Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Tom's Neighborhood Workshop

[wreckdiver1321]

At this point I had kind of run out of things to do on the 100 Series and the 200 Series. I had resorted to finishing all the rubberized undercoating under the 100, and adding some paint to the inside of the rocker and pinch weld to ensure it was all well protected from potential rust. I rubberized all of the underside of the body behind the rear wheels, painted everything outboard of the frame, and sprayed some paint on the inside of the repairs at the rear of the cab. I had largely switched to more finalizing work items.

With all that done and me waiting on the go/no-go for paint from my neighbor, I could momentarily switch gears to woodshop things again.

The first thing I did was tear open the box I got form @loganb with all of the awesome table saw clamp bits he sent to me. Sincerely huge thanks Logan, these are going to work a treat! In just the little bit of playing I've done so far, this resists the tendency of the fence to "rack" a lot more than the standard clamp piece. I still need to fiddle with it a bit but so far it feels much more sild and keeps the fence a hell of a lot closer to square. Perfect? No, but a lot better.

Reassembling the fence took me a minute. Had been weeks since I'd even looked at it.



Logan set me up with a bumload of options. I tested each one by sliding it in the track for the clamp, and so far it looks like .695 ABS is the ticket. It slides the smoothest and seems to work well so far. I'll keep messing with it but this is what I like so far.



Here's an idea of what we're looking at. This end piece goes on the outfeed end of the fence. You can just barely see the section that fits in the track at the bottom there. On the right is the newer, bigger version Logan set me up with.



Old and busted.



New hotness.



You can see here how a bunch of thickness was added to this as well to resist any bending of the clamp.

I wasted no time in putting the new part to work. Once I figured out how to properly reassemble the fence, I set up the saw to cut down a few chunks of 3/4" ply to make some shelves for my upright cabinet.



As you can see here, I already cut down some 2x2s to make the shelf supports. I thought about an adjustable shelving system or something a little more fancy here, and I even thought about notching the plywood to get full wall-to-wall shelves with no gaps. In the end though, I remembered the basis for this organization system was the larger milk crates I had, uh, "collected", from Walmart. Since I wasn't going to be packing this cabinet with a bunch of random stuff, I decided just cutting rectangular shelves would be good enough. And what do you know, there aren't even any gaps for things to fall down anyway. Happy accidents, I tell ya.





About an hour later, I had finished the shelves for the right side and was able to do a quick test with the milk crates I'd be using for this side. This gives you an idea of how I set these up and why. Overall I think this will be a great storage system for the things I am normally needing quick access to. I can also set up dividers in the milk crates if I need to. But for the most part, I can keep all my abrasives, paints, wood finishes, and all manner of other stuff in these crates. I plan to organize and label them so I can grab what I need at a glance. I have opted for six milk crates in total, with two shelves left over for benchtop tools like a grinder and small parts washer that will live in this cabinet. Overall I'm happy with how this is turning out. I do need to get a little more material to finish the other shelves but it's close to done.



With that project a little closer to complete, I pulled out the full sheet of MDF that had been bugging the snot out of me for the past few months. I bought it to make the upright cabinet doors, but then leaned it against the wall in the shop and forgot about it while my table saw was on hold and Sandy had more work to be done on her.



Utilizing the track saw this time because of the size of the project, I cut out the doors for the upright cabinet. I was going to get those finished, but my neighbor told me that we would 100% be painting the Land Cruiser that weekend. He told me to be ready by eight AM and we'd get rolling on it. So I took the time to peel any residual tape off Sandy, as well as blow off most of the dust and get it ready for masking. Feeling great, I headed for bed.

That night, a combination of excitement and not-so-well-cooked food turned into a nightmare of running to and from the bathroom all night as my stomach churned and gurgled. 8 AM rolled around and I dragged myself out of bed despite feeling dehydrated and tired thanks to about four hours of sleep. I was sick of waiting. Despite feeling like I was wrecked, I wasn't going to let anything keep me from getting this damn car painted. Today was the day.

So, an hour late thanks to being sick and having to take backroads to the other side of town in my unlicensed and uninsured project missing fenders, bumpers, and the tailgate, we rolled the Land Cruiser into this gigantic paint booth and got down to business.





To be continued...

 

[wreckdiver1321]

First order of business was masking. And masking. And more masking. And then, a little more masking.

This process, in a vehicle this size with this little being painted, took more time than anything else. We began at about 9:30 and weren't actually finished masking until close to 3 PM. We skipped lunch, opting instead to shoot the **** about music and adult life while destroying several rolls of tape in the pursuit of a clean and unnoticeable paint job. Not kidding, masking wen through three rolls of tape on this job, as well as a bunch of paper and a sheet of plastic.



We used the tail light as a guide line around the corner from the back to the rear quarter, then made a hard line underneath where the moulding would sit before meeting the fender arch.



From there, we followed the moulding but were going to be forced to respray the majority of the door jambs due to the location of the repairs. Not ideal, but we had to work with what we had. We cut across at the narrowest point up top, at the bottom of the window frame. At the bottom, we cut across at one of the sill plate mounting holes, knowing it would be well-covered.





From there, we simply followed the body line that contacts the door seals before kicking up at the front and ending the paint line. The fenders were even simpler, with a straight line under the moulding.



With that job done, we scuffed everything that would be painted with Scotchbrite and masked the remaining areas that did not require paint. My neighbor then looked over the areas and determined it would be a smart move to spray some tinted primer over the repairs as we did not have a lot of base coat on hand. We only had access to two pints after adding hardener, so we wanted to make it go as far as possible.

He mixed up some primer that looked rather comically close to the new "sand" color you see on modern TRD Tacomas.



Then, finally, after two and a half years of body work, waiting, prep, and meticulous fiddling, things were finally starting to be sprayed down. Even though it was only primer, it felt momentous. All of the past work, all of that energy and time and money had culminated in this moment. It was finally happening.

Bryson donned his spacesuit and got to work.



With him busy doing that, I took a few minutes to mosey around and check out what this paint shop does. It's not a typical car painting business or body shop. Instead of insurance claims and hot rods, this shop specializes in heavy equipment, trucks, and big horse trailers. Hence the enormous paint booth. Despite this being more industrial in nature, the finished products were immaculate and extremely well-done. It was reassuring. I was getting a free paint job, but very likely not a bad one.



With the primer down, I stopped to inspect his handiwork. I was somewhat shocked by what I saw. Not a series of layers of primer, paint, filler, and metal. No, instead what I saw was a solid color that did not look like anything had been repaired at all. I was gobsmacked.



The tint job Bryson had performed was really good. While not a perfect paint match, it was very close and allowed us to use a thinner base coat, thus ensuring we would get two coats out of the material we had.







After waiting a few minutes, it was time for the main event. It was time to get the base coat down.

Bryson popped open the can and swore. The paint didn't look right, much darker and closer to purple in the mixing room. He said it should look a lot closer once mixed and when the hardener was added, but he had me feeling uneasy. He then mentioned how the color eye the paint shop uses is almost always off by a shade. Feeling nervous but determined, we pressed on.



