Fender Flares for FJ40

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You and me both amigo :)
 
All so true... it sounds like you've got a few years on me, but I would've fell over if I had to pay 1/2 of what i'm now paying for groceries... I was thinking about that the other day, a few things at the grocery store were $100+, and a part full bag of things at the "dollar" store was more than $50.

In my trade, I am making medical devices. I have to work with: Leather, Fabric, Fiberglass, Carbon fiber, Stainless steel, Aluminum, plastics, electronics and many other materials. A Plumber, Electrician, or carpenter make twice my hourly wage... sometimes you've got to follow your passions, and make do.

I'd be interested in a kit if it was affordable... being 3/16, I could even weld it with my stick welder :D I may end up building front and rear flares out of tube... I've got a mess of 1.5" I salvaged from a house clean-out... Just need to figure out a bender (or have the exhaust shop bend it up).
 
I have some Bushwacker ones, not as nice as those though..................
 
lcwizard said:
thanks, I've always said that any good fabricator can build a 5000.00 bumper. It's just time and materials. the trick is trying to build the best bumper for an affordable price. The general public seems to have less and less disposable income making it more and more difficult to keep parts in the offering. We once had over 100 part numbers, 80 % of them for 40's. Now it's a handful . I look at my lifestyle at 20 years old in 1979
and there's no way for me to match what I could do with that 20,000.00 in earnings then without making over 80,000 today. My brand new 40 cost 6200.00 in 78, a third of a years gross. A good paint job on a 40 costs nearly that today. A nice home in Phoenix was 1 1/2 years gross and 33 x 12.50 Armstrong Maxitracs would go on sale for 79.00 and I could fill my tank for less than 10.00. Most companies could still afford to give full medical and most had paid retirement of some sort.
We didn't have 100 or 200 a month phone bills. AT&T and Ma Bell combined were about 15.00 a month. TV was free and because there was only a few channels we were more productive. Bonanza and The Rifleman were cool, the Kardashians and Dancing with the Stars just leave me suicidal
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Armstrong Maxitracs bring back good memories!
 
I totally get it - the amount of time and tooling I spend to make a few small products is barely a break-even deal here . It's a spare time hobby and if I tried to take it any further it would be a waste of time and money - people don't have that disposable income and neither do I .

Still gotta work a regular job to pay the bills - not much left in our modern ignore it and it'll go away mentality . I work mostly on Heavy Highway - most will understand what I'm talking about letting infrastructure go into ruin . It's already caught up to us in a bad way , most folks would crap when they see the real condition of most Interstate bridges and such - we used to have to go to great lengths to tear them down for a rebuild/upgrade , now just a few key parts removed and they practically drop by themselves . I've seen 6 around here in the last few years that I have no idea how they stayed up , same opinion came from the Engineers as well . This cycle of lost income has hurt us as a family but more importantly , a Nation ...

I really don't understand how you guys can operate at your price points given what you are selling , cost of materials and supplies - not to mention utilities and building costs in today's market . There is so little disposable income available from enthusiasts I'm seeing a really deep decline out on the trails, parks and in general "what's going down the road". Our state is in worst shape than most but the whole country overall is in the same boat - toys come last and food comes first . I really do applaud what you guys are offering and your designs - just don't have a clue how you can pull it off...

Sarge
 
...it's actually pretty simple Sarge. It's called dual citizenship. In addition to your home state, you just frequent the state of denial!

I've told people for the last year I have a stack of shackles, Ubolt skidplates and trailer hitches that are my bellweathers for not making any more exhaust headers until things improve.

And thirty years later, I still smile the same ironic smile at the gap between hobbyist math and sole proprietor math.
 
Well said , Mark . The gap in those maths is what I don't get - these guys are not running a small shop by any means nor is it a one-man rodeo...that's what I find odd . Don't get me wrong please - my point is that I want vendors like this to survive , although in the modern times , I'm not sure how that's possible . I quit doing carbs for that reason - the math between being a sole proprietor and hobbyist was getting blurred too far , spending 50+hrs a week plus working construction . Makes Sarge a grumpy sob to deal with - wife brought that to light pretty quick . In the end , despite my best efforts - the line between cost/profit was long gone due to market changes and it had my labor time down to below the "free" line , it was time to stop . I still do a lot of tech calls for a few of the authorized vendors and had to tell 4 others to stop handing out my phone number , still got one trying to do that to this day ....his customers get an earful .

Sarge
 
Weber Sarge said:
I quit doing carbs for that reason - the math between being a sole proprietor and hobbyist was getting blurred too far , spending 50+hrs a week plus working construction . Makes Sarge a grumpy sob to deal with - wife brought that to light pretty quick .

