Builds Going to meet my new 80 (1 Viewer)

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I’ve got to catch up on this thread...

I went on my annual summer trip in August. Logged over 6000 trouble free miles in about 30 days or so. Mostly living out of the cruiser. It was quite comfortable and I’m happy with my setup so far.

The trip started in Colorado at the Solid Axle Summit where I almost rolled the truck going up Engineer...

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Leaving Colorado, I traveled up to Montana to help my dad move down to Texas. After that, I traveled through Yellowstone NP from the north entrance and exited the western entrance into Idaho. Since I’ve been to Yellowstone several times, I didn’t stop to take in the sights. My goal was to make it to Craters of the Moon NM. This is a cool park where they trained Apollo 11 astronauts on volcanic geology. At the time, it was assumed that most craters in the actual moon were volcanic in nature. That turned out not to be true, but they were well trained just in case. This area of Idaho really did have a moonscape look and feel to it.

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I camped on some BLM land somewhere in Idaho and got up early to make it to my next stop, Crater Lake NP in Oregon. Apparently, Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the US at around 2000 feet deep. The lake was formed as the snowmelt drains into the core of an ancient volcano. With no natural outlet for the water to drain out to, the lake level just continued to rise. I’m. Not sure what keeps the water at its current level now, but it sure is beautiful. Here’s a no filter photo. The water is indeed that blue!

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From Crater Lake, I travelled south into California. My next destination Would be Yosemite NP.

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From Yosemite and continued South into Sequoia NP to the land of giant 2000 year old trees!

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The journey will continue on my next post...
 
You figured it out right. Working to live. Good on ya @CaptClose. Envious.
 
What sleeping mat is that?...foam and air?...looks comfy ;)
 
After Sequoia NP, I made my way to Joshua Tree NP. This isn’t the most hospitable park in the dead of August, so it was more of a drive through with a quick stop for a picnic lunch.

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From Joshua Tree, I continued south to spend a few days with the 60 Guru @OSS

I wanted to avoid the highways and interstates, so I found some cool trails around the Salton Sea in Southern California. I wasn’t quite sure what if gotten myself into...

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I was not disappointed. This was a great trail. Not as difficult as the trail signaled me to believe. There were few obstacles, but nothing life threatening haha...

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Eventually I made my way to pavement, but I think I had to take a couple of “less than lawful” turns to get there. Eventually, I made it to my destination where @OSS hooked me up with hospitality that rivals anything from the Deep South. I can’t thank him enough for letting me crash at his place for a few days. That’s a long time to put up with me 🤣

OSS lives on the doorstep of some of the greatest desert wheeling in the US. He’d scouted out and also procured several area trail maps for me, so I was well equipped for a few days of exploring. I have to be honest, this was probably my favorite part of my entire trip. There were some places that looked like a Martian landscape. I really felt like I was on another planet....

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More to come....
 
After wheeling, I’d go back to OSS’ place and hangout and BS with him as long as he could stand me. From his back yard (where I camped) the view out to the desert is endless until the surrounding mountains. It sure is a beautiful place for contemplation. Check out the sunrise from his place...

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Here’s one with my cruiser out of the way...

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He also let me play on his bada$$ scooter. What a cool method for desert travel. This ain’t your Grandpa’s scooter either, this thing hauls ass across any landscape.

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I had so much fun riding this thing on and off road... if I didn’t spend all my money on cruisers, I’d definitely get one. Here’s OSS leading me home...

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Thanks again for everything Fred. It was great catching up with you. Looking forward to coming out again soon.
 
I am always at awe at the knowledge @OSS shares with the Mud crowd. I somehow picture him as a Obi one Kanoby when it comes to cruisers. The desert and time for contemplation confirms it. He probably sensed you had low mediclurin though since he BS’d with you. 😂😂😂
 
After leaving SoCal, I was finally heading back towards home, but Along the way, I found some killer dunes called Imperial Sand Dunes, or Glamis Sand Dunes (I’m not sure which). It was like a scene from Tatooine in Star Wars.

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I decided to go in to try and get a cool picture. Probably not my smartest idea. It was about 110° outside which kept any smart human beings as far away as possible, but I’m not that smart.... I immediately got stuck in the sand.

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I guess I should have aired down before driving in, but I figured that would be too much effort. There was nobody around and nothing to hook a winch line to. Luckily I had some ARB recovery boards on me. That got me up and out pretty quickly.

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Here’s the photo I was going for...

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After airing back up... I got back on the road to Lake Havasu. I had intended to meet up with the PO of my Land Cruiser to show her the transformation, but like most women, she never returned my texts or calls 😕

Well... Lake Havasu turned out to be hotter than any other place I’ve been in the past several days, so after a one night stay, I decided to head to Northern Arizona to seek out some higher elevation and cooler temps.

Williams, AZ turned out to be a perfect place to stay and play a while. Williams is a gateway city to the Grand Canyon’s south rim and is located on the old Route 66. They have a cool main street that looks right out of the 1950’s

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I spent the next three days wheeling all around the Kaibob National Forest. There are so many cool trails to explore and get lost on, that I really could have spent several more days out there...

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I found some trouble on the trail here...

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You’re gonna pick up some pinstripes on these trails because they are very woodsy. I picked up a nice one on my passenger side, as well as a few stow aways in my rack...

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The last day, I met a nice couple and invited them out to run some trails with me. They tried to keep up with me in their Can Am

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After spending a few days south of the rim, I made my way to Phoenix to spend a weekend with my best friend from high school. One of the few hotel stays on this trip. It was great to get back to a few modern amenities.
 
