ih8mud inspired build (1 Viewer)

[Dagha Boy]

St Patrick's Day! Blessings and Good Luck to all the Irish (and a Guinness each of course)

Nelspruit trip today.

Left early so I was there by seven this morning. The main mission was to drop off the roof and rear cab panel with Kobus at CK Customs and to do the physical swop of the 15" wagon wheels for 16" split rims. When I proudly showed the wheels to Kobus he said that about 5 years ago he sent 12 brand new sets of them for recycling because nobody wanted them anymore, everybody wanted fancy rims. It is to weep!

I'll take the rubber off over the weekend and get them blasted and then paint them next week and of course 5 new Dunlop crossplies. Ouch!

Dropped the roof etc at Kobus, new bigger workshop. Still a mess but I'm sure it will be back to what his old shop was like shortly. Inbetween the moving they have managed to do some work on the Dagha Boy's tub, doors and fenders (the fenders had to be converted from LHD to RHD. No wonder I got them at half price)

Some pics just to give you an idea of what he has in his shop at the moment.

SHOP TRUCK

 

[Dagha Boy]

DAMAGE CONTROL

On the right, Triumph, '27 Hudson next to it and a '52 Citroen hiding behind that and them a hacked up FJ45 and a couple of 40's pickups.

LET MAMMA PUT YOUR BLANKIE ON

The little green Triumph being covered is beyond gorgeous. The chrome and the leather work just boggles the mind. The two front seats are not yet in but look like two works of art.

DOWN THE OTHER SIDE

I don't know what the first three are, but I think they are all British and belong to the same guy. Then Alfa Romeo, E-Type Jaguar, Alfa x4 and right at the back a '58(?) Mercedes Benz Limousine.

MG

 

[CarDude]

Hello Dagha I am enjoying this thread thanks for taking the time to post.
I would love to see what the night sky looks like in such a remote locationn far away from a the lights. Do you ever see any of these guys strolling around?


I bought him for my son. He was no bigger then the Palm of my hand. Little did I know that a African spur thigh tortoise is the third largest tortoise species. Thanks again for posting

 

[Dagha Boy]

Thanks CD. Glad you enjoy it.

We don't have this guy down south. If memory does not fail too badly, they occur on the southern edges of the sahara, Chad, Ethiopia, Sudan etc. Around these parts we have the Leopard Tortoise. They vary in size depending on what areas they're in between 50 and a 100 pounds I believe. Also reputed to get as old as a hundred. Right where I am at the moment they are plentiful but on the small size and I often see them. I think they are about 4th or 5th largest.

About a thousand miles south of here in a wilderness area known as the Baviaanskloof (Baboon Valley) they are very big and can be a menace to any attempt at gardening. I bumped into this honeymooning couple in December. If you look carefully you will see the guy's tackle; out and ready for action.

SLOW DOWN HONEY

The night skies here can be pretty impressive. Again the Baviaanskloof beats us. I have seen city people walk out of the house at night and stop dead in their tracks and just stare. You cannot help but notice. I have seen others lie on the lawn and just stare up at the sky unable to tear their eyes away.

I've got to work some 40 series tech in here for the purists so, a picture of Tom's old HJ45 crossing the coastal mountains on the way to the Baviaanskloof.

TRACK TO BAVIAANSKLOOF

 

[Dagha Boy]

You live a most interesting life my friend in the outback that's for sure
Wiring looks great by the way

Sorry Dave, somehow missed that till now.

Yeah, I am lucky to live the life I do, the best of both worlds. Africa can be very interesting and has apparently been so for a long time. As Pliny the Elder said about 2000 years ago, "Ex Africa semper aliquid novi" Out of Africa always something new.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

wow.

 

[Weber Sarge]

Gotta love those E-types . I have a tendency to think the tortoise was somewhat of an inspiration for the Land Cruiser . About the same speed , very determined and built to last...
Sarge

 

[Dagha Boy]

We're getting a bit of rain. Too late unfortunately as the growing season is over. But we'll get some growth.

I collected my front axle yesterday, all perfectly done. I wrestled the bugger out of the Jeep this afternoon, fitted wheels and rolled it under the chassis hanging on a tripod. Got it roughly in position, lowered the frame, lifted the back of the springs up and put the spring hanger pins back in. Then hoisted the frame and springs up against the axle, shuffled it around a bit till it was in position and then hoisted it right up again and installed the u-bolts and shocks. Then lowered it and Dagha Boy is back on its front legs. I couldn't fit both assembled axles in the jeep at the same time so will fetch the rear on Monday.

RAIN AT LAST

SOME DINGS AND SCRATCHES BUT IT'S IN

VIEW FROM BELOW

But, I'm a bit concerned. It looks to me that the diff is tilted slightly - higher at the back. Looking at it, and it's getting too dark now, it looks to me that I may have the springs on the wrong way around. The shorter portion of the spring is at the rear, so where the axle is sitting it is already starting to bow upwards.

But that is tomorrow's problem. Any advice?

CELEBRATORY SUPPER: IPA, BEEF CARPACCIO AND TOUCINHO FUMADO (Portuguese cured and smoked pork belly)

LIFE IS GOOD.

