New Guy Seeking Advise

[Bob180]

First, let me say hello everyone! This is my first post on the boards, even though I have been watching them for well over 2 months doing research.

Well all my research still leaves a few questions for me (so many options and opinions out there!) But ultimately I have decided to buy a FJC, will probably be doing so either Next week or at the beginning of March.

I would like any recommendations that you guys can give. I am going to ask a few questions and post the modifications that I plan on doing to my FJC.

Let me also give a shout out to Mir207, He is pretty local to me (although we have never met) and he has pointed a lot of stuff out to me. Also his posted breakdown on the buildup of his FJC is really nice, gave me a lot of inspiration.

First for the FJC itself

I plan on doing about 90% city driving and 10% offroad. Im from KY, just living out here in So Cal with my 5 year old son.

I have looked at all the package options, and I see a lot of people post that they would get basically the 4 x model with just the very very basic package (on toyota's web site, it is option a) no other stuff, dosnt this leave out a few goodies that are kinda necessary like off road shocks and Atrac? I know about the Atrac hack, so not that big of a deal, but what is the after market cost of shocks and springs, would it be about comparable?

Can I just get a few suggestions on what would be the best package option in your opinions to suit my needs? Im going to go with the 4x (obviously) Automatic in black.

Ok, For the mods.

Exterior and performance

3" OME Lift with the heavy spring setup
Warn rear bumper
Man A Fre skid plates
Man A Fre Rock Rails
33" Nitto Terra Grapplers and new blacked out rims
Arb front bumper
- IPFF driving and fog light assembly
- T-Max 9,000 LB winch (recommendation from Steve at Man A Fre)
TRD Cold Air intake
3' Firestick with Bandi Mount
Roof painted black (thank god I cant be flamed while posting in the newby forums I know this is a kinda hot topic hahahaha)

Interior
2 Din CD player with GPS, I like the Pioneer AVIC-D3
Cobra CB radio (have not even begun to really examine this but i like the one that is just the handset, and i saw really nice mounting instructions somewhere on the boards)
Molle Rear Door Attachments
Billet Shift knobs

This is the basics of what I am looking at, of course, I will build up an offroad/travel kit to go in those nice Molle Mounted bags, including things such as tow straps, mag lights, tire patch kit, Winch Kit, etc etc...

Please give me thoughts/suggestions, there is such a wealth of info here that I would love to tap into for my buildup.

Once I get my FJ, I will be posting a lot in the Buildups section, as I plan on doing a lot of the mods

On the note of a roof rack, I have put a lot of thought into this... Until I find out how tall my FJ is with the 33" and 3" kit, I am not going to go forward. I have to fit it in my garage after all I know that the ARB roof is almost 8" of added height... Dont know if it will fit, so this will wait...

That brings me to another question, without a roof rack, where can I put my gas cans and Hi lift, much less shovel and axe?! I did see a pic posted somewhere here on the forums of some sort of attachment around the rear tire on an fj that was holding 2 gas cans and a Hi-lift, but have not seen it anywhere else, or any note on where it could be purchased. adventure4x4.net/photos/data/500/medium/IMG_0206_edited.JPG. I am to new to post links so you will have to browser that to see the photo... I think it could be some sort of bumper mounted swing arm, but maybe there is some sort of carrier that works off the rear tire mount? I dont know if the stress points on the door would like that to much though hehe....

Also, I REALLY like the look of Shadow Warriors raptor. I am going to end up blacking a lot of stuff out myself!

Thanks for taking the time to read this, please post any thoughts you have. I plan to buy very soon, and almost immediately after, get the work done, so any advise quickly would be great, so I have time to think about stuff

If anyone is going to advise me to get a Trail Teams ed FJ, all white, are you kidding?

[chichid65]

Welcome Aboard!

I would suggest buying a fully loaded FJ! More often than not when you buy a base model it always seems to come back and haunt you. Besides there aren't really that many options to choose from so why not get all of em up front in the deal.

As for the modding part I would say wheel first and then see what you may want/need. Good luck and keep us posted.

[wesayso]

Welcome. As far as advice goes, do what your comfortable with. It's really just a matter of personal likes and dislikes. Just DO IT!

[bcsfj]

On the roof rack issues, I have a 3" lift with 33" tires as well and a full body ARB Roof rack. I have a standard 7 foot tall garage and the FJ will not fit into the garage with the roof rack on. I have about 1" - 1 1/2" to spare. So I keep it off, but the mounting points on because they are cool.

[RomaBoy]

chichid65 previously said:

Welcome Aboard!

I would suggest buying a fully loaded FJ! More often than not when you buy a base model it always seems to come back and haunt you. Besides there aren't really that many options to choose from so why not get all of em up front in the deal.

As for the modding part I would say wheel first and then see what you may want/need. Good luck and keep us posted.

X2, what he said... get it loaded is the way to go.

[w5wi]

Welcome aboard. Lot's of choices. Personally I find that factory options beyond the convenience group, have a lot of stuff in them that you may not want, or ever use. I'd rather build my own, which I did.

My suggestions are:

First, match your mods to those you will actually use. Every mod on my FJ has a specific purpose to the type and style of off-road driving I do.

I'd go with Bud Built skids.

cheers,

dale

[neworleansparrothead]

Do what makes you happiest. Just remember if you cannot get exactly what you want from the dealer, you can always mod what was missing!! Good Luck!

[chichid65]

RomaBoy previously said:

X2, what he said... get it loaded is the way to go.

There has been vehicles in my past that I had wished I had started out with everything after the purchase so for me that won't happen anymore. Hope this helps ya.

[doublejfj]

Welcome!

First, match your mods to those you will actually use. Every mod on my FJ has a specific purpose to the type and style of off-road driving I do. I'd go with Bud Built skids.

I'm inclined to agree here. You say you'll do 90% on-road and 10% off-road driving, yet the mods you've got lined up are some serious off-roading firepower. I'd start with the armor and like it was said prior, take a ride first and see what you feel you need.

Also, if you're worried about garage clearance then you'll probably want to leave the firestick off unless you're out wheeling. My 2' wilson has about 4" of clearance and the roof rack has even less when pulling in my garage.

Oh and definitely get 'er loaded

[Bob180]

Thanks for the advice on the Fire stick, I hadn't thought of that.. Mabey I will do a front bumper mount to lessen the height, I will see what the height comes up to, yet another to do lol.

As for the off road ability. Yes, I want a vehicle, that at any time I can take it out and have a good time with it. Thats why I am building it the way I am. As for functionality, I want the car to be able to do just about anything I throw at it, so not setting it up totally for rock crawling or long distance runs, just wants something that is well rounded, and is still good for city driving