With the hardener added, it sure looked a lot closer in color, but there was only one way to find out. He set up the gun, adjusted the temperature of the booth, and got to work once again.



After a few minutes, he came back out, took off his respirator, and smiled at me. I asked how it looked, and he said he was having a hard time seeing where the new paint was. As far as he could tell, the match was perfect. I exhaled loudly and walked into the booth after a few minutes to let the fumes vent.

Holy ****.

It worked.







All of the time, all of the work, all of the filler, all of the primer, all of the welding, all of the shaping. It had now become invisible, obscured under a layer of shade-perfect paint. As far as we could tell, it was exactly right. The repairs were invisible too, especially where we had grafted new panels onto the truck. There was maybe one spot where you could tell the shape was slightly interrupted, but you had to stick your nose in it to see. I was excited, scared, and exhausted all at once.

A few minutes of waiting and a second base coat went down, further blurring the difference between repairs and original paint.

By this time, it was closing in on dinner and we both needed to get home to our families. We shot the breeze and talked about the repair for a few minutes while the paint flashed. Beer in hand, Bryson expressed how excited he was that it had worked out the way we'd hoped. He then joked he was happy to be rid of the project.

After a little time, the clear was mixed up and quickly applied. Bryson was confident but nervous of a shade difference. He said part of it could be the plastic, which made the original paint milky looking and hard to know for sure, but he was a little concerned about it being a shade darker. I tried to stay confident, saying the paint match had looked right when the base coat had been sprayed. My neighbor agreed, but said, "You just never know." The job now done, we didn't have time to stand around. We needed to go home.

Without spending much time looking at it, we cleaned up and got in his car to head home. Unmasking and driving the truck home would have to wait until tomorrow. I waited anxiously, worrying about a possible shade difference we couldn't see.

Only time would tell.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Pictures in the last post were briefly broken. Fixed.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Sorry for the slight delay folks. Stuff is happening fast on Sandy, with a number of things getting wrapped up in quick succession. Because of that I have a big backlog of photos sitting in my camera's SD card waiting to get edited. Meanwhile the interior is being put back in and I'm cleaning up a bunch of minor wiring jobs and other finish work. Things are going quickly.

Maybe, just maybe, I'll be done before the middle of this month.

 

[loganb]

Congrats on a huge step...she looks great! And after seeing what else was in the shop the size of that booth makes more sense as I was wondering..."What's this dude painting...semi trailers?" lol...turns out yes...he is!

And great to see the fence clamp pad is working well! If you need more just shoot me a note on which one and should be able to make it up pretty easily since the files are all created now

 

[nicholam77]

Great stuff, Tom!

The storage cabinet milk crate shelves are looking good. (And nice job on the fence clamp @loganb )

Crossing fingers on the Land Cruiser paint match. I can imagine how stressful it is after all the work you’ve put in. Looking forward to seeing how it all turns out!

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Looking forward to seeing Sandy back together!

 

[zmotorsports]

Nice work Tom. I know how time consuming fixing rust and then painting areas so that no one will ever know is and it looks like you did an amazing job. Seeing the finished product is a great reward for so much work.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Congrats on a huge step...she looks great! And after seeing what else was in the shop the size of that booth makes more sense as I was wondering..."What's this dude painting...semi trailers?" lol...turns out yes...he is!

And great to see the fence clamp pad is working well! If you need more just shoot me a note on which one and should be able to make it up pretty easily since the files are all created now

Thanks Logan, it felt pretty darn significant getting paint on it. Things have been going damn fast since. Like I said, I have a bunch of photos to go through and edit, so there's plenty more updates coming.

Man, you should see the size and complexity of some of the stuff they work on! It's unbelievable.

Thank you again for making those parts for me. I really am happy with them and can't wait to get some more use out of the table saw.

Great stuff, Tom!

The storage cabinet milk crate shelves are looking good. (And nice job on the fence clamp @loganb )

Crossing fingers on the Land Cruiser paint match. I can imagine how stressful it is after all the work you’ve put in. Looking forward to seeing how it all turns out!

Thanks Nick!

I really like how the cabinet is coming together, it feels like it's going to work well for me once it's all said and done. Once I get the doors on I can concentrate on getting my 2nd bench made and then it's just a matter of finishing all the little things for the workshop. Coming along!

Man, that 18 hours between painting and unmasking were stressful.

Looking forward to seeing Sandy back together!

You and me both man! Back together and better than she ever was!

Nice work Tom. I know how time consuming fixing rust and then painting areas so that no one will ever know is and it looks like you did an amazing job. Seeing the finished product is a great reward for so much work.

Thanks Mike, I really appreciate that. It feels fantastic to see the culmination of all the time and effort spent on prep and everything. Then you cover it in paint and it's like it never happened, which is exactly what you want.

I'll tell ya, this project has convinced me that I am 100% not interested in doing anything remotely involving rust ever again. What a complete nightmare it turned into.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

So sorry for the gaps in service folks, I have been swamped with work and getting the 100 Series ready to go. Plenty to catch up on, so I'm getting it written out.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

So how'd we do?

I hitched a ride with my neighbor out to his shop and opened the doors to the paint booth. The color seemed to have faded a bit over the night into something that looked a lot closer to what I remembered the factory paint looking like. I peeled the paint off, gingerly, slowly, holding my breath. The hard line was there, but what about the color match?

I peeled a large section and stood back to look at it.

Perfect. Unnoticeable. You couldn't tell from more than 10 inches away. You really had to stick your nose into the paint to see any hard line or shade difference. It was remarkable! Just wanting to get it home, I spent the time unmasking rather than taking more photos. We got it cleaned up, tossed out the masking material, and pulled it into the sun, where the difference was even less dramatic. Nothing to see here folks, no paint jobs performed here.

I got it back to the shop and took some additional time to evaluate it.



This photo of the fender makes it look far more obvious than it actually is in real life. In reality, the shade variation is extremely minor. The amount and distribution of metal flake is far more telling than the actual shade in my opinion.



But here's the cool part: when you toss the moulding on the fenders, you don't even see a difference at all.



Inside the doors looks fresh and clean, and the match is very good.



Looking below, you'd never know there was body work done there.

This is one of the weirder experiences I've had in automotive repair. I've done plenty of jobs that took hours or days or even weeks to complete, but I've never done a job where I put in months and even years of effort to make something look like no work was done on it at all, and that is what was accomplished here. Unless you knew what it was looking like before the work, you'd never know.



The almost imperceptible body line around the wheel arch is there. There's no seams where the welds were made. There's no weird ripples in the panels or strange steps on flat surfaces.



The rear quarters turned out much the same. No weird shapes. The paint laid down well.



I got so excited I couldn't wait to make more progress. Rather than rest my angry stomach and rejuvenate myself, I started slapping things together. Before long, I had the fenders hung back in their rightful place and the front end starting to resemble a complete vehicle again. I even put some moulding on while I was at it.





