Leaderboard

This is one of my favorites from the Curse a couple years ago - Jeff is about to flop the Pirate Ship and Scott grabbed his sill to keep him from going over. It actually saved him, he was right on the balance point.

The Cookie Monster is now sitting 4" higher :-)

I finished the bod work on the car! Just super impressed with how it turned out and I wanted to share :) What I started with: 20150820_151132 by Mitch Parsons, on Flickr 20150823_114502 by Mitch Parsons, on Flickr Cut out the soft stuff 20150823_131533 by Mitch Parsons, on Flickr 400 tri[s to the vice and we have a patch plate! 20150823_143613 by Mitch Parsons, on Flickr Patch welded in! I also welded the back wheel well portion, but I don't have any real pictures of that. 20150823_170416 by Mitch Parsons, on Flickr Yes, this took many many layers of bondo and metric **** loads of sanding to get even close to okay! 20150826_210808 by Mitch Parsons, on Flickr Primed: 20150829_162641 by Mitch Parsons, on Flickr Final product: 20150831_163613 by Mitch Parsons, on Flickr

Took my FJ out on a short trail run today on my lunch beak.

Parts have been ordered. Warn VR8000 Winch Black Widow Gear Front Winch Bumper Upgraded Hood Catch Kit. Soon to be delivered and installed :)

Cleans up pretty good

Bumper install was completed tonight. Was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Built myself a look alike back rack came out really well and under 100$!! made out of 2x2 3/16" some angle for the mounts and flat bar primed and rocker guard

Not a super-original idea, but it's better than having the shovel rolling around in the back :)

Iv been gearing up a tow truck, for on the road tows/ recovery . Been a dream for years and is almost finished. Hopefully it will be insured by mid next week. It has NO connection or reference to my day job, for those that know what my day job is. Anyway, here is what I've been investing all my money and time into. It's almost finished, few little details to iron out. Chassis is F-Superduty (F450) and wrecker gear is Challenger 4800 twin line with wheelift. Also equipped with dollies for those AWD/4x4 vehicles or excessively low vehicles. Here is the truck, it has super low kms, and has never been worked as a commerical unit. (The gear is in like new condition) It has a neat history of being used in Montreal Grand Prix races for recovering the F-1 race cars in the 1990's. Still working out some details. But it is a huge step to have the unit up and running for the road. Now to get Mrs. Powerram trained up to run it haha, she has ran it in the yard some lol

Got it sitting on its own weight ,yep stands are under but not touching, Steering will bolt up all factory, front is a little higher than anticipated but still have some fab work for mounts but This is mockup stage. Also moved axle centerline forward slightly.

Here's hoping these will hold too. The second front fender is welded up. I screwed up when I first started tacking the skin on, and had to cut it off. Luckily I only had about 5 tacks done. I forgot to put the brace in place, which helps set where the skin needs to go. I was off about an 1/8", which I could have worked with, but figured it was better to start over and do it right. Their plasma cutter must have shifted somehow when this cut was made, and I didn't notice it until I got to that spot to weld. Here they are together. I'm not sure if I'll have time to get this one prepped and primed before we leave on Friday or not.

It's home... Got a few things to repair and check before dissemble, have some air problems, high low range selector inop, so she is in the low side, and it isn't charging, once I have the range selector working, disassembly will start.

Parts brake down will be as follows. 3208 Cat engine 10 speed road ranger Dodge Divorced NP 201 transfer case Chevrolet Dana 60 front Chevrolet Corp 14 bolt rear Ford cab and front clip Dodge stepside rear fenders Homemade box sides Finally getting to use some of my hoarded parts Planning on putting my 15000lb warn between the front frame rails, 12000 lb warn between the rear frame rails and a hydraulic Ramsey 8000lb on the wrecker boom Tires will be 325-85/16 XML

