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El Froggo (Frogeye's FJ Buildup)

60K views 183 replies 55 participants last post by  frogeye 
#1 · (Edited)
DEALER Prep
2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser
Curtain Shield Airbags
A-Trac & Rear Diff Lock
Convenience and Upgrade Package 1
Basically a fully loaded FJ without a Subwoofer














My first trip to Anza Borrego


My first trip to Cleghorn


Man the nice people I've met and the cool places I've been in my FJ. Thank you all, and thank you Toyota.

The Goal Of My Mod Madness

One of the reasons I love the FJ is because of it’s very unique style, and, It’s a Toyota! I really enjoy a wide variety of trails from crawling to hauling in desert washes (Note: Hauling arse in the desert can cost money people =). So anyway, I wanted to build a rig that was balanced and protected in all the right areas. Needless to say, Under Belly Armor was very important to me and so was an adjustable suspension system. Through trial and error I've come up with the following mix match of parts. I'm very happy with my rig now. It does everthing the way I wanted it to. It’s taught me a few things. I’ve learned that lifting it to high can cause the front differential seals to wear out prematurely for starters.

I hope you enjoy my build thread and that it can help guide our still STOCK brothers and sisters in Blue Forum land to start adding some MODS :rocker: If you have any questions regarding anything I've done don't hesitate to PM or post on this thread.



3rd Water Crossing at Coyote Canyon, Anza Borrego
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Bring on the Mish Mash: ARMOR

Lucrum Winch Mount and Light Bar


ALL PRO IFS Skid Plate


ALL PRO Automatic Transmission Skid


ALL PRO Transfer Case Skid (Thank you Bobo)


ALL PRO Rear Axle Skid (Thank you Ruebarb)


ALL PRO Rock Rails


O&B Fab Rear Lower Control Arm Upgrade and Skid (version1)


ALL PRO Rear Shock Skids


O&B Fab Sway Bar Clamps (version1a) Why you should clamp it? Your stock sway bar will shift under extreme conditions. Basically, everytime you go off road. When your sway bar shifts, it knocks into your coil overs and can either bend the sway bar link or break it. If you break a sway bar link you are going to rip a CV boot for sure and that's expensive if you don't work on the rig yourself. Put on a set of good clamps, and your sway bar will not move anymore. Piece of mind for sure.


A good set of Shock boots to protect my Rear Walker Evans. Thank you BellyDoc


ALL PRO E Locker Skid
 
#3 · (Edited)
SUSPENSION AND TIRES

Front and Rear Walker Evans Suspension (fully adjustable)



2 inch DR Racing Rear Coil Springs (Thank you forum member who sold them to me)

Extra long Rear Steel Braided Brake Lines (Thank you Cruiser Larry at Dirty Parts)

ProComp All Terrain 285 75 16s on Silver 16inch TRD rims.







ALL PRO Ultimate Front Sway Bar Links

Note that I've added a conical spacer at the top and the bottom where the link mounts to spindle and the sway bar. (Thank You Thong buddy for helping me out.)

 
#4 · (Edited)
RECOVERY

Lucrum Winch Mount with a Mile Marker MX8


Snatch Block, Straps, D Shackles, HighLift jack, Shovel

ENGINE PERFORMANCE

TRD Drop-In Air Filter



Custom bashed Up Rear Exhaust Pipe

LIGHTING

3 135 Watt PIAA 580xt Xtreme White Driving Lamps

2 55 Watt Hella 500 Fog Lights



Lucrum Ind. LLS running four Hella 500 converted to HID with H3 6000k Diamond White bulbs





In cabin control stick and switches


Picture showing wire bundle routed up the A pillar. I'll be wrapping it in white vinyl in the near future.




Side shot of LLS


Custom little bar for my ballasts and relay box


I ended up having to add a third fuse breaker box to support the LLS and roof rack lights.



I recently Replaced the origninal Air dam with a stainless steel one and painted the LLS main light bar flat black.





Four programable flashing LEDs in the back for use in limited visibility situations







Six 55 Watt Rock Lights (More about the rock lights here)
 
#5 · (Edited)
ELECTRONICS

Scanguage II (Thank You Cruiser Larry)



YAESU - FT-8800R 144/430 MHz Dual Band FM Transceiver. I picked up a $30.00 Radio Shack mini external speaker that I use with the 8800



Power Inverter In The Front For The Laptop

2 12 Volt Accessory Plugs In Center Console



Radio Shack CB

3’ Fire Fly Stick CB Antenna

Bandi CB Mount

Mag Mount Dual Band Antenna

PainLess Dual Battery Kit and a Blue Torch Fab Battery Box holding an Optima Yellow Top. Huge thank you to FJ-Ollie for helping me instal the dual battery kit the battery box, and the Mile Marker MX8 Winch.