The moulding was a great pain in the neck. I used a razor blade to clean off residue from the old moulding tape, which is more or less fused to the plastic after 20 years of baking in the elements. I then used some 3M body moulding tape to secure everything, as well as brand new factory clips to keep everything aligned.

It was at this point that I discovered just how great of a table my freshly-cut cabinet doors make.



After a very tedious amount of scraping and cleaning and taping, I had something starting to resemble a finished vehicle.



I also threw the crossbars back on the roof, since I was just looking to make some progress.



The other project that needed to be attended to was the snorkel install. I had gotten the fender hole cut last summer and the basic snorkel body lined up, but there were a couple more steps to finish off. Namely, the neck brace that attaches to the A-pillar. This part scares a lot of people but if you're careful this is pretty easy.

I taped off the area first.



With the snorkel in place, I marked where the brace would sit against the A-pillar, then marked the three rivet holes before center punching and drilling pilot holes.



Then it's a matter of opening up the holes until the rivets fit snugly.



I then cleaned up the burrs before using a small bush to apply paint along the bare metal, to effectively prevent any rust starting up. Before putting the brace in it's final home, I applied some silicone to each rivet to keep water out in the first place and prevent any intrusion inside the A-pillar. Then I used my riveter to secure the brace.



With it all tightened up, it looked fantastic and was rock solid. I can grab the snorkel body and rock the entire truck.



While doing this, I also paint-matched the new lower fender bolts (the old ones were rotten) and clear-coated them. With them dry I installed them as well as the fender braces to finish up the fender installs. They were now fully and finally secure.



I also popped the new cap things for the rocker panels. I'm not sure the purpose of these but I got new ones. With those in place the truck was looking pretty complete from this angle.



I also popped in these little grommets.



At that point, I kind of ran out of time to do any more work and decided to call it a night. For the next two weeks, I would spend a few hours every night performing little finishing touches and last-step installs to get the truck fully finished. It was a marathon but well worth it.

Join me in the minutia while we finish off a 100 Series Land Cruiser restoration!

To be continued...

 

[wreckdiver1321]

The next few nights were a blur of installing little pieces, getting small projects knocked off the list, inching ever closer to the finished product I had been working towards: a rust-free and well-built 100 Series.

The next thing on the list was the tailgate. I had removed this to make the bodywork easier to perform, and I stashed it in the shed for later. I dug it out and located all the hardware for reinstall, then laid everything out on the cabinet-doors-***-work-table. I laid down a blanket to keep my tailgate from getting scratched first, of course.

I then dug out this little part: this tailgate assist spring. Funny enough, the 200 Series uses basically the same exact design. It's essentially a torsion bar that provides some spring assist for opening and closing the tailgate. The original one was rusty and I threw it out, thinking I'd just get a new one, not realizing it was an $85 part! Typical.



A couple turns of the ratchet and the new spring was in place.



Then it was a simple matter of putting the tailgate on, right? WRONG.

With the spring installed on the tailgate, getting everything to line up while under tension and completely unsupported is a gigantic pain in the ***. Is it doable? Yes. Is it fun? Good God no. After much swearing and wrestling and attempting different methods, I finally landed on one that worked and got the tailgate in place, with the hinge bolts installed. Then I installed the straps and I was done!



Or rather, I thought I was done until I tried to close the tailgate. See, the tailgate limiting straps form a "memory" over time, eventually bending in a certain way each and every time so they stay out of way of the tailgate closing but also don't bend upwards and thus flop around in the wind when the tailgate is closed. I went through every iteration of how these were installed before I finally hit on the right one. Go figure.

With that little project done, I turned my attention to the battery. Or rather, the battery tray.

Since I originally intended this to be my new overland-style build, I had purchased a battery tray from Slee capable of fitting a large Group 31 AGM battery in the stock location. While I was not planning on buying this huge and very expensive battery to put in the truck since I was now selling it, I had the tray sitting around for over a year and the stock plastic was pretty ugly, so I figured I might as well toss the new tray under the hood.

First, I cleaned up the stock battery tray area, which had clearly suffered a battery leak not long ago.



I hit it with a degreaser and made sure it was nice and clean and dry before scuffing the area with Scotch Brite and hitting it with some black rust-resilient paint.



Then I dropped the tray in and bolted it in place.



With that small job done, I went to town on another little job: installing the seat covers. These covers I had bought were specific to the 100 Series and made by a company called Escape Gear out of South Africa. They're some of the best on the market, especially for the Land Cruiser, and come very highly recommended. I bought a set of seat covers and a padded dash cover that includes several zippered storage pockets. I actually opted for a warm light gray color rather than the tan that my truck came with, largely because I'm not really a fan of this light tan interior color and wanted to balance it with the gray covers.

I think it turned out really nicely.



The dash cover is kind of tough to see here but it includes three zippered pockets which are super handy. I can see them being used for all sorts of reasons.



At this point, I was running out of little jobs to do. I had exhausted the pile of parts in my shop and needed to take home another load of parts from my brother-in-law's shop, but I had one more job I could do with what was sitting at my house. It was finally time tackle the front bumper and give this truck the look I've been dreaming about for two years.

To be continued...

 

[wreckdiver1321]

So I have a confession: I'm not normally a fanboy regarding much of anything. I understand all products, people, and ideas have flaws in one way or another. I don't have a lot of belief in the idea that there's any one solution that's perfect. HOWEVER, I am a fanboy of one very particular product.

The ARB front bumper.

I've had three of them at this point, and each has been nothing short of exceptional. My Frontier survived a couple of deer strikes thanks to an ARB. It winched itself up one of the most difficult trails in northern Wyoming. The ARB on my first Frontier survived several scrapes with rocks and hitting an antelope. The engineering on them is rock solid but also works with the airbags, so if you do hit something hard enough the factory safety systems still function exactly as they should.

On top of being tough, ARB somehow managed to design a bumper shape that seems to work with every 4x4 out there on the market. It's a classic look that really stands the test of time and looks at home wherever you put it.

Aside from that, there's a ton of great features built-in that make it a great comprehensive solution.

Like I said, I'm an ARB bumper fanboy.

On the 100 Series Land Cruiser, the job starts simply enough. The lower portion of the frame horn mounts needs to be removed to allow the bumper brackets to be bolted on. I used a paint pen to mark where I needed to remove material and then cut everything off with a die grinder and a cutting disc.







Since I have developed an intense fear of rust, I immediately and liberally sprayed everything on the front with paint to stop any corrosion from happening in the future.



These beefy looking SOBs are the bumper mounting brackets. These crinkles are the crush zones where they are designed to crumple and allow the airbag systems to work. Still though, these are BEEFY.



The mounts go on simply enough, but I need to make a point about ARB as a company. While I love their products, their installation instructions freaking ****. "Install bumper support brackets." Is literally all that's in there for this step. In what orientation? Using what hardware? At one point it tells you to "Wire the bumper lights to the factory lighting." That's it. Want a wiring diagram? Figure it out yourself. Geez ARB, shape up with this.

Anyway, rant over.

