm hoping it'll be sized well as, though the fj has a 4.2l straight six, it has fairly low output compared to the 2.5l 5 banger that donated the turbo. I'm looking for torque and fast spool up with low boost. I'll fab up some plumbing using my trusty miller legacy Tig and use a small intercooler with an electric fan to keep charge temps down.
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Very cool...I'm kinda of a fan of stock-ish with these trucks, but you're doing a very nice job. +1 on the trailer, that is a great idea! Keep it up!
sethmeister4 wrote:
Very cool...I'm kinda of a fan of stock-ish with these trucks, but you're doing a very nice job. +1 on the trailer, that is a great idea! Keep it up!
I like stockers too, but I wanted a little more functionality than a design from the 60s could provide. I'm really hoping to keep it tasteful but modernize it a bit. Shooting for a what a defender 90 is to a series land rover kind of vibe. I'm hoping the color combo will not be too much, I want a specialness to it but am hoping the earthy tones will be somewhat subtle.
Kinda like these two vibes smashed together:
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Wow, that Bronco is crazy!
Im looking forward to seeing what you have to do on the blow through tbi. That is highly relevant to my interests, as I have a tbi pro-touring car, and never played with boost.
You had my interest at FJ40, but now I see you also have a late '70s celica gt. I love everything about this photo. 
Subscribed.
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EastCoastMojo wrote:
You had my interest at FJ40, but now I see you also have a late '70s celica gt. I love everything about this photo. Subscribed.
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I'm thinking the same thing as ECMojo!
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