[jeshua]

CONSOLIDATED MOD LIST:
Wheels and Tires
16x8 TRD Ivan Stewart wheels
285/75/16 BFG AT's
Gorrilla lug nuts
Body Mount Chop

Protection:
All Pro Rock rails
All Pro Front and transmission skid plates
All Pro lower control arm skid plates

Suspension:
Front-
Donahoe Racing Coil overs
Light Racing Jounce shocks
Rear-
Donahoe Racing Coil springs and shock (thank you UPHILL for the springs very nice of you)
All Pro Lower control arms
Light Racing Jounce shocks

Engine:
TRD CAI - Oh the sound! (Thank you TCao very nice of you)

Electrical:
All Pro 2 light air dam (sold)
Midland 75-882 CB
Bandi Mount

Other stuff:
10 lb PowerTank
Four treks High lift mount
rear storage box
hula girl on dash
radar detector
A-Trac hack
Locker hack​

________________________________________________
Not sure on were to start but here goes.

In the Beginning:
Loved the FJ since the first time I saw it back in January of 06 at the Laughlin Desert Challenge. 11 months later I traded in my Toyota Matrix Xrs for a nice shinny new Voodoo Blue 6 speed manual with the convenience package, roof rack and tow hitch. 2 weeks later I took her on her first off road trip through Fish creek and Sandstone canyon. Had a great time and meet some great people on that first trip guys like FJ-Ollie, Frogeye, & gon2srf. Frog was yelling at Ollie for his spotting :lol: and I smashed my bumper up on the canyon wall and bent one of my wheels when I hit a rock going 60 racing gon2srf through the wash, good times on that first trip out.

carnage pictures from the first trip

luckily I had just picked up used new wheels from underactive and my new tires showed up the day before my run through Fish creek and Sandstone canyon.

New wheels and tires
16x8 TRD Ivan Stewart wheels
285/75/16 BFG AT's
Gorrilla lug nuts
Body Mount Chop

My wheel choose came at a perfect time since I destroyed one of my tires the same week I bought them. TRD Ivan Stewart wheels off of a 99 Tundra being sold here on the forum by underactive. Easy choose for me 1 the price was amazing 2 I love the way they look and 3 Ivan "ironman" Stewart is one of my hero's. They look great and fit perfectly on the 4 corners. The spare tire holder though need to be cut a little for the spare to fit properly. I just had to take about an inch off the black piece that the wheel rests on while you get the wheel on the studs, no big deal took about 30sec with the angle grinder. Tire choose was easy for me I want a little bigger tire and an AT and I am a huge BFG fan plus there AT is one of the best tires ever. I used gorilla lug nuts on all the wheels so my sockets don't get stuck in the stupid holes plus it adds some security. I then had my body mounts chopped to get the rubbing to stop on the passenger side.

Pictures:

The FJ stayed like this for a while as I thought out what I wanted and saved up some money.

Protection:
All Pro Rock rails
All Pro Front and transmission skid plates
All Pro lower control arm skid plates

After a couple close calls putting the side of the FJ into rocks the first one at Calico Clean up going up Odessa canyon and the second in Stoddard valley I figured I need some rock rails

I choose All Pro's rock rails, I like the kick out, there local to me and they've been good to me. That kick out saved my passenger side in Moab later.

Oh, I recommend you install the lower control arm skid plates before you smash it all up on rocks it makes installation much easier.

Suspension:
Front-
Donahoe Racing Coil over’s
Light Racing Jounce shocks
Rear-
Doahoe Racing Coils and shocks (Thank you UPHILL for the springs)
All Pro Lower control arms
Light Racing Jounce shocks

I was going to get Kings but I had to spend some money on my other project so I ended up getting Donahoe coil over’s up front and leaving the rear stock.
The DR's work great and the week after I installed them they got me through 200 miles of Baja trails in 2 days.

Just installed the rear DR coils and shocks and it handles great on and off road. I still plan to up grade the rear shocks at some point to a larger shock. I will wait a while to see what Icon VD come up with or get a couple of custom ones made for me by Radflow or King.