Bumper mounts on and ready, I decided this was a good point to stop for the night in anticipation of getting the bumper fully installed the following morning.





First thing, I got up and did some cleanup and organization in preparation for the install. I roped in my still-pajamaed wife to help me move the bumper from the garage to the workshop, unwrap it, and get it on the truck.



Hanging it in place was a simple enough job, the brackets hold the weight themselves, but you need to leave every bolt a little loose so everything goes together properly, then tighten it all down once it's lined up.



In that vein, I had to get the bumper lined up properly. Per the instructions, you want at least a half inch gap between the bumper and fender to allow for the differential flex between the body and frame. It's very visible when the suspension is fully flexed out, or when the truck is bouncing over a rough road. The bumper and body move independently of one another, and not leaving a sufficient gap can allow some interference issues that scratch and chip paint, dent metal, and crack plastic. So it's critical the gap is big enough. To add to the fun, either the bumper, or the frame were twisted a bit, or perhaps both were, so getting everything lined up properly is a pain.

I used a couple of fan blades from a ceiling fan my youngest had broken as a spacer to ensure the gap was right on either side. I tightened the bolts to the point where the bumper was snug but adjustable, then torqued the snot out of everything.



ARB actually uses a cool system to lock everything in place: once you get it all lined up, you'll drill four holes through the bumper and into the mounting bracket. The bumper has the holes already, the bracket does not. Creating these holes and using bolts exactly matched to them locks the two in that position and stops them from coming apart at all, so it's an extremely solid fixing. I sprayed a coat of paint on these holes and made sure it was all locked together properly, then installed the buffers, which are these little rubber/plastic bits that I think make the ARB look more high end than other options.





With that done, I Installed the light housings, which hold the foglights (which I am not installing) and the turn signals as well as the marker lights.



This done, I could turn my attention to the wiring. ARB supplies these crappy little ScotchLock connectors to tap into the lighting, but those things ****. I much prefer a proper **** connector splice with two wires going into one, so I threw the ARB connectors in the trash and got working.

I first identified what each wire does, then cut the bulb connector off the wiring harness and added connectors to each wire.



I twisted the ARB's harness (after the connector) together with the factory wires. I then spliced the wires to the **** connectors on the bulb housings before using heat shrink on them to seal everything up properly.





Ta-da! They work!



With that done, the bumper install is 100% complete and I must say, it looks even better than I thought it would.





This step got me very excited about finishing off the project, and started to make me feel like maybe I should keep Sandy, but sadly that's not really an option. Instead, I turned my attention to the next big hurdle: the interior.



As you can see, I still had a lot to do here. The previous owner had installed an aftermarket stereo system in the truck, which meant all of the connections went through an audio controller and then an amplifier before going to the speakers. To add some more fun, the amplifier was screwed with self-tapping sheet metal screws through the carpet, carpet pad, and floor pan into the cargo area behind the rear seat. Not only is this kind of an eyesore but it's also a terrible place to leave a piece of audio equipment. If anything hits the amp or if the amp gets wet, you're in for some trouble.



I had a few ideas on where to put the amp, but each had problems. There was no room under either seat or any of the back seats. There was not a good space for it in the passenger side area behind the trim in the cargo area. There was really only one place with any room: behind the cargo area trim panel on the driver's side, against the fender. This is where the factory put the subwoofer, which had been removed by the previous owner, leaving an empty space. I was trying to come up with a clever way of mounting the amp back here when I tried just plonking it into this space. Guess what? Not only did it fit well but it just wedged in there solidly.



Deciding to just cheat, I added some double-sided tape to a couple sections of the amp and stuck it in position. Maybe the heat will melt the glue and it'll come loose, but I used trim adhesive and it's in there pretty darn solidly, without any additional work or fabrication needed. Win/win.







Next step was running the wires from the audio controller under the passenger seat to the amp. I ended up having to do a few splices and replaced a couple cables with longer versions, but ultimately I was able to get everything wired up properly and hidden away under the carpet.





At that point, I started chucking in bits of the interior, starting with the door sills and interior carpet trim. The door sill plates completely cover our repaint line, which works out really well for keeping everything looking untouched.







After a few hours of work, I had finished all the interior trim work other than the seats.



We're getting damn close to a finished product now, and the list of installs and work to be done was getting smaller by the day. It was a surreal feeling, going from a truck that had been in the same state of taken apart a couple weeks prior to being a nearly complete project at this point. Things were happening crazy fast.

Next up was Installing the rear seats and door panels, then the rear bumper and final finishing steps. Almost there!

To be continued...

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Getting close now.

The next several nights were a blur of tackling small and quick jobs, with a few bigger things thrown in. I was working at a feverish pace to get the truck finished because I was just done with it. I didn't want to keep messing with it and spending time on it. I wanted it to be someone else's project, something that I didn't have to look at. I want to work on my white Land Cruiser rather than throw this thing together. I was getting antsy.

I picked up a load of parts from my brother-in-law's shop and carted them home after dinner one night. To keep things moving along, I tossed the rear seats into their spots and bolted them down. The job took longer than expected because I couldn't remember exactly how things went back together, but overall easy.



The following afternoon, after work, I took the next step and put in the rear door panels. I honestly had to do some serious thinking to get to a point where I could remember how the wiring was routed, how the little trim pieces went on, and so on. It took me way longer than it should have, because again I couldn't remember how it came apart. Trial and error was the name of the game it seems. I also had to put new terminals on the speaker wiring because they disintegrated when I took everything apart. The end result was perfect, though.







The kids also really enjoy it.







That weekend, I had one final big job to tackle. But first, I could finally put the corner lights in since they arrived in my mailbox.



Starting to look complete!

The last big job was the rear bumper, which had been sitting in my brother-in-law's shop for over a year, just taking up space. Bless him, he never complained or asked me to ditch it. He just pushed it out of the way as much as he could. He was way too kind in that regard. With the kids being watched by someone, I drove over to his shop to get the bumper install underway.

Now I know I ragged on ARB's installation instructions in the last post, but they are comprehensive compared to Dobinson's. I know this bumper is actually an MCC bar from Asia that's been rebranded, but for God's sake please get some better instructions! I got a bag of hardware and a diagram. That's it. It took twice as long as it should have because I didn't have a proper installation guide.

Stupid.

Anyway, I did have to drill out some holes to get new bolts installed, and I took the time to clean everything up and apply some more paint as a rust preventative. Drilling out holes that had a captured nut inside the frame required me to run and get some additional hardware, but after that it was a fairly quick job. Install bumper brackets loosely, then haul the bumper onto the brackets. Now, I should have waited for my brother-in-law or somebody else to help me put the bumper on, but I have a real patience problem, so like an idiot I just did it myself. I deadlifted a 150lb rear bumper and hung it in place, alone. Not smart but I got lucky and didn't hurt myself.

I got everything lined up pretty well and torqued things down before a storm moved in and stopped my progress, at which point I packed all the other parts and headed for home. On the way I stopped to help my brother-in-law get the body installed on his circle track car.

When I finally made it back into the shop, I started getting the bumper finalized.



