[lulo]

Great Pics of Mali (Africa is Magic)...


Thanks Mate!!!

[gilghana]

Rosco - the Defender I bought in 2001, at that time it had spent it's short life in the North of Ghana in the ownership of the "secret" police (Bureau of National Investigation. I bought it cause the body and chassis were really good, but mechanically I had to do a lot to it. It was great fun though and it's off road ability with Truetrac and No-spin diffs was great. With OME suspension it was also exceptionally supple and comfortable on the potholes. I liked the car a lot, but the strength and reliability issues did for me. Of course the irony is that I spent so much time on it that when I sold it on to a mate he travelled with it trouble free in innocent oblivion for thousands of KMs. It has subsequently been sold on again to another aquaintance and I believe is now in Liberia.

Grolar - well I am shipping the car from here... I have had enough of MUD (real mud that is for a while) and cannot be bothered spending the time and cash to road it down there. I have good shipping line contacts so the containerised shipping will cost me less than $1,000. While I love West Africa and all it's aspects I can't wait for a change of scenery, and that is my reasons for avoiding some of the more central countries of the West Coast.

[gilghana]

Mali again - this time my folks flew out for two weeks over Christmas '07 to see the Dogon Country. The trip was totally different, with no b/ds and we saw a lot more areas wild camping away from more tourist areas.

Crossing the Black Volta (in Ghana)



Descending the Dogon escarpment - views and track was amazing...



Even in the Dogon area you can find dunes



This lesser used trail was incredible - remote, beautiful and low range for hours!



We revisited a spot we camped in in 2004. Near Douentza.



Escarpment near Douentza



Approaching the "hands of Fatima"

[Phil in BC]

Wow Gil. Awesome pics. I must make it there someday.

[gilghana]

Thanks Phil - just be sure not to book your trip in Summer! It's a BIT hot. Christmas is absolutely perfect.

Well the steps continue to be camera shy, I left them in the w/shop for painting tomorrow. They are not Slee standard for example, and they are not for rock crawling, but they are good for stepping on , and stopping the sills getting shotblasted, and stopping the branch/stick damage that my vehicles usually get. I didn't have that much time this afternoon so only got the front fender flares done. At first I though the flares were really oversized, but in actual fact they are about right especially if I ever go for larger rubber.

[gilghana]

Lulo - this one's for you Amigo!
Last September our holiday was real mixed 4 wheeling! I am lucky to have access to my folk's place on the edge of the Sierra Terjeda which is a National Park in rural Andalusia. There are miles of tracks right up to almost the peaks of some pretty high mountains - it's great! The little 'zuk was a lot of fun and a real contrast. This is pretty close to the highest peak there. You are not really supposed to drive some of these trails, but to be honest so long as you are not tearing the place up en-mass the rangers let it go


Then we had two weeks in Namibia with this bloated, thirsty attention grabbing thing (we booked last minute so all the TLCs were gone... it was this or a 2wd Nissan D22 (which I have had my fill of). It was interesting and different. Chalk one up to experience, ticked that box and won't be getting into H3s in this life!
This was the skeleton coast living up to it's name with a recent wreck (scrapper getting towed broke it's towing line )

[gilghana]

I had big plans for the Sunday - finish rear fender flares and spray side steps. Well that didn't happen as we have a bunch of German student interns here and they are party animals - we ended up all back at our house after a late night fire and beer session at our secret jungle hilltop It was very late!
So Sunday my motivation just wasn't there for anything other than reading and lazing around. We finally finished off the steps yesterday and I got someone to prime them today. I will get better pictures up in daylight when I install them, but basically they are a bit of box section (which is actually too light really, but will have to do) with some bent steam pipe - really strong - welded on with checker plate as the step surface. For the mounts I have again used this steam pipe (we have loads of it from a boiler re-tube) bent on our pipe bender and then with plates and bolts to clamp to the chassis. As I mentioned they are not for rocks really, but I am pleased enough. For painting I ordered (6 months ago!!!) some Wurth products - stone chip paint and underbody schutz. The stone chip stuff is good - textured and tough. The Wurth stuff we buy in Germany and while pricey is good. So tonight I got a spray gun and got the wurth stuff sprayed on. Under the steps I will use the same again followed up with the wax based stuff to damp down some of the stone noise.