Well... somewhere along the road, @SipLife found a FJ45 project that I just had to get my hands on, so I saddled up my cruiser and got ready to drive up to Northern New Mexico to pick it up.

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I was running out of daylight, so I got back on the road to try and find a place to camp for the night. Yep found a pretty nice area up north that I think may have been reservation land, so a big shout out to whatever tribe hosted me that night.

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Found a nice little piece of ground off the road a ways that offered enough privacy not to be noticed

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Recovery boards were used only to level out the truck a bit. Nothing worse than sleeping on a slight slope 🤣

The next morning, I drove off to meet Dennis And buy his 45 project off him.

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Look for another thread on this build soon. The plan is to build a 1965 FZJ45

After leaving New Mexico, I made a beeline directly to @POTATO LAUNCHER ’s barn for a night at Casey’s B&B

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I love Casey’s barn. Eye candy everywhere you look. If you’re ever in the area, go stop by and say hi. Casey and his brother Tim are a couple of great guys. Here’s a couple of views from inside the barn...

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Here’s a closer look at the spring green build he just finished.

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And another...

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Under the hood...

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Dash...

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This would be my last night on the road. I left early in the AM and arrive back home later that night after 30+ days on the road. My cruiser never failed me once...
 
What sleeping mat is that?...foam and air?...looks comfy ;)

That’s the Exped Megamat. Not a cheap option, but well worth the money if your going to spend 30 nights sleeping in your truck. It’s a perfect fit and is very comfortable. It feels like a real mattress and stays warm, unlike conventional air mattresses you might by at Walmart. Here is a link:

Exped USA

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Back to build/tech...

I finally got my rear air tank and shelf system installed from Wits End. This thing is awesome!

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The air source is the twin ARB compressor mounted into Joey’s quarter panel mount. It’s a pretty sweet setup. Thanks @NLXTACY for all your support to us 80’s guys. Your gear makes these trucks so much more fun to own and drive!
 
I’m a little behind on this thread....

Earlier this month, I co-piloted a pretty epic road trip with Casey (@potatolauncher). I could probably start an entire thread to chronically that trip, but I won’t.

Since the quarantine has significantly loosened my work schedule, I decided to spend an extra week at Casey’s place, and take advantage of his awesome skills, and badass cruiser barn, to get some maintenance items done.

I’ve been neglecting a few big projects, and several little ones, and this was the perfect opportunity to check them off my list....

First up was the knuckles. I’ve had the kit in my truck for months, but I’ve been procrastinating because after my spare vehicle was totaled back in December, I couldn’t really have my cruiser down for a weekend. I suppose I could have just done one side at a time, but I like to clean up everything and really refurbish everything as I go, and this just takes extra time. Luckily, Casey has the same mindset as me.

Everything went fine with the knuckle job. No real hiccups with this job, other than a caliper that looked like it was ready to crater. We ended up replacing all the calipers (since we were in there).

Actually, because bleeding the brakes turned out to be such a bitch with this truck, we started throwing parts at the brake system until the brakes felt right. We wound up replacing everything but the brake booster. So, new calipers, rotors, and pads all around, and a new brake master cylinder.

We probably went further than we needed to, but why not? The brakes still are not perfect, but I’ll keep bleeding I guess. Anyone else have this issue with bleeding this system?

Anyone know if the LSPV can be deleted, while still maintaining the ABS system? That might be a good option.

Anyway... here are a few pictures of the knuckle job....

Here’s a few pics.

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Next up, the swapping the cylinder head..

I acquired a rebuilt cylinder head several months ago from another Mud member. It just worked out to be cheaper and more convenient to have a ready to swap head available and ready to go.

This turned into a much bigger job than I thought it would be. There’s quite a bit of disassembly required to get to the block, when the motor is still in the truck.

Again. Casey and I took the time to clean up as much as possible. Polishing every bit and bolt, replacing vacuum hoses and other bits and pieces along the way, including the dreaded PHH... which is much easier to access with the head off the block 🤣

We actually made steady progress on this job and didn’t have too many “Oh $h!t” moments with this job.

Two issues that were not expected was that there was a broke off sensor still jammed into my rebuilt head ( thanks @Kolokythi ) and a broken gear on the intake camshaft (thanks again @Kolokythi)

Luckily, we had access to @zackster’s machine shop with a tool available for any occasion, and Casey was able to make quick work of extracting that sensor from the head.

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While Casey was pulling the sensor out, I borrowed Zack’s glass blaster and blasted my headers clean. This was much more fun and satisfying than I thought it would be. I’ll definitely be leaving a positive Yelp review for Zack’s shop in Amarillo. Thanks again Zack! Green’s Machines, in case you’re wondering 👍🏼

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Reminiscing back to his race days, Casey decided to paint the valve cover. Not only does this look super cool, I’m quite positive that it added 3-5HP to the truck. Much cheaper solution than a turbo 😉

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There were still many swear words, but most everything in the reassembly process came together without any unplanned drama. Whenever something went south, Casey always had a trick to solve the issue. I learned all kinds of secrets of the trade from him that week. It was hard work, but so much fun.
 
Here’s the finished project...

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Notice that ugly frayed throttle cable? We found a solution for that.

We went to an electric supply company and got a 4 foot piece of heat shrink tubing and slipped it over the cable. A few minutes later, it looked new again.

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The engine bay looked so pretty, we just drove it around a few days without the hood...

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🤣
 

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