It was a pretty simple job of assembling the tire carrier, hanging it off the spindle, greasing the bearings, then securing everything. With it put together, I couldn't resist putting the spare on.







Holy **** that's cool.

I still had some final adjustments to make with the fit and the latch, but at that point it was 11pm and I was tired, so I decided to come back to it the next day.

The following morning I was back at it, this time getting the fuel can carrier installed. My original plan for this bumper was not to have the can carrier, but rather an aluminum box in which I could store recovery gear and other things like that. Since I'm just selling the truck on, I opted to just put the can carrier together and bolt it on.

Again, a very simple job. Bolt some pieces on and then hang the whole assembly on the spindle. Then tighten down and you're done. I spent a few minutes fiddling with the latches to get everything to sit tight and properly, and that was that. The bumper install was largely finished and it looked awesome!









The swing outs really capped off the look of the truck, making it feel complete and tying together the theme. I was super happy with the way it had turned out, though I might not buy this exact one if I had to do it over. That being said, I'm very happy with the result.

You'll notice from the photos above that the tire now completely blocks the taillights from behind. Thankfully, the bumper has a workaround in the form of the lights. These four lights are set up to handle the marker, reverse, turn signal, and brake lights, so all I had to do was wire them up. That, though, was a job for a different day.

To be continued...

 

[XJSuperman]

Looking good Tom! Just don't fall back in love with it now that its fixed up and back together!

 

[rattle_snake]

Nice work and attention to detail on your cruiser Tom.

What about painting the bumpers body color??

How much weight do you think the bumpers added? Did it effect the suspension height enough to worry about? Swing arm leverage can sag the rear. Can balance with a winch up front, haha. been in that loop myself

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Looking good Tom! Just don't fall back in love with it now that its fixed up and back together!

Thanks XJ!

HA! Believe it or not it's my wife who wants to keep it, not me. I'm ready to dump buttloads of money into the white one.

That being said, I do feel more positively towards it now than I did previously. I love how it's coming together, and it feels way less like a rusty bucket than it did before. I was tempted by it, but again, I know if I need to do ANY work on it I'm going to want to solve the problem with a half stick of dynamite.

Nice work and attention to detail on your cruiser Tom.

What about painting the bumpers body color??

How much weight do you think the bumpers added? Did it effect the suspension height enough to worry about? Swing arm leverage can sag the rear. Can balance with a winch up front, haha. been in that loop myself

Thank you Justin! I'm taking a lot of pride in this one.

I thought about color-matching the bumpers but to be honest I hate this body color and I'm not keeping the truck, so it's not something I wanted to spend money on.

Bumpers probably added about 400lbs to the truck. The rear end squatted a bit but not all that much honestly, maybe only 1/4". The great thing about the 100 Series is that it's torsion bars up front, so you can adjust it infinitely to match the back. I did get a TINY bit of drop in the nose but less than 1/4". What it did do is make the ride a lot nicer haha!

Overall it's worked out to feel really nice. Don't notice the added weight at all driving it.

 

[XJSuperman]

We'll make an auto restorer out of you yet lol. I can find you another rust bucket to work on after this so you won't get bored.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

We'll make an auto restorer out of you yet lol. I can find you another rust bucket to work on after this so you won't get bored.

I have a new standing arrangement with my neighbor.

If I buy anything rusty ever again, he's going to kick me in the balls as hard as he can.

 

[nicholam77]

I’d be curious to get your thoughts on the new ‘24 Land Cruiser

Hope you’ve been well and enjoying summer, Tom

 

[wreckdiver1321]

I’d be curious to get your thoughts on the new ‘24 Land Cruiser

Hope you’ve been well and enjoying summer, Tom

Hey Nick! Thanks for checking in. I'm sure all of you want to know what I've been up to.

I have many thoughts on the new Land Cruiser, I'll definitely pen them all at some point.

It's been an awesome summer and I've been unbelievably busy. Barely had a moment to slow down, let along write forum posts and edit photos. Once I have the time I'll get things processed and start telling the story! So much has happened, almost all of it very good. Can't wait to share it all!

Stand by!

 

[Ford52PU]

very nice work. Spent two cups of coffee reading your progress. Really looks great!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

very nice work. Spent two cups of coffee reading your progress. Really looks great!

Thanks Dennis! Been a long road but I'm happy with how things are turning out. Gotta get back to work on the shop at some point soon.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

@nicholam77 I'll be in your neck of the woods 9/21-23! Got a wedding to go to. I'll be hitting up the UP before I attend the wedding but will be around the Twin Cities for a couple days.

 

[nicholam77]

@nicholam77 I'll be in your neck of the woods 9/21-23! Got a wedding to go to. I'll be hitting up the UP before I attend the wedding but will be around the Twin Cities for a couple days.

Cool! I'll be at work Thurs/Fri, but if you want to grab a beer or stop by in the evening, or Saturday, let me know!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Cool! I'll be at work Thurs/Fri, but if you want to grab a beer or stop by in the evening, or Saturday, let me know!

Hey! I just got in last night. I'll see what our schedule is, might take you up on stopping by! I'll shoot you a PM with my phone number and we'll coordinate.

 

[XJSuperman]

I was in Minneapolis last night too. Quick cannonball run but hey I was there. Fun stuff

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Holy **** it's been way too long since I updated this thread.

Strap in folks, I have some typing to do!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

I’d be curious to get your thoughts on the new ‘24 Land Cruiser

Hope you’ve been well and enjoying summer, Tom

I know this is quite late for a response, but my thoughts on the new Land Cruiser:

It's not the full 300 Series everyone was wanting here in the US, but we also knew that would not happen. It's a shame, but it makes sense when you think about it because Toyota already has a full suite of 4x4 SUVs in the US: The 4Runner and Sequoia. Also, when compared to those other models, the Land Cruiser basically didn't sell at all, with something like 2,500 units moved annually from 2012-2021. Not a lot of reason to keep the model going here in the US.

What we got instead is the Land Cruiser Prado 250. The Prado name has been attached to light-duty Land Cruisers since the 1990s, with the 90 Series. Eventually the Prado 120 made it's way to the US as the Lexus GX470, then the Prado 150 showed up as the GX460. Now, weirdly, we're getting two models: the GX550 and the Land Cruiser. The GX will be more luxe, while the Land Cruiser will be more stripped down and simplistic. It also has a smaller engine and will only be available as a hybrid. So that sorta stinks.

There's a lot of contention on the new model vs the retired 200 Series. You lose the V8, the overall toughness, the luxury aspect, the tailgate, all of that is now gone. HOWEVER...

This is the way it always goes with a new Land Cruiser. Everyone thinks the new version is too soft, too fat, too big, too whatever-you-like. Then it sticks around for six months and we find out it's every bit as good as the outgoing model, if not better in every measurable way.