You cant see it here but the R/H step had to be very carefully trimmed and cut in various places to accomodate the side exit exhaust. Richard (welder) has taken time out to do my steps from his "proper" job which is currently to rebuild the massive rotor for one of the wood chippers from our wood fired power house... amazing stuff, steam turbines and 1947 boilers. The actual rotor of the turbines are about the size of a 'cruiser gearbox and make 1000hp. He is a fantastic welder - if he was born elsewhere he would be coining it welding pipelines or similar. One of the most humble, talented and helpful guys in our whole plant. You should have seen his expression when he got a month's salary for a day's worth of welding! If I had more time I would get him to give me evening lessons. He produced this from two terrible pictures printed off the 'net plus the troopy parked up for measurements.


As you can see from the holes the steps are mounted with the brackets to the checker plate - this is stronger than the box section as it is damn thick and obviously is welded to the (also) strong steam pipe.

And a close-up of the textured wurth stuff.

[Heem]

CRIPES! fantastic photos!!! great troopie - wow.

[gilghana]

Thanks Heem
well, today was a bit frustrating. Had a half day at work, so ideal time to make some progress - got my rear fender flares finished off and set off to the workshop to try to fit the slider steps,,, first problem the bolts were locked in a cupboard - okay, hammer and big s/driver sorted that. Next problem - it's NOT a one man job - and each of the four legs are different (did we mark them? Er no) so it turned into a dog show. Eventually I gave up - and I like to think that after fitting a Longranger sub tank on my own with a bit of 2x4 and a log, lying in the garden that I can hold my own with contortionists and such. So tomorrow I will get a helper. I couldn't get anyone in the w/shop as the 1st of March workers day is taken pretty seriously here.

Got home and tried to do some experimentation with the uber complex piggy back viair/arb compressor system. 1 tyre from 0-45 psi in four and a half minutes... then with a fairly loud bang the cheap air hose blew apart at the arb compressor! So back to the drawing board on that. At least figured out that my system is such that the viair can run the diff lock - as long as the arb solenoid is okay, so I am leaning towards just having the viair as built in redundancy. The loom was getting a little bit hot running two compressors, and I cannot really be arsed pulling it all apart to do heavier cable.

So out of frustration I decided to do a few compulsory ramp shots. I always said it was a tourer, so don't expect any flex records to be beaten

[gilghana]

So I found some better quality gates 1/4" hose in our store and went for compressor trial No2. I removed the valve cores from 4 tyres and dropped them right down to flat, then started everything up... 13 minutes later everything up to 35psi and no burst hoses. The two compressors give quite a flow! The loom was fairly warm, but nothing too alarming - max current draw was 45 amps so you can imagine it hammers the batteries, but the Sterling charger I measured putting back 42amps so manageable. I have to say the ARB certainly gets damn hot so Flipping the lid on the battery box is a must to avoid melting stuff... when running them for tyre inflation - diff locking is no problem. I deliberately left hoses long so that they can be trimmed if they fail due to heat - I will also check our local hyd hose guy if he has something stronger, but if not it should be okay. When running the two compressors with no attachments on the receiver it can cycle the diff lock many times with no compressor start up. I will be fitting my little water trap though as just with these few minutes playing around I can see water in the lines (I can imagine why ARBs are problematic in very cold conditions).

So final list is looking like:
- clean and paint gas struts in RTT
- Fit solar panel, wire it in and regulator
- Fit two large truck battery cut out switches at main battery and rear battery box
- Fit steps
- Underbody/sub and water tank painting/sealing
- sorting (improving) breather on sub tank
- Go crazy with millions of big cable ties underneath to tidy a "few" things up.
- test fit it in a container

[gilghana]

Finally got the slider step type things fitted up last night - very happy with the fit and the finish. They are very strong - the box section ain't but will be enough to protect the sills, while the steam pipe and chequer plate sections are very strong!