Sarge
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This is where I sit right now. I am president of a small company that does software and hardware development for the asphalt industry. That is my 40-60 hour a week day job. I then come home every evening (after a one hour commute) and build wiring harnesses until 9:00PM. I eat, then go to bed. Saturdays and Sundays find me in the basement for 12-14 hours. In between i have to do all the stuff that living on 2 1/2 acres in the country involves. If I actually paid myself for the hours of building harnesses, not to mention the 1000's of hours research that have gone into figuring out how to build harnesses that are affordable, they would not be affordable! My wife has told me that enough is enough! You need to cut back on the Cruiser stuff and actually finish your Cruiser... It truly is a labor of love...
 
You guys are suckers :D
 
The daydream of leaving is just the delusion that helps you sleep better at night. The truth as @bikersmurf alluded to about passion is that part of you would continue doing it anyways for the love of doing it. Building and fixing things validates our self esteem.
 
Yes, however I have learned from you guys that have been addicted longer than I, that taking a break every now and then is not a cardinal sin, just a small venial sin... :D
 
lcwizard said:
In any given large city you can find a thousand lawyers that make 100-300 dollars an hour but finding 50 good fabricators in the same size population is nearly impossible.
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Interesting - I love fab work, spent nearly 20 years doing sheet metal work as a welder, fabricator, lay-out guy, brake operator, and installer. I love doing fab work, but I utterly hate the people who own those businesses.... which explains why I do fab as a hobby and white collar work during the day.
 
lcwizard, as an automotive business owner myself for 25 years, I must say all of you guys have a keen grasp on the love for Landcruisers and the endless time, money, headaches, loss of sleep, loss of time and reality, and the pleasure and some times get away from it all calmness you get from them. I am also a veteran of the time era of being your father's TV remote, moving the rabbit ears, playing outside, didn't know what computers were but had a blast growing up. I just wanted to say thanks to all in this thread for the laughs and smile on my face reading it, knowing that there are crazy people out there just like me, LOL. Cheers, Geoff.
 
@Coolerman , I hope you're not the poor guy involved with some of the plant issues my brother in law's employer has been dealing with and their crashing computer/software systems - he's hunting for someone to kill over their problems and they are already far behind on asphalt production here .

I do take a break - the summer work season usually involves driving at least 1hr each way , plus pretty much working every bit of usable daylight and sometimes even past that . Weekends are mowing/servicing the truck and trying to sleep a bit . I had a lot of off time last year between jobs , breakdowns and other crap so for once I spent some time actually fishing - sort of a retirement feeler ....

If someone wanted to buy into what I do here , I'd ask first for a psychiatric evaluation - they'd have to be certifiably nutz...

Sarge
 
Weber Sarge said:
@Coolerman , I hope you're not the poor guy involved with some of the plant issues my brother in law's employer has been dealing with and their crashing computer/software systems - he's hunting for someone to kill over their problems and they are already far behind on asphalt production here .

I do take a break - the summer work season usually involves driving at least 1hr each way , plus pretty much working every bit of usable daylight and sometimes even past that . Weekends are mowing/servicing the truck and trying to sleep a bit . I had a lot of off time last year between jobs , breakdowns and other crap so for once I spent some time actually fishing - sort of a retirement feeler ....

If someone wanted to buy into what I do here , I'd ask first for a psychiatric evaluation - they'd have to be certifiably nutz...

Sarge
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I do have three systems in Illinois, but none have reported any problems. :D Our tech service is second to none so if it was one of ours I would know it!

Little OT:Our software is on the sales side of the asphalt plant. Basically the asphalt plant machinery makes the asphalt (these plants are usually controlled by multiple PLCs) and puts the asphalt up into silos that can hold up to 200 tons. These silos are built over top of platform scales. A truck pulls onto the scale and at that point our software is in control. The operator enters in the truck number, hauler code, job, and job product, and our software then controls the silo gate and reads the scale to load the truck with the 400 plus degree asphalt. We also track how much asphalt is put into each silo (our PLC talks to their PLC to get this information) and since we know how much is taken out we can track inventory in each silo. Once the load is completed we update the local database, print the ticket, then replicate the data to corporate for the bean counters. My job is the hardware design and installation, PLC programming, and most of the PC software testing.

So tell your BIL, if it is the loadout computer that is crashing, my company would be happy to sell them one that works! :grinpimp: www.globalsoftware-inc.com !
 
onemanarmy said:
I appreciate the amount of work that goes into those metal flares, but flares on any 40 ruin the classic lines and detract from the value. Odd that people SPEND money to make their valuable vehicle look less attractive and make detract from the value.
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If you're never going to sell it, it doesn't matter what it's worth. If you're not going to use it, as it was meant to be used, then you shouldn't have bought it.
 
Weber Sarge said:
Back on subject , wonder if anyone has considered a replacement quarter panel that's a bit flared out to make it look better ?
Sarge
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Yes , a couple designs of both 10 gauge and 3/16. the latter would have been rock protection. Almost viable 15 years ago.
Today all it would take is someone willing to invest a large sum of money with a promise of zero returns. Know of any
impressionable young minds about to inherit huge amounts of money that we can get addicted to some terrible drug with promises of easing the pain in exchange for access to their trust fund?
 
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