I have spent many pleasant, informative and inspiring hours reading about the various builds on this forum.
I live on a game farm a few kilometres from the Kruger National Park in South Africa and in February I bought a HJ45 sight unseen over the internet from a person in Johannesburg. Advertised as being in good condition and had just passed a roadworthy test... so little could be wrong with it. And all I wanted to do was to take the top off it and turn it into an open game viewing vehicle. I bought it - just like that. Mistake.
To cut a long story short, it was not nearly what it was made out to be. The transfer case only just made the 600km trip home, the engine which "just smokes a bit on start up", spewed a long blue cloud of smoke and ate up 10 litres of oil on the trip. Brakes were all but non existent (later found the right rear did not even have any brake parts in it) which made for some interesting moments especially coming down the mountain passes as the transfer box only engaged when under load and "disconnected" as soon as I took my foot off the juice. (It works fine in low range.) The lights did not work, the windscreen wipers did not work. I had bought a lemon, and the PO had obviously bought a roadworthy certificate!!!
I parked it in the car port and "walked around" it for a couple of months trying to decide what to do. Slowly but surely it grew on me. Sitting there it exuded Old, Ugly, Mean, Worn-out-by-a-hard-life but still Tough-as-hell. The epitome of an old lone Cape Buffalo, colloquially called "Dagha Boys" by hunters, (Dagha = Swahili for mud.) for their habit of lying in the mud at watering holes.
I decided the old guy needed a second chance and stripped it down. I started searching the internet for parts, which is how I came across ih8mud. I started reading the build threads, and given that almost everything on this beast is shot and has to be fixed or replaced, I was sufficiently inspired to decide on a complete rebuild, rather than just a fix-up.
The Dagha Boy as bought.
The last few months have been a steep learning curve, not so much about the vehicle, but how difficult it is to do something like this in the bush. The nearest town of any note is more than two hours away. I can't even get paint supplies in our local village.
I will persevere and keep this thread going for those who may be interested in the resurrection of the Dagha Boy in African style.
Once again many thanks to those incredible guys on ih8mud who have inspired me to tackle this one.
I live on a game farm a few kilometres from the Kruger National Park in South Africa and in February I bought a HJ45 sight unseen over the internet from a person in Johannesburg. Advertised as being in good condition and had just passed a roadworthy test... so little could be wrong with it. And all I wanted to do was to take the top off it and turn it into an open game viewing vehicle. I bought it - just like that. Mistake.
To cut a long story short, it was not nearly what it was made out to be. The transfer case only just made the 600km trip home, the engine which "just smokes a bit on start up", spewed a long blue cloud of smoke and ate up 10 litres of oil on the trip. Brakes were all but non existent (later found the right rear did not even have any brake parts in it) which made for some interesting moments especially coming down the mountain passes as the transfer box only engaged when under load and "disconnected" as soon as I took my foot off the juice. (It works fine in low range.) The lights did not work, the windscreen wipers did not work. I had bought a lemon, and the PO had obviously bought a roadworthy certificate!!!
I parked it in the car port and "walked around" it for a couple of months trying to decide what to do. Slowly but surely it grew on me. Sitting there it exuded Old, Ugly, Mean, Worn-out-by-a-hard-life but still Tough-as-hell. The epitome of an old lone Cape Buffalo, colloquially called "Dagha Boys" by hunters, (Dagha = Swahili for mud.) for their habit of lying in the mud at watering holes.
I decided the old guy needed a second chance and stripped it down. I started searching the internet for parts, which is how I came across ih8mud. I started reading the build threads, and given that almost everything on this beast is shot and has to be fixed or replaced, I was sufficiently inspired to decide on a complete rebuild, rather than just a fix-up.
The Dagha Boy as bought.
The last few months have been a steep learning curve, not so much about the vehicle, but how difficult it is to do something like this in the bush. The nearest town of any note is more than two hours away. I can't even get paint supplies in our local village.
I will persevere and keep this thread going for those who may be interested in the resurrection of the Dagha Boy in African style.
Once again many thanks to those incredible guys on ih8mud who have inspired me to tackle this one.