Will get some better daylight pictures when the prep is all done - booked a container today, with an ETD of 21st May, booked flights to meet the car a month later... God I hope it all goes okay with no shipment delays as one of the highlights (which we have to do... it is booked up, and a serious shipping delay would be a disaster) is this:



For those interested more details of this route:
Lderitz To Walvis Bay Adventure Expedition - 6 Days & 5 Nights - New African Frontiers

[gilghana]

Today we started the prep for underbody sealing. First I sprayed several gallons of degreaser over everything - great fun... stinging eyes, burning skin etc. Then we got out the "bakkie sukkie" (South African firefighting unit that fits in a p/up. We use them in our plantation as well as for field washing vehicles and plant. Great things).



Then we power washed like hell for a good hour and a half. We dropped down the second fuel tank to get decent access. The water tank we will leave in situ as it is a serious pain to get down..



So tomorrow will be an afternoon of spraying shutz stuff onto everything. I left the workshop with ringing ears after blasting water out of nooks and crannies with air.. feel like after a nightclub. Helpers Richard and Coby are equally wet and deaf! I left Richard fabricating a bracket for the mini air tank - he was doing something with an anvil and a forge so should be interesting.

[gilghana]

Well I spent the entire day (took the morning off work) masking, spraying etc. Not a job that I would want to repeat in a hurry...

First longranger tank - the Wurth stonechip stuff looks patchy in the sunlight, but it's not really. Think it is just different spraying angles giving different textures. The tank had two coats of stone chip plus one wax.



Then my small air tank and bracket - used a nearby vehicle as a hanger. The blue HZJ75 was my first ever TLC. It's now parked up - it runs, but is a bit surplus at the moment as things are a bit quiet. 13 years old and probably over half a million kms, of which asphalt was the 400kms from Accra when we bought it. Used and abused like you would not believe. Couple of engine overhauls and a blown rear diff is the only real work that has ever been done to it. I have a lot to thank that old truck for (which is also kind of why we still keep it... )





I used Wurth Stone chip protection in wheel arches, steps, tank and air tank. For chassis, axles and as much of the body as I could get to I used wax based schutz. I also have a good few rattle cans of cavity wax to inject in doors. sills, and various other places. About 5 litres of stonechip and 4 of schutz was used in total.

[cicak]

LOve the pics very cool. Pity about the LR's living up to reputations.

[ThePookieBear]

Wow... absolutely gorgeous pictures!! And a nice cruiser of course. I've read lots of stuff about phenomenal climbing in the Hands of Fatima. For some reason that name sounds somewhat ominous. I've enjoyed following this thread. Keep up the good work sir. (On the cruiser and in real life. )

[gilghana]

Cicak and Pookie - many thanks, much needed encouragement as things are getting hectic. Shipping sometime next week but MSC and schedules are "flexible" so I could get a call the vessel is early, and there is still a load to do on my list. Underbody stuff is finished, solar panel is mounted, this evening I was drilling the IEF rear bumper in order to make locks - padlocking bumper means rear doors can't be opened means drawers are pretty secure... 3 hours to get through the damn thing!!! That steel is hard. My little Makita was smoking. Tomorrow night I will get out a magnetic drill press.

Carnet (for customs in Southern Africa) is sorted basically - which I was sweating about a bit... I had hoped for a final shakedown trip, as we have friends coming out (the folks rebuilding the old BJ troopy) but that is not going to happen due to shipping schedule. Still got to get permission to export it (Ghana customs/DVLA bull***t). Excuse the lack of photos as everything is being done in the dark now - hopefully this weekend will see most done and snapped. The 6-6 job is really getting in the way now. If my boss wasn't around I reckon I would just say to hell with it and stay on it all day

[Coyote808]

Looking great gil, and everybody who owns and loves their cruisers like we all do has their stories about them and why they love them.