The Chubby's aka jounce shocks well I got a killer deal on them so I had to jump on it. So I got me a full set of chubby's before I expected. (Thanks Terry)

Almost forgot the All Pro front skid plate was in the way of the relocated sway bar so I got some spacers (~.75") and longer bolts for the 2 front bolt holes

Engine:
TRD CAI - Oh the sound inklove: Thanks again TCao very nice of you.

Electrical:
All Pro 2 light air dam
Midland 75-882 CB
added 2 - 12v outlets
Bandi Mount

Well I like the look of the All Pro Air dam and All Pro needed/wanted to show it off in Ouray so we worked a deal and I ended up with the prototype 2 light air dam for a good price. Yaaaa for both of us!

Needed a CB so I could listen to all the chatter over the air waves. Very important if you are ever around the AZFJer's I went with the midland over the cobra because I liked how you could use it as a hand held as well. And the Bandi mount is amazing. Bandi you’re a guineas! At this time I also added a couple more 12v outlets in the dash.

Other stuff:
10 lb PowerTank

Four treks High lift mount
rear storage box
hula girl on dash
radar detector
A-Trac hack
Locker hack

The rear storage box was fun I wanted something to keep me a little organized but wanted to retain the use of the storage compartment were the bottle jack is at and didn't want something super tall so that I could barely get an ice chest in there. The Drawers ended up being 4.5" tall, 28" deep and I think it was 18" wide. I used a piano hinge on the driver side and I ended up with an area that I could lock which is cool. You can see this in the pictures. I was also able to still use the stock Toyota floor mat and D-rings.

Four trek mounts ya you all now these.

Hula girl I got from my best friend for being in his wedding. One of my favorite Trophy Truck drivers Alan Pflueger always has one on his dash that’s were it comes from just to let you all now.

Radar detector cause I go fast and I want to know when FJDave is trying to give me a ticket. :worried: I do need a new one though the speaker just went out on it.

A-Trac, well I first had to install the switch since my FJ didn't come with one then I did the A-Trac hack in Ouray before we left for Moab super easy.

Locker hack ya I like this one I can now turn my Locker on in H & HL. This is cool for me since I like to go fast and push the rear end out a little.

I got O&B’s collars for a shifty sway bar. Thanks a bunch Ollie!

Future Mods:
Car computer
Maybe some more lights

My car computer is a slow process, I have a screen that doesn’t fit were I want to put it the thing is like 1/8" to tall. So I am looking for different screens (7”widescreen) I have the PC already but I might change that to.

4-16-08 update on the CarPC;
Then New plan is to use a 2U server rack adn a 10" flip down tft mounter. The 2U will be installed in the passenger side Storage drawer (the box will have to be re done to get it to fit) and the screen will be mounted on the ceiling in front of the mirror. I will start on this after a couple more projects that I need to do first. The old screen and PC will go in my 92 pickup maybe.

I would really like to do some rock lights like Savvyav and add some ally lights and rear lights but that would all be over the top for me, will see what happens.

 

[jeshua]

Here is the Light Racing jounce shocks installed and dirty.

Ok on to pictures. I am still a little dirty from last weekend
Front driver looking forward

Getting some use from the dips in town

Front passenger looking back

Rear driver looking forward

Rear passenger looking back

This picture you can see pretty well how close the striker is to the chubby at ride height. Also notice how clean the cylinder is from doing its job and how much more use it gets then the front.


Things that I would like to change.
I want to upgrade to the rubber ends and also add some compression in the rear. With those changes and new springs and shocks I think the rear will be quit nice.

 

[jeshua]

Pictures from the trail.
Moab after Ouray 2007

see the in-FJ video of me going up it ---> Hell's Gate on Vimeo
I love Muddygrrl she saved my life and my FJ inklove:

07 FJ Summit Ouray, Co

2007 SCORE Baja 500 Prerun

07 Mojave Road run (Uphills)

Thanks for the picture E.


Mojave Road Feb 08

Calico Clean up / Doran and Odessa Canyon (pictures taken by FJ-Ollie and Frogeye)

Willow Springs, AZ March 2, 2008

 

[jeshua]

and maybe one more.