With regards to this new model, it appears to share a lot of it's architecture with the 300 Series, but it's somewhere between the the 200 and 4Runner in overall "beef", so it's a little lighter than a lot of the Land Cruiser die-hards want to see. That being said, I like a lot of the details on the new one. I prefer the round headlight version personally, and I like the interior a lot. The new engine appears to be on a similar level of power as the old V8, but with half the displacement. That's cool, because I like spending as little as possible on fuel. I DO NOT like the fact that the cargo area houses the battery because the battery intrudes into the storage area far too much for my liking. That really ***** and prevents a flat load area for drawers and such.

Size-wise, it's almost identical to the 200 Series. Interior volume and exterior size are almost exactly the same, and it retains the typical Land Cruiser 112.8" wheelbase, which is about perfect. There's a lot to like, but I'll reserve judgement until I see and drive one, because the main things for me are durability and payload, which are the most important things for a Land Cruiser in my opinion. It's not the most capable off-roader in existence, but it should last forever and be able to carry an unreasonable amount of stuff while doing it.

On the face of it? I like it. Am I about to give up my 200 Series for it? Not anytime soon, but we'll see what the future holds.

I take great solace in the idea that Toyota felt good enough about the vehicle to put the Land Cruiser badge on it. Not a single model in that brand's history has been a disappointment. Some are better than others, but all Land Cruisers are legendary for their reliability and capability. If Toyota feels this car lives up to the name, then I'm already intrigued.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Patiently waiting on updates.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Let's rewind a bit now and talk about Sandy!

With the bumper installs almost totally wrapped up, I briefly turned my attention to a couple of finishing details. I had noticed that for some reason, the stereo wasn't working. I could turn it on and connect to everything, but there was no sound whatsoever, not even any static with the volume turned up. I surmised there wasn't any power being fed to the system, so I tore into the interior panel again to see if possibly there was an issue with the amp wiring. I tested everything, ensuring everything was hooked up properly and the ground was good. I then checked the power wire and discovered no power was reaching the amp.

I dug around and discovered part of the power wire ran under the passenger seat, so I pulled the seat out and peeled back the carpet. I found the audio controller there, and lo and behold, an inline fuse for the amp, which was blown. I popped in a replacement, powered up the truck, and voila! I now had a stereo.



With that job done, I moved on to connecting the snorkel to the air box. The connection kit provided was insufficient to actually reach the box, so I rednecked it by using a piece of PVC. Not the best solution, but it worked well and was an easy fix.



With that job done, I moved on to finishing up some of the interior items. This was not only the final installation of the interior, but also the installation of the Raingler cargo netting I had purchased way back when. What I did not realize was the level of pain in the *** I was in for. I actually had to remove a good chunk of the interior panels that I had installed, drill some holes, cut up my hands... Overall, it was way more work than I anticipated and took way longer than I was hoping. I wasn't totally pleased with the look because the upper mounts actually pulled the C-pillar trim away from the pillar a bit, but that's mostly me being nitpicky. The install sucked, but I liked the result.









Next, I turned my attention to finalizing some of the little details, since I was frankly running out of **** to do.

First, I finished drilling the holes through the skidplate I built. I drilled these for drainage but also to cut down on weight. Overall I drilled 7 holes in the plates, then cleaned all the surface rust off and threw a coat of paint on it.





With the paint drying on that project, I started in on the next one: wiring the tail lights on the rear bumper. I started by checking each wire with a test light to ensure I knew which was power and ground for each tail light. Then I labeled those wires and used a spare 12v battery to test each connection on the bumper lights to identify which wire does what, and labeled those wires accordingly. With that done, I drilled some holes in the lower quarter panels, added some paint to keep rust away, and popped in some grommets to keep water out. Then I fed with wires from the bumper up into each tail light cavity.



Then I broke into the tail light housings and started cutting. I cut off each light bulb housing, leaving about four inches of wire to connect everything again, and then re-connected everything, adding an additional wire to each power and ground wire coming off the bulb. Then I connected each wire to the corresponding wire to the bumper lights.







With that all done, I did a quick test of everything and found I was not an idiot and could, in fact, wire some tail lights.





At that point, I threw down an additional coat of paint on the skidplate.



While waiting on the drying, I decided to clean up the wheel wells by adding some mud flaps. I threw together a template with some tape and drilled a few holes in the flap, then attached with some stainless hardware.



The next step was to play musical batteries.

Because the battery that was left under Sandy's hood had been completely drained, it was no longer good and had to be disposed of. As a result, I no longer had a working battery for the truck. I used this as an excellent excuse to upgrade the 200 Series!

Following the basic build plan I had laid out for Sandy, I had ordered a Slee battery tray and terminal extensions for a group 31 battery, which is the largest you can fit under the hood of a 200. I wanted the additional capacity to power the fridge and other electrical accessories, and to cope with winching if I needed it. To fit this, I needed to replace the battery tray with the steel one in the Slee kit. To accomplish this, I pulled out the old battery and tray. Apparently somebody had a battery leak at some point because there was some paint missing below the tray and, annoyingly, a bit of rust. I cleaned this area aggressively with a wire brush and applied some rust reformer paint.







Here's a look at the two batteries. The Interstate on the left is the group 31 AGM I'll be installing. It's clearly quite a bit larger and it weighs a WHOPPING 76 pounds.



I also had a Slee tray kit for the 100 Series, so I tossed that in and moved the battery from the 200 over to under the hood of Sandy. Perfect fit, and now I could actually start it.



After I had that completed, I installed the skidplate now that the paint was dry, and started a little bit of cleanup on Sandy. I was running out of projects to complete! I could see the end now.



I checked, and the paint had dried under the hood of the 200, so I grabbed a beverage and got to work installing the tray.





I had to pull the inner fender and do some Gumby-esque maneuvers, but overall installation was pretty simple. Drill out a couple holes, insert the hardware, tighten the lock nuts. Done.



Since the big battery has terminals in a different spot, some terminal extensions were needed to connect the truck to the new battery. These not only allow for the additional reach, but also have a few extra options to add connections to. Slee actually no longer makes these, opting for a billet terminal instead. I may upgrade to them at some point in the future, but these work well for now.





With that done, I threw my back out heaving the battery under the hood, and hooked it up.



It looks great, and obviously does not function any different than the prior battery except for the additional capacity. Overall a worthwhile upgrade for the type of situations I find my truck in.

 

[Blackbyrd]

Heads up. You are likely far enough away that it won't be very impactful, but PVC when heat cycled can offgas hydrochloric acid vapor. The temperature range of this and quantity of offgas vary depending on grade of pvc, but prolonged exposure could harm internals. It also becomes brittle overtime.

At melting point it releases chlorine which is also bad.

This all an extreme case situation that any of this would happen.

Is that Summer Shandy


Looking good though! Welcome back!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Heads up. You are likely far enough away that it won't be very impactful, but PVC when heat cycled can offgas hydrochloric acid vapor. The temperature range of this and quantity of offgas vary depending on grade of pvc, but prolonged exposure could harm internals. It also becomes brittle overtime.

At melting point it releases chlorine which is also bad.

This all an extreme case situation that any of this would happen.

Is that Summer Shandy


Looking good though! Welcome back!

Good lookin' out sir!