[gilghana]

Cheers Colyn!

So here's some progress from the last couple of evenings. Firstly here is the finished air tank mounting:



Like I said the IEF bumper was HARD - actually unbelievably so. We got serious on Thursday night, tired of small drills and tired of doing everything with a little CFL camping light, so we broke out the big guns A massive mercury lamp to make everything like daylight (why the hell didn't I remember this thing was in the factory earlier?) and a big magnetic drill press which made the going a whole lot easier:



It was still pretty fiddly as we couldn't really get a 100% solid seating for the magnetic base, so it took Cobby holding and me drilling... A bit like the safe cracking scenes in numerous movies only no safety goggles and no gold - our only goal was a hole!



Finished!



And the final result after welding the nuts so there is little chance (unless someone is really tooled up) of opening the back. Obviously this is not the sort of thing where I would lock it constantly - only if leaving the vehicle for a longer time somewhere a bit sketchy.





As I said, the solar panel is mounted:



This afternoon I stripped down the factory snorkel for two reasons:
- to run the wires down it for the solar panel (they then come out a hole in the wing, before the airfilter housing)
- To silicone all the joints as the factory snorkel is not waterproof. With my track record on this it is better safe than sorry.



I learned the vessel is next Sunday so It's not as hectic as it might have been.

[gilghana]

This afternoon was a bit of wiring to do. I got the solar panel wiring and regulator wired in. This just feeds the rear batteries, in the event I wanted to charge the cranker (crisis time) it would be easy enough to undo two wires or swap batteries.

I say it again, the cargo barrier is so damn useful for mounting stuff to. I also mounted a fire extinguisher on there - securely bolted with a quick fist picked up on last leave.



I wasn't happy with the heavy cables coming up through the floor into the rear batt box, so I also got a hole saw and fitted a BIG cable gland from an industrial panel. I was concerned about cables chaffing with big currents.

Again for safety purposes I also fitted a big battery disconnect switch to the cranking battery, which is also feeding the rear batteries. This might also have a use as a primitive anti-theft device. Obviously it wouldn't take long to bypass, but it might make someone think twice.



We are getting there.

[lulo]

[gilghana]

Well, the last couple of days have been hectic - I got sick on Monday/Tuesday and that put a serious blip in the prep... however we are there!
Spare filters, belts, hoses, fluids, tools and loads of camping stuff is stowed aboard. The contents of the kitchen drawer is laid out ready for tomorrow. Last minute prep is done and container test fit (tent will have to come off ) done. Coolant changed (it was a dodgy mixture...). Tested everything - but unfortunately the real shake down test couldn't happen.

So tomorrow we take the car down to Takoradi and stuff it in... Gulp! My brain is fried - after 6 months of planning it's so last minute now I am wondering what 'vital' thing is forgotten... Oh well I will have 30 days (hopefully!) to think about it!

So the last Ghana pictures will be container loading after the w/e, but in the meantime here is our last minute fabrication. The BBQ grid I am really pleased with Okay the shower curtain will be put on a sliding rod that goes into a roof bar. Otherwise here are our last prep pictures. It has been a blast, and iH8MUD has made the whole thing even more pleasureable. Thanks for all the interest/appreciation and encouragement. The thread will continue in a few days, then a bit of a break and then we will resume from an internet cafe somewhere in Southern Africa!

[cicak]

Dude have a great trip and drive safe haha as one can in Africa

Your prep reminds me of having my vehicle prepared for me by mates in OZ when I was working in HK and coming back and litterally packing it and driving off on holiday.

anyway safe trip to you all and if you ever head over this way im going to take you to the jungle also and a few beers.


love the BBQ location does it drop down for instant use?

[Phil in BC]

Have a good trip Gill. Tale loads of pictures.

[JuanJ]

Hello Gil,

Have a good trip. And keep us posted.






