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[185,000 miles] I bought this FJ60 to replace my 2005 Chevy truck. In a sense, I knew that I could trust Toyota mid-80s offerings, as a result of my experience with the greatest vehicle I have ever owned. My story with this FJ60 starts with 185,000 miles on the odometer in October 2010.
I bought the truck on eBay for $4500 from a guy in Arkansas, flew to Little Rock on a one-way flight, and drove it back to Wisconsin (apart from some shenanigans with a faulty fuel pump installed by the seller, I had no trouble). The drive back north was through some very pretty parkland I had not been in before.
This vehicle is awesome.
[190,000 miles] Here's my punch list after the first 5000 miles I've owned the vehicle. Currently, as of June 2011, I've spent $3517.17 and 22 hours of my own labor on top of the $4500 purchase price to arrive at an excellent and reliable vehicle.
| Item | My Parts cost | My Labor (hours) | Shop Cost | Notes/External source |
| EXTERIOR | ||||
| Land Cruiser |
|
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$4,500.00 | Joey in Arkansas |
| Inspection |
|
|
$126.00 |
Gary's Auto |
| Passenger rear view mirror - replace |
$27.00 |
0.1 |
|
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| Install 2" receiver hitch |
$45.00 |
0.2 |
|
Acme hitch + Hopkins socket |
| Rechrome rear bumper |
$40.00 |
3.0 |
$325.00 |
Badger Metal Finishing, Milwaukee, plus $40 bolt set from SOR. |
|
Passenger side rear wheel well (rust seal) |
|
2.0 |
|
Naval jelly and sandblast, fill and paint. The rear right well can fill with water due to the gas filler hose opening. Also sealed this using a rubber pipe cap and some fabrication to create a grommet for the filler pipe. |
|
Tires - replace (Stock 235/75-R15, use 31x10.5-15) |
$556.02 |
|
$124.04 |
Gary's Auto mounting + disposal |
|
Rear liftgate - struts replaced or repaired |
$35.00 |
0.5 |
|
eBay store |
|
Headlights - replace |
$32.00 |
0.3 |
|
AutoZone - Sylvania halogens |
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Replace running lights |
$25.00 |
0.5 |
|
rock auto |
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Clean and paint windshield wiper metal surfaces |
|
0.5 |
|
Rustoleum black semi-gloss I had on hand |
|
Rear wiring harness repair |
|
1.0 |
|
Untangle and re-wire existing trailer module |
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Horn - repair |
|
0.8 |
|
Raise horn pad wiper ring with hot glue |
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Fix rear window washer |
$3.90 |
2.0 |
|
Replaced washer hose from rear headliner back, dissassembled rear washer motor mechanism, cleaned, re-greased and added water grommet fabricated from oogoo. |
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Fix headlight windshield washer |
$4.99 |
0.5 |
|
Amazon: Scan-tech version of broken check valve, not an exact fit but can be made to work. |
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Adjust hood front catch/bumpers |
$5.00 |
0.5 |
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Fabricate new bumpers with oogoo |
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| CHASSIS | ||||
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Replace all shock absorbers / mounts |
|
|
$464.56 |
Gary's Auto - W0133-162{1452,1148} |
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Front end alignment |
|
|
$105.00 |
Gary's Auto - with tire replacement |
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Inspect front and rear brakes |
|
|
$787.19 |
Gary's Auto - replace rotor, calipers, pads and lines in front |
|
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| INTERIOR | ||||
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Add 12V power receptacles |
$15.00 |
0.1 |
|
JC Whitney plus some remanufacture to increase USB power to 1A, permanantly wire into higher-amperage supply line. |
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Add seat belts to rear bench seat |
$144.61 |
4 |
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Seatbelt Planet, the 1985 FJ60 already had the pillar mounts tapped, this is an easy job. |
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Clock/thermometer |
$12.00 |
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Add interior lights |
$22.00 |
1 |
|
JC Whitney with some careful addition of a ceiling mounting plate affixed to the metal roof (inside) with JB weld epoxy. |
|
USB/SD/Aux Stereo |
$40.00 |
2.0 |
|
Dual-XR4110 mechless |
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Audio amplifier and rear speakers |
$12.00 |
0.8 |
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Angle bracket, hardware, wire, I had an old 120W amp and speakers from my ancient Chevy Citation |
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Clean, repair, grease window regulators and locks |
|
1 |
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Take doors apart, clean all internal parts, grease and re-assemble. Remove metal clip on right rear door added by previous owner. |
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Floor mats |
$70.00 |
0 |
|
JC Whitney - new in front, re-use rear |
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Add rubber dampers to rear seat clips and vibrations |
|
0.1 |
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Fabricate from oogoo |
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Fix or replace cruise control |
|
|
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Removed obtrusive wiring from aftermarket add-on. This is a low priority - long term hobby project perhaps |
|
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| ENGINE | ||||
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Fuel pump - replace |
|
|
$252.86 |
|
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Replace choke control knob and cable |
$70.00 |
0.5 |
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CruserParts.net for the cable and electrical assembly, plus a knob fabricated from a leftover cabinet knob and some oogoo |
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Measure compression |
|
|
$126.00 |
Gary's Auto - all OK = 145,151,142,152,146,149 |
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Replace hardened vacuum lines and hoses |
$12.00 |
1.0 |
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AutoZone stock item |
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Replace air intake duct |
$20.00 |
0.2 |
|
JC Whitney generic duct hose, with some fabrication to make it fit |
[189,000 miles] I had noticed a little bit of noise coming from the cooling fan, just a slight tic-tic-tic. It gradually got a bit louder and I did not check it out in time. The bolts on the waterpump had not been properly tightened (perhaps in the radiator replacement done before I owned the vehicle). As I drove home from work one fine March day, the cooling fan sheared off the bolts and jumped into the radiator frame. My FJ60 overheated but not until i was just pulling into my garage. I had to replace the waterpump, cooling fan, and then the alternator after I soaked the original one in coolant trying to refill the system. (It dried out and started working, but was a bit flakey so I figured just replace it, not very expensive for peace of mind.) The waterpump bolts are tricky to tighten, and the previous installer had botched it.
[192,000 miles] My A/C compressor jammed, and this led to a bit of an odyssey. In the end, the root cause was a modification made to the A/C amplifier PCB before I owned the vehicle. One more hack removed.
[194,000 miles] My clutch master cylinder gave out. I rebuilt it with a special low-price "closeout" kit from Rock Auto, and then had an odd problem with the clutch pedal getting stiffer and stiffer as I drove, then eventually engaging the clutch without any pedal pressure at all. Turned out that the rebuild kit has a center pin that is 1-2mm too long, causing the valve to the reservoir never to open. A slight modification of the pin by adding a small metal band around the pin end inside the spring assembly fixed this condition.