I did think about this, and I think it's not a huge issue due to the distance from the engine, and the presence of the inner fender acting as a heat barrier. That being said, I did look for alternatives and figured a stainless or ABS pipe would be better in this application. As a temporary measure, the PVC is okay for now. That being said, I did let the new owner know to make a change.

Yes! Summer Shanday!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

A few days after finishing up the install of the new battery trays, I opted to join in on a club run with the local Land Cruiser club, 406 Cruisers. Being late May, it was pretty early to be out and about in the mountains, but the location they selected was quite open and free of snow at these lower elevations, and the route was on the easier side, so plenty of opportunity to give the truck a bit of a workout. I let the group know we would be tagging along and got the family ready for a fun day out.

We got up early and hopped in the Land Cruiser to blast over to the small town of Pipestone, just east of the old mining town of Butte. From there, we drove north into the foothills and caught up with the crew just as they were leaving the parking lot and getting on the trail. We all stopped at the beginning of some National Forest land to take a group picture and get to know one another a little better.



There were some great trucks here, with almost all North American variations of Toyota 4x4 represented: we had an FJ Cruiser, a Tacoma, a Tundra, a 4Runner, and a 40, 60, 80, 100, and 200 Series. We stopped and chatted for a bit, getting to know the group, look at trucks, and make some new friends.



From there, we hit the trail and climbed into the mountains.



It was so cool being in a line-up with a large number of impressive off road Toyotas.



Our first fun little obstacle was this hill climb, which was more entertaining than actually difficult. My first taste of the 200's off road chops really impressed me here, as it climbed up without issue on mostly bald, undersized, fully-inflated tires and stock suspension.



I got to watch the remainder of the group cruise (see what I did there?) up the hill.









We spent the next few miles bouncing over mild rocks and washouts, overall a pretty easy run. It was great to get the truck out and in the woods, and it was fantastic to stretch the truck's legs and get used to her off road performance, which was impressing the hell out of me. I quickly realized that despite being stock height and on small tires, the truck had plenty of ground clearance for this sort of run. It was very powerful, very smooth, and very graceful despite it's large size. I was feeling very happy.

Right up until the squeeze.

We wound through a narrow section of timber and up a rocky outcropping into this obstacle, a couple of boulders lining the road and constricting the travel route. These older Cruisers make it look trivial, but in a large 200 Series, this was a little sweat-inducing. This gap is maybe 4 inches wider than the truck, and to get to it, one needs to go over an obstacle, which my truck wasn't tall enough for, or around the obstacle, which put you at a bad angle approaching this pinch. It took a few minutes and the assistance of some great spotters, but I drove away unscathed. Barely.





After unclenching my ********, we wound our way through the woods and down a rocky outcropping, which proved to be a nice photo-op. It was fun to chat with everyone while watching the trucks make their way down the hill.









At the bottom, we all hopped out for a lunch stop. We chatted with a nice couple and their kid from Bozeman, who had a really nice 100 Series, and a few other guys with cool trucks. It was so awesome to connect with some fellow Cruiser Heads, in some really stunning scenery.





From there, we wound out way through the woods again, apparently in the middle of nowhere...



... And found a rocky drop in the trail. We crawled down into this rocky section and saw a backup of the group at the next obstacle.



Curious about the holdup, I hopped out of the truck and hiked down a short way to see what all the excitement was about. I came upon the next obstacle and my heart absolutely sank. The road followed the folds in the earth, wound down a hill, and dropped into this rocky crevice. This doesn't look overly extreme in the photos, but watching this 80 Series drive down it was positively terrifying. Those are not small tires, and they were absolutely swallowed by this obstacle.







I noted my concern to the trail leader, who caused me to positively sag with relief by telling me there is a bypass to this difficult section. I quickly located it and spotted my wife down some rocky sections, getting the truck on three wheels at one point. Overall though, it was accomplished without incident.

After this obstacle, the trail calmed down. We drove down a wash and onto level ground. The final portion of any difficulty was this creek crossing, which was a little more than tire depth for my Cruiser and created a bow wave over the hood for a brief moment, and then a rocky climb out at the other side. Overall, nothing my truck fussed abut. From there, we climbed up high into the foothills and arrived at our destination: the Ringing Rocks.



This pile of rocks near Pipestone are famous for literally ringing when struck with a hammer. It is believed that the overall composition of the rocks and the way the formation has eroded together create a unique ringing sound. When a rock is removed from the stack, it no longer rings, so the phenomenon is definitely linked to the actual stack of rocks.



We hung out here for a while and chatted with the group before saying our goobyes and heading out for home.

Overall, a great mini-adventure to experience with new friends. It was fun to get the family out on the trail again and really test out the Land Cruiser in an off road environment. I learned a lot about my truck's capabilities, which impressed the hell out of me, and really made me think about what I really need for the next step of the build and the trips I wanted to do.

The most important thing was swapping wheels and tires, because those were miserable on the trail.

 

[zmotorsports]

Looks like a fun outing and beautiful scenery. Next time we're traveling through Butte, we may extend our stopover a day or so and check out that trail.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Looks like a fun outing and beautiful scenery. Next time we're traveling through Butte, we may extend our stopover a day or so and check out that trail.

It's definitely a fun little run. Not the most technical or anything but a good time if you're in the area.

 

[nicholam77]

Thanks for the thoughts on the new Land Cruiser. I like looks of the round headlight model as well.

The group trail drive looks like a lot of fun!

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Looked like a 100 series with an ARB bumper in the pics, was that Sandy?

That FJ has a cool paint scheme, love the old tri-color Toyota schemes.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Looked like a 100 series with an ARB bumper in the pics, was that Sandy?

That FJ has a cool paint scheme, love the old tri-color Toyota schemes.

Good eye! Nope, not Sandy. That was another Cruiser from the same era.

That FJ is a custom job with a TON of time and money into the rig overall. Interesting guy, he just sold that not too long ago.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

The next week, I had a big delivery at my front door.

See, I had hated the aftermarket wheels the 200 Series came with since day 1. I hated them from the pictures in the for-sale ad. I hated them when I got down to Dallas. I hated them when I got home. So naturally, it wasn't too long before I decided it was time for a change. At first, I attempted to use the factory 100 Series wheels from Sandy, but quickly found out they rubbed on the brake calipers, and with a spacer, they wobbled quite badly going down the road. So that was a definite no for me.

To solve the problem, I kept my eyes open on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist for several weeks, but ultimately decided that I wasn't going to be able to find exactly what I was wanting. I even checked with Toyota to see if they had any cast-offs, and I eventually landed on wanting the factory Tundra wheels from later-model 3rd gen Tundras.



Except in all black instead of the two-tone black/silver look. That was the one good thing about the aftermarket wheels that came with the truck: they convinced me to go with black wheels. I also wanted to go with standard Toyota center caps instead of the TRD caps a lot of people go with. So, I tried looking for some factory wheels, but very quickly was put off by the crazy prices people were wanting for used wheels. On top of that, I'd have to have them powder coated to the tune of $50-75 per wheel.