JuanJ

[soenke]

My brain is fried - after 6 months of planning it's so last minute now I am wondering what 'vital' thing is forgotten...

don´t worry, Namibia and RSA will be comfortable travelling with no real problems of supplies...
things will come together being on the road

wish you a good time

maybe you manage to visit one of our favorite areas, south of Caprivi and Linyanti Swamp (outside the hunting season)

[gilghana]

Many thanks guys - appreciated! I will definately get some pics, and will see your area Soenke! The BBQ grid just pulls off the tyre ready for action... the 4 legs are a nice tight fit, and I welded a nut on each leg to bungee it behind the tyre.

So here's the last Ghana pics. As I speak it is hopefully being put on a boat... Now I know why Ghana has a bit of a problem as a drugs transit hub We loaded the car, messed around lashing down and securing the tent and then sealed the container ourselves - no one, not one security/customs check... I dunno what temp was inside the container, but crawling around with container belts was HOT. Believe it or not I had to dismantle the rear tyres and mounting hubs on the carrier to get the tent in behind the truck.









Our friends who are restoring the BJ45 were a bit peeved as they saw so many touring mods that they want to do... And after a quick blast in the troopy he is not going to be happy until the 3B is at least given a turbo. I actually don't know if Martin follows MUD (he and Marina I have lent the HZJ105 to get 5 days touring the National Parks of Ghana in) but if he does...

After the container stuffing we left to our favourite beach spot for a couple of days of this:


Thanks for stopping by!
Gil

[gilghana]

So an update on what is happening:

well we spent a few weeks in Andalusia putting a Suzuki Jimny hire car through it's paces. The tracks there are great, and one memorable one was an very unknown old mule track up and over and down a 5,300 ft pass. Fantastic. The Jimny is actually perfect for that area - in fact anything larger than say a BJ/HZJ 73 I would not have wanted to be in at some points (when I went off on my own and found some pretty hairy tracks, some of which petered out to impassable perched on the edge of mountains - a wheel placed wrongly would actually mean you will roll about 1000ft. A few butterflies were in my stomach I must admit!). But in general great fun.






So, back to the trip...
Well in Spain my 'net access was zero, so got to Germany last Sunday evening and started chasing down shippers etc. Here I got a bit of a shock - the car went from Ghana - Las Palmas - Capetown without a hitch, and arrived on the 16th in CPT. However it appeared to miss an MSC vessel the following day and now MSC say the next vessel is the 17th of July. "Fantastic" So our flights (which can't be changed) are the 5th and a tour from Luderitz to Walvis Bay (6 days of super remote dune driving!) on the 12th would be screwed.

So "Plan B" was to arrange for the vehicle to be discharged and cleared in Capetown - this would have meant we would fly Munich - Windhoek - Capetown, pick up the car and bomb up to Namibia to (hopefully ) meet our fellow tour members in Luderitz... Well, with two trans-shipment points I always knew it was a bit risky, but to be honest when it reached CPT so well it looked like things were on course!

However, we have been pestering MSC who are now trying like hell (their CPT manager seems like a good bloke) to get it on a feeder vessel (Ocean Africa) that would ETA Walvis bay on the 4th or so... which would be doable. The vessel was originally fully booked, but in our favour my (ex) company does a lot of biz with MSC so they are trying pretty hard... and say they can find space due to a cancelation. All going well the container should load tomorrow and we join it next week in Walvis Bay (fingers triple crossed).

[gilghana]

Yessss !!!!!

Just got an email from MSC Capetown that the container is on their vessel "Frontier" busy steaming away from Cape Town. We fly out Sunday.

Here she is:

[lulo]

Originally Posted by gilghana

Yessss !!!!!

Just got an email from MSC Capetown that the container is on their vessel "Frontier" busy steaming away from Cape Town. We fly out Sunday.

Here she is:

Beware of pirates!!!

[fexlboi]

Great post gilghana! Took a while to read everything, but it was worth it for sure
Have you done any more mods since? How was your guided trip?