Post Delivery Work Continues
we'll, i've stayed quiet the whole build, biding my time and patiently waiting until this vehicle finally arrived.
i've been lurking on mud since i joined and have done alot of reading and learning over the past couple of years.
a bit pf pre-history:
i've been a fan of the LC family since i first laid eyes on one in my teens. wasn't until my early mid-20's until i managed to have my 1st one. bought a '78FJ40 for $2700.00 in the late 80's. loved it. the only mods it came with were the warn winch, a 3" lift, new shocks, and some after market wheels. i did some cosmetic work and installed a nice (for its day

) stereo tape deck. drove it all over the place for about a year

, when the reality of the gas mileage, too many speeding tickets (on my motorcycles) made insuring it on a poor student budget no longer tenable. so off she went to a happy owner for $2900.00...
....after grad school, building a career, etc, some 22 years later i am now the owner of this custom build.
2 years was a loooong time to wait, and i am not a patient guy, but now its sits in my warehouse and i am pretty happy.
few things rarely goes according to plan, and 18 months over the original discussed delivery date, gobs of money over budget, this "1HZJ40" was born.
wayne and i emailed countless msgs over the 2 years, tweaking, re-tweaking, adding, removing, adding some more

of which the members of mud sat witness to during the entire process.
the end goal as explained by wayne was for a "too hell and back-expedition" type rig. i am not a rock crawler, but wanted a very capable and reliable truck to wheel just about anywhere in this hemisphere. i find myself in central and south america on semi-frequently working on wildlife conservation projects and thought it would be a cool trip one day to drive from CA down to tierra del fuego and back again; stopping by and visiting friends and associates along the way. other than that, this rig is intended at a daily driver and weekend getaway mobile to the many trails that wait for me in the sierra.
so, while i really didn't have any intention of following up on this project on mud, there was enough post delivery work details, i felt that some of you might enjoy the continuation of a work in progress.
my recent background somewhat relevant to the continuing work on this rig; i am an industrial designer by occupation. designing any number of projects, often mind numbing attention to detail, total project management from A to Z is my daily grind. i am not a mechanic by trade, but have been working on, restoring and tinkering on vintage BMW motorcycles and vintage Vespas for the past 23 years, so i have a familiarity with tools and the basic physics of combustion engine transportation.
1st off, i would like to say that wayne did a very good job engineering the drive train, suspension, motor, framework, etc. he really shone here and on our appointed test day, which happened to be one of the worst rain storms in years in NorCal, we took her out.
after being on mostly 2 wheeled machines the last 20 years, wayne really took his time and was a patient and very knowledgeable instructor.
we covered alot of varied terrain and obstacles. it was raining nearly sideways alot of the time and i kept both cab windows open the entire day to view the ground and speak to the spotter (wayne) while on the trail.
jumped out during a break from the down pour and snapped some pics.
taking a few minutes during a break from the rain. wayne and a buddy of mine looking over his jeep. my rig is uphill a few yards away.
i learned alot from wayne that day.

he is a good instructor. i also got to watch him drive. man, can that canuck wheel.

he was doing stuff on the muddy slopes which i certainly was not ready for that on my first day out in the new rig.
all in all from that one day, i discovered that this build was one capable machine. however, i also realized that there was still much to be done.
wayne is not really a "finish man". his expertize are in the work up and realization of a well engineered, working LC. this rig and some of my staff will be exhibiting at the upcoming overland journal expo in april so if you're attending pls stop by and say hello.
also, i'd like to give a shout out to mud member shane for his inout and bits along the way. he has been helping me with some odds and ends, plus advice as some of this LC mechanics is new territory.
the next bit of content in subsequent posts will be the work i am doing on this rig to get to to where i want to be. follow along if you would like, as this has been a great thread so far thanks to wayne's diligence and photo essays.
i welcome advice and tips from members on how to tackle some of this stuff as i encounter them.
thanks guys...more to come...