My Mile Marker MX8 Winch Control Box recently died on me (covered under their mfr warranty TY MM). SO, I installed the new one inside the engine compartment well away from water. They informed me that they have discontinued that MX8 box because of failure to the on/off switch.



I made a custom mount that I added to the Mile Marker mounting plate. My new plate allowed me to mount the winch box to the front of my Blue Torch Fab battery box.



Switches for the *****es




SAFETY

Basic Bug Out survival kit

TOOLS & TRAIL EQUIPMENT

Basic load out of tools when on the trail to do most trail fixes. I also carry a complete spare axle shaft when wheeling. If not for me for someone else.

ADDITIONS

Atrac Hack

Kill Switch

Stock Roof Rack (Thank you Air2Air, and thank you FJ-Ollie for the aluminum mesh floor for the rack)



Steel Mesh BBQ Grill Lens Covers, Ellis Precision CNC Billet Aluminum Ouray 2007
Badge, White BezeL



Ellis Precision CNC Billet Aluminum Battery Clamp



Stant Locking Gas Cap

*Killer Laptop Update: My dog Rojo killed the Dell Laptop on a Mojave trip. RIP Dell Laptop and the "killer Laptop" mount. I'm now using a Garmin Chartplotter GPS and I love it.

Homemade Laptop Mount “Killer Laptop” holding my Dell 600 running DeLorme Topo USA. (More about the Laptop Mount here)



Homemade Rear Door Speaker Mounts

CUSTOM EXTERIOR MOD’s

Blacked Out My Stock Alloys



4 Wheel Drive Emblem



Lucrum Winch Mount, light bar, and Bumper Wing Eliminators (Thank You Chris)

 
#10 ·
WHAT!...where are the pics?......OK, I'm closing this thread down right NOW!
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J/K :cowsmile:.......It's about time you put your build thread up! :D
 
#19 ·
I'll add some more shots of the mount tonight and try to explain how I made it. Please note that I drive solo a lot. My mount wouldn't be very safe for a passenger so I don't use it when I have people riding along.

Very nice buddy, you have done alot to your rig. I would like to more on your homemade Laptop mount. I have the RAM mount in my vehicle. :cheers:
Look for an update later tonight sir.

Very nice Frogeye! Love those action shots! Wish we had something like that around here in Tennessee...

Tim
Thank you Tim, I had to drive about 15 hours away from my house for all the Moab and Colorado shots. Anza Borrego only takes me about 1 1/2 to get to so that is sweet.

:clap: Awesome build Frogeye! Well thought out and executed mods. It's guys like you (and SW and Uphill and Sol and on and on) who make schlepps like me not even want to open the Buildup Section. :bigthumb:
Hey I know how you feel. The main reason I put this up was to inspire guys like you to mod mod mod. I really appreciate the positive feedback.

Awesome rig! Thank you for taking the time to write up your build. Semi-Noobs like me take all of this in. Thanks again!:cheers:
Thank you, I'm still a noob too. :bigthumb:
 
#15 ·
Very nice buddy, you have done alot to your rig. I would like to more on your homemade Laptop mount. I have the RAM mount in my vehicle. :cheers:
 
#17 ·
:clap: Awesome build Frogeye! Well thought out and executed mods. It's guys like you (and SW and Uphill and Sol and on and on) who make schlepps like me not even want to open the Buildup Section. :bigthumb:
 
#18 ·
Awesome rig! Thank you for taking the time to write up your build. Semi-Noobs like me take all of this in. Thanks again!:cheers:
 
#20 ·
Gald you got your back in working order froggy. Mine still needs some work after the crash. :(
 
#24 ·
TY Jeshua, it really sucked when the Adventure4x4.net server crashed. All of those posts with images are ruined. Oh well. Live and learn.

Very nice build Frogeye.

Looks great...

:bigthumb:
TY, Your rig is looking awesome too.

Great build!

Where can you get clamps for the sway bar in your description? Are they on all the time or just for off-roading.



And not one photo of a hot chick????
I keep the clamps on all the time. FJ-Ollie made them. He also has an aluminum version. Give him a PM.

very nice build and truck, i think you need more lights. :cowsmile:
TY very much. I know I'm a light whore. Almost as bad as Dragon. :bigthumb:
 
#21 ·
Very nice build Frogeye.

Looks great...

:bigthumb:
 
#29 ·
You got it. I'll take some close up pics of the locations I mounted them and add them to my build page. Basically I just went to PepBoys and bought 3 sets of their low profile 55watt driving lights. I'll try to add this info soon. Thanks for your kind words and interest.

That really looks good! But seriously you need to put the Sprite in here too man
I'm not sure that this community would care about a little old British Car sir. But if people don't care I guess I could put up a second build thread. :bigthumb:
 
#30 ·
I vote for a Frogeye build up thread. :D
 
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