It wasn't long after this realization that I discovered the world of factory reproduction wheels, and did some serious digging on different manufacturers and companies that sell them online. I couldn't find much of any forum information, but was able to find some very positive reviews of certain companies and specific wheels. After some deliberation, I opted for wheelership.com. They even had an all-black version of these wheels available, and for less than $200/wheel shipped to my door. All in, I was less than $750 for four brand new wheels.

To compliment them, I decided it was time for new tires as well. No sense installing old, worn-out tires on new wheels, and my last 4x4 trip showed me I really needed to replace the old BFGs anyway. I went to my local Discount Tire, and they were kind enough to pull a few different sizes for me. After looking around, I landed on 275/65R18 BFGoodrich KO2's, which is pretty close to stock size, except narrower, which I honestly prefer for both economy and grip, and a little taller. I may move up to 275/70 at some point in the future, but for now, this tire size really suits the truck.

I sat in Discount Tire with bated breath, and was overjoyed by the look of the truck driving out of the shop.





This was a serious upgrade to the look and character of the Land Cruiser. It was a lot of money to lay out with not a lot of evidence online to show that I was making the right choice, but man, did it pay off!



The tires were taller and the wheel design far more simplified, and thanks to the factory offset, the wheels were now tucked nicely into the fenders, which had the effect of making the tires appear bigger while also reducing the amount of mud and grime that was flung up along the body of the truck. Overall, this was an immense improvement.



Not content with simply adding new wheels and tires, I had also ordered a little treat for the suspension.

Now, the prior outing with the 406 Cruisers club had taught me that with the short wheelbase and tall clearance that characterizes the 200 Series, I'd honestly be able to get away with a great deal of 4x4 trips without huge modification to the suspension and massive tires, like I had to do with my Nissan. In short, I didn't need to make it much taller to get a lot of enjoyment out of it's first year. I did, however, want to increase the clearance just a smidge. To that end, I discovered that Toyota had equipped the Heritage Edition Land Cruisers with a factory spacer lift on the front. A small spacer was added to the top of the spring, and that in turn added about an inch to the ride height, giving the HE Land Cruisers a more aggressive look. The best part? A set of these spacers was only $80 from the dealer.

To balance out the visual change of an extra inch of clearance up front, I ordered a set of 1/2" spacers for the rear coils from Cruiser Outfitters in Salt Lake City. I wanted to retain a bit of rake, which I prefer visually and also helps with load carrying, and the Land Cruiser comes from the factory with an ultra-aggressive 1.75" of rake out of the factory. To help level that a bit, I went with a shorter spacer for the rear.



The best part about that delivery though was Cruiser Outfitters' signature sticker.



To get the belly a little further off the dirt, I started with the front end. I jacked it up, set up my jackstands, and pulled the wheels.





I did a bit of research on how to pull the coil/shock assembly off the front, and it turns out the easy way to do this is to loosen the frame side lower control arm bolts, then pop the lower ball joint and use a prybar to push the arm down. With the coilover mounting bolts removed, you can then pull the coilover down and out. Easy enough!

To make sure I didn't screw up the alignment too much (which was going to be screwed up anyway thanks to the lift), I marked the position of the alignment cam bolts with a paint marker.



Then it's a simple matter of popping the lower ball joint, removing the five (yes, FIVE) bolts that hold the coilover in, and removing it.

Now, you can actually do this job without completely pulling the shocks out. I did not on the first one because... Well I don't know why.



132k miles and still on factory equipment! I felt a little bad about putting these back in, but they'll be changed out soon.



Installation of the front spacers could not possibly be simpler. Just drop them on in the correct orientation. Helpfully, somebody appears to have marked the direction these are supposed to sit with, apparently, a silver marker. By hand. Toyota, man.



Installation is super easy, just throw them back on and re-fasten everything.

I then switched to the other side and had the foreman on hand to assist.



A quick note here about fastener size. This is just one of many facets that makes the Land Cruiser such an impressive and loved vehicle by enthusiasts. Every mechanical component of the thing is about 25% bigger than it needs to be. For example, this hilarious lower shock bolt:





Or, possibly even more hilarious, the lower ball joint bolts.



This is a good hint at why these things have a reputation for being unkillable. Every fastener is like this. You look underneath and think, "why in the world did that need to be that size?". Because Land Cruiser, that's why.

Anyway, this time I played it smart and simply lowered the shock enough to slip the spacer into place.





Then tightened everything back up.

Now, a small roadblock here was the swaybar, which needs to be disconnected from the lower control arms to enable them to droop enough to pull the shocks out. With the spacers installed, it's nearly impossible to get the swaybar end links reconnected. Thankfully, this is made much easier by Toyota's Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System, or KDSS. This system is a hydraulic body-roll control system that operates much like Land Rover's ACE system, by using a hydraulic ram to stiffen the swaybars in high-speed cornering. Then, the system goes limp in low range to allow for full suspension articulation. It's pretty slick, but the oversized swaybars are pretty tough to work around. Luckily, there's a solution: open the KDSS valves and go into a bypass mode.

This is accomplished by opening the valves via a set of Allen-headed bolts threaded into a KDSS valve block along the driver's side frame rail. Weirdly, Toyota opted not to paint or protect this cast part. Knowing this, I hosed these bolts with Liquid Wrench and let them soak while I did the other work. When it came time to get everything put back together, I carefully cracked the valves open and spun them five complete turns. Not four, not six. Five. This is explicitly stated by everything from the Toyota manual to many suspension company's installation instructions. Luckily for me, these bolts were not frozen solid and I was able to get the valves opened.

However, these 5mm Allen bits are now a permanent fixture.



Anyway, with that done the system loosens up and it's very easy to pivot the bar and reconnect the end links. Before putting the wheels back on and dropping it back on the ground though, I put some satin black on the hubs to clean up the rusty look, since I still had no center caps. Nobody makes a reproduction and they're expensive!



With that done, I was a little surprised by the visual with the lift. It wasn't crazy dramatic, but it was a big change when coupled with the new wheels and tires.

Anyway, with that done I turned around and backed into the shop to get the rear suspension raised a bit.



This job is even simpler than the front. Disconnect the rear shocks and let the rear axle hang lower, making sure to not stretch the brake or ABS lines. Then I grabbed my spring compressor kit and... well... compressed.... the spring.



Pull the spring, pop the spacer in place, and reinstall!



I did the same paint job on the rear hubs to clean everything up before the wheels went back on.



With that, my cheap lift was done, and it really transformed the look of the truck when coupled with the new tires and wheels. It was really starting to look more like something I had envisioned when I bought it.





Fun little stat: under the B-pillar, in the middle of the truck, I took a measurement from the floor to the pinch weld. With this new change to the tires and suspension, the Cruiser officially had as much clearance under that point as my Nissan Frontier had. Except, my Nissan had three inches of lift and 33 inch tires. Again, this truck has proved to be a HUGE upgrade.

To put the new changes to a bit of a test, it was time to go back to the mountains!

To be continued...