Bahahaha, you aren't the first to make bets on how long the build will last. When I put this Ford together , it was an over night expirement. Went together fast, spent more time working on it than wheeling it to this point in time.The two dodges before this truck lasted for years after the initial build. Way more time wheeling than wrenching. This is why I wanted to build the power stroke, good one ton gear that I'm used to. But then I reevaluated what I'm going to ask of it and it is more than IV asked of my dodges , which at the end of their lives suffered severe frame fatigue and body fatigue. So the power stroke has a similar 1 ton frame to my old dodges. That is why I have gone to such a crazy idea for a build. I want the dependability I had in my dodges , and don't want to have to upkeep a truck for wheeling, a truck for plowing and a truck for off road rescue and a daily driver, Ill combine the 4, all into one truck. Every idea IV had lately, there was a bit of doubt, but this I feel good about. The pics below are the two previous dodges, the green one had many thousands of off road kms and was driven daily, and the brown 4 door was its replacement that worked well too

Started to make a snorkel. I prefer the neat stealthy look without all the exposed pipework. I was looking at something off the shelf, but they have the pipe running down the outside of the fender, which I don't like , and isn't cheap either. So, here's the plan - hard to tell from the mock up, but the flex pipe will disappear down into the cowl for that neat look like the one in the photo. For the head....I'm not sure yet, but I might make one - I have some ideas.

Installed a different set of tires and rims with more friendly backspacing on the new to me rig today. Here is how it sits now, and tomorrow will be tearing into the rear end and dialing a few things in. Should be ready for Sat.

keep drinking the Burb-on - I'll get my coat...

Look what followed me home today haha another one!

A couple of pics since the uploading works again.

Today I made a set of bar pin eliminators, put the JK front shocks in, took both front coil spring isolators out and replaced them with the 2" coil spacers that were in there before. It's now sitting at 3" over stock in the front, and the rake is now gone.

Finally got my light bar mounted today.

Alright, update, I'm becoming a wimp when it comes to wrenching in the cold and rain. There was a time when I changed clutches in a big 4x4 Chevy in -25c in the night with snow blowing all around, or changing engines with a lashed together just cut tripod in the mud during a hurricane because I wanted to wheel in some extreme weather. I also remember changing engines and firing up the fresh swap while the old engine was still warm on the floor Weather has been holding up the engine swap, so today I got the truck pushed into the garage, had viewings on the dakotas, tarped in the truck and fired up the salamander to make some heat. Here is where its at so far, everything is disconnected , just engine mounts left and the 302 is out. IV also decided to remove the heads and re gasket/seal entire 351 with new oil pump, water pump and timing chain. I was going to just run it as is but figured I should inspect and seal everything now , then i ll know what I have. I'll finish pulling the 302 after supper and have it sitting on the floor. I need to make some adjustments to the engine brackets for the power steering to accommodate the taller deck height of the 351.

Well the old TJ got the biggest mod added to date. I also installed the front 2" coil spacers.

Tonight I picked up a Firestick, cable and mount, and got the antenna installed. I haven't pulled my CB from the other Jeep yet, so I still have that to install. Not sure where I'm going to mount it, but I might go with the Rugged Ridge dash mount. I also did the locker mod, but just did the one where you can engage in any transfer case setting, but has to be below 10 mph. I can't see that being a problem, but if it is, I'll just tap the other wire into it.

My buddy bought this off kijiji last night for $850, needs a clutch. 1997 4runner 2.7 5 speed from the family that bought it new.

Made it back into the garage to button up some of the 'easy' stuff....radius arms, shock mounts etc......of course the easy stuff became a pain in the *** as I had to tap out all of the holes. I also made sure every bolt would come back out with a liberal application of anti seize LOL I just need to find (or make) some lower shock bushings as the XJ shocks that came with this 4 inch lift kit came with a different style mount than the Bronco. I'll also need to get the brake lines too. Now just 8 bolts and she'll be attached to the Xterra LOL

Yours is definitely 'Built', not 'Bought' Jay. It is easy for some of us to buy upgrade parts for common rigs, but you're building yours by hand Jay. My hat is off to you!

Lol, I went into slightly too small space. That's y I didn't want to cut the tree, I shouldn't have been there to start with. Remember, its mind over Matter..... If you don't mind, The Metal don't Matter!