 

[TiFJ]

Sweet ride man! Looks like you've had a few pucker moments too. Awesome!!

 

[Fjamming]

Very nice to see you itemize all your hard work Josh. I really like your storage.

What's next on your agenda?

 

[uphill]

I've been looking forward to this Build-Up!

Thanks for posting and for keeping us up to date (so we can copy your cool ideas).

 

[pokerDawg]

Great read and great rig! I can't believe I've been in your FJC without fully giving it a look over. I will for sure next time

 

[jeshua]

Sweet ride man! Looks like you've had a few pucker moments too. Awesome!!

thanks! Ya when I slid down off the wall on Hells Revenge adn then when I almost went over at the last step it was the scariest moment in my life.

Very nice to see you itemize all your hard work Josh. I really like your storage.

What's next on your agenda?

thanks Tony, I still need to clean up the box but once you get it in you don't want to take it out, that just might be me though.

Other then the power tank I will try and figure out the rear end and what I want to do. I might just go ahead and get the king rear shocks even though it wont be the best match valving wise front to back. I also need to rewire my lights in the Air Dam. But I am trying to focus more of my time and $$$ on my truck right now. So all the Fj stuff might go to the back burner for a bit.

I've been looking forward to this Build-Up!

Thanks for posting and for keeping us up to date (so we can copy your cool ideas).

No problem, Thong and Froggy put me up to it so I spent the last couple hours trying to piece it together. But I think mod wise you have already passed me up, I will be the one copying you.

 

[jeshua]

Great read and great rig! I can't believe I've been in your FJC without fully giving it a look over. I will for sure next time

Thanks E there really isn't much to it, all very basic and simple mods but you can go through it all you want next time.

 

[WESBC]

Nice rig. I have a similar idea for the rear drawer. Instead, I'm going to flap both sides, so I could have access to the power outlet.

 

[jeshua]

Nice rig. I have a similar idea for the rear drawer. Instead, I'm going to flap both sides, so I could have access to the power outlet.

I don't have the power outlet so I didn't have to worry about that side. Have you though about relocating it so you can keep the drawers wider?

 

[WESBC]

That is a great idea. I could use one of those flat extension cords and move it to the other side. But then again, I don't really need the extra length, but it would be nice.

I plan to build it when the quarter is over in a week. Can't wait:blueblob:

 

[Garsgrl]

Now that is a kick azzzzz pic.

Is this the spot where the jeep rollover took place. U know the video that has been posted 100 times or more? youtreadtube: Stupid Jeep

 

[jeshua]

Yep but she was over to far on the drivers side, and I just a had a weird angle.
I wish I had the pods at that point so i could tell you all how far past the line I went. I could have sworn I was going over. Everything that wasn't tied down started to move to the back of the FJ, I think is was the sound of all my change bouncing off of everything that pushed the experience over the top to scariest moment ever. I will try and get a video of it up some time this month.

 

[Garsgrl]

It's funny how the guy in the pic is raising his hands. Im sure you couldn't see anything but the wild blue skies.

Were u suppost to hit it further to the passenger side?

 

[jeshua]

Thats Frogeye ya all I saw was his finger tips when I started then nothing but Blue sky. The lovely ladie in the back is Muddygrrl she was amazing really helped keep us all calm the hole time and talked me though and spotted me back in line half way down the gate.

 

[Air2air]

Yeah, well I will NEVER have the cajones to do that. I prefer to humbly admire those of you who do. Hearing your change tumble over into the back.... I would have just thrown up at that point. And just my luck I would have been leaning back at the time...

 

[jeshua]

Yeah, well I will NEVER have the cajones to do that. I prefer to humbly admire those of you who do. Hearing your change tumble over into the back.... I would have just thrown up at that point. And just my luck I would have been leaning back at the time...

Then your vomit would have come right back in your face. :ack:

I will get a new hard drive so I can upload the video to my PC and edit it a bit so I can show you all what it looks like and sounds like to go vertical. :scared:

 

[Fjamming]

When you do upload, please put it in the Vimeo channel I posted for FJs. The quality is so much better.

The link for the channel is: FJ Cruisers on Vimeo

Thanks.