My sharpie would run out on each run before I finished labeling all the dents

Big order of parts came in today - there's more at the post office too

Canadian Tire in Bedford exchanged the vise....no questions asked

Got a lead on some axle shafts from Ken @ RadCo in Westville. He's found 3 of the 4 shafts in Edmonton, and I'm waiting on a call back from him for the 4th......fingers crossed Washed, scraped & wire-brushed the housing of rust and oil, and gave it a coat of rust paint.Need to do the same to the steering knuckles next

Now I have my axle apart and the bathroom is making better progress.....and Tracey advised me to crack-on and fix the X rather than buy another vehicle...my budget will go towards fixing up the Xterra and finishing off the SAS (well buying the parts and starting it at least LOL) Hopefully that'll be money better spent

So I have just won a 20" LED light bar from BlackWidow Gear. This will be getting installed once received. Excited to have it!

A little late to update, a few weeks ago I tapped into the winch control box and added a switch in the dash for it. also intstalled a new switch for my compressor too. the old one worked fine but its just cooler in the dash lol ;)

Can't complain

Whilst on a work trip to Orlando, I took the opportunity to get an OEM 25072 spindle tool from Auto Zone - Tracey & the kids got flips flops & candy, I get tools LOL. I was holding off buying the parts to get the axle fixed up until I got a set of radius arms sourced, since the C mounts on my axle are cast, which makes things a little awkward for making up custom brackets. DuffTuff in the US sells a really nice extended set with caps for $1000+ which isn't in my budget. I came home from my trip to some good news about a set of OEM radius arms for sale. The seller was having trouble removing the 36 year old bolts.....well he did it!! :) Now I've got myself a $40 set of stock radius arms and mounting brackets :) Depending on condition, I'll probably just use them stock, and maybe extend them at some point. Now to tear into that broken hub.....

Lined up Mitch's busted a** truck today. It was so far out the heads wouldn't read without first pulling the toe in about 2*, damn haha

Jay, you should be proud! Take away the winch, (and eventually snorkel), and the Lokka, and any lift and approach angle mods, and you would have had Very Much Harder time in there. You have built up a nice truck at a relatively low cost, great driving skills, and not 'skeered' to wrench on it. I hope the club helped in this transformation!

Used my winch and a tow line to pull my bumper back into shape :)

I think I would be pissed if I forced my face into an ice hole.....repeatedly LOL

bought some grade 12.9 Allen bolts and the hubs are finally installed :)

It has a 4inch-ish lift, and tube sliders already. Is the Jeep Clarence ran the event in. Great comdition, will be lightly wheeled. But mostly my daily with another project soon to follow.

Found a CB radio on kijiji for 25 bucks so i grabbed it. Got her installed today. Managed to get her in the dash all nice and neat.

Soooo. Its fixed!!!!! ;) they said to leave it all day but it was only there for an hour and a half!!! Havent gone on the highway yet but it feels better already and doesnt sound like its going to fall apart :) yay yay yay go double z!!!

Was out driving around today and couldnt say no. image upload no limit

Just had the H2 in for service with Double Z. New pitman arm, idler arm, idler arm bracket, inner / outer tie rods on both sides, new passenger side axle, and new rotors / pads up front. Also had them align the truck as it was in dire need. Truck feels brand new, steering wheel points straight, I'm very happy... and broke.

Make for sure Jay. Maybe we could try it together. We can talk at the meeting tonight. So my lift kit took forever to get here. It was supposed to arrive last wednesday... But it didn't. It arrived on Thursday! Whats that in your hand Mr Postman?!? A gift from America? yes Please! The dis-assembly began. Parts look good! Went together pretty easy! New rubber would really finish the look nicely. These old 30.5" coopers would be ok for winter....but thats about it. What if we tried to fit these 33.5" Toyo Open Country M/T! Some small modifications required. I'm starting to get excited. Oh yes! Wow

My brother's truck, I took the picture, the first New Cumberland run, 2010. If I have to we'll post under his name! I don't know how to change the size, but it's worth clicking on....