 

[78fj40mg]

Hey buddy, you're finally getting there, wheels on! A hydraulic lift would come in handy just about now...
The pork looks great, but you can't have pork if you don't have any veggies with it. I bet that King's Blockhouse beer is tasty!

Keep up the great work... and the dinner teaser plates coming!!

Cheers!

 

[Dagha Boy]

Hydraulic lift.... I'm greedy I want SuperBuickGuy's whole workshop!! (That includes the Buick) This is the nice part of the build. I can't wait to do the brake system. Everything for that is brand new.

This is Africa, here pork is a vegetable - but only when the MWFD is not around. But I'll have some olives... OK?

I understand we have about 140 craft breweries in SA (less than Portland) but there are some nice beers coming out now. I love the really, really hoppy beers. Not many of those around here. I think it's because it is still very new here and the brewers don't want to scare people who are not used to anything tastier than factory beer. IMHO, the King's Blockhouse is the very best beer in SA at the moment - in my taste that is.

 

[diogenese]

Your front springs seem ok to me, shorter section to the rear. The axle centre line to the rear hanger pin is 500mm. The nose of the diff should be slightly up.
There are plenty of vegetables in the beer

 

[2fpower]

Oh, Portland. I do miss Amnesia Brewing. Lost lots of time there. They had an IPA that would grow hair on a Tortoise.

 

[DSB345]

WOW! You have come a long way. Your doing a great job. Looks great!

 

[Dagha Boy]

Your front springs seem ok to me, shorter section to the rear. The axle centre line to the rear hanger pin is 500mm. The nose of the diff should be slightly up.
There are plenty of vegetables in the beer

thanks. that sets my mind at rest on both counts, the axle and the veg.

I do miss Amnesia Brewing. Lost lots of time there.

Oh yes!! Some nice beer there. If I recall correctly they had a stuffed baboon hanging in the roof. I've always wanted to sit out at the tables and drink beer but always been there in winter. Going to lose some time there myself this time around.

Thanks Dave. Looking back at pictures taken I see that I started to strip it on 30 March last year but then went walkabout for a few months. I've learned a lot from this build and will approach the next one very differently. The way things look at the moment we will move back down to the coast toward the end of the year. I have access to a building down there, two generous double garages next to each other, plus a large undercover area even bigger than that where I can do all the dirty work outside. Lots of nice steel racking too. It will be a real pleasure working there.

 

[handcannon]

So you are planning to come to Portland? That is Portland, Oregon? Just to let you know that there are several Mud members in the greater metro area. I'm not in the metro area, but about 70 miles to the south from downtown, right in the I-5 freeway corridor.

Just to let you know, it has been rather wet here this winter. So, come prepared for the Pacific Northwet (I left the S out on purpose, good description of the area). We needed the rain, and the snow pack in the mountains, to make up for what we didn't get last year.

Don

 

[JungleBiker]

Save time and effort by feeding the vegies to an animal, then eat the animal.

 

[cult45]

Hey old son. Been a while since I got back here. Good to see progress. Two schools of thought on the V8 45.

1. It's a V8 45 - buy it.
2. It's a passion project, not an investment - buy it.

Can you imagine that thing in low range at full noise with a good set of pipes on a hill climb?

 

[Dagha Boy]

Yup, Don! The very PDX. I get in on 6 April for a couple months. The MWFD has already been there for 3 weeks so I'm getting a "wetter" report every day. Sitting in the middle of 1:100 year drought and a heat wave that has lasted since October I am really looking forward to wet and cold weather. I'd really like to meet some of the guys while I'm there. Have some beers and talk TLCs. Are you down near Corvallis? I have difficulty judging distance in the USA because I don't drive there anymore - I'm too African and lawless - after having a serious run-in with a South Dakota state troopers. 3 x in one day and we all ended up losing our sense of humour and I decided that discretion is the better part of valour and I will simply not drive there if I can help it.

JungleBiker, you said it. A mutton chop tastes soooo much better than the cabbage it ate.

Cult45. Now that's real red dagha to play in! I want it, the V8, I've just got to get it for the right price.

We've had some of your TV countrymen filming some or other reality series down the road. Even Shaney put in an appearance apparently as a guest on the show or something. Walked into a lodge for a drink two weeks ago and there he was. Looking old now.

The Dagha Boy.... Well, what can I say?

Went to Nelspruit to pick up my very very expensively finished body parts. Left at sparrow's fart to beat the Easter weekend traffic and return the hired trailer by 16:45 and avoid paying an extra day hire. They eventually loaded me at 14:00. The tub and bonnet, which was all that I could see that wasn't wrapped in moving blankets looked magnificent. I paid the Kobus, and hit the road. By that time of course the holiday traffic was in full swing. Four hours later and ten years older I arrived on the farm.

This morning I off loaded and unwrapped everything. F@#$%&*@#K.

While the exterior of the tub is mind blowingly good, the interior of the tub has not been properly sprayed. Eg. The area just aft of the kick vents and immediately in front of the door has no top coat on it. It is also clear that the epoxy undercoat that should have gone below the colour coat was not put down. The brace where the front door hinges go, has no coating on it but for a little bit of overspray. The 2K primer I used if an almost perfect colour match to the Dune Beige final colour, so you have to look very carefully to see it. The dead give away is that there are little speckles of grey bin liner overspray that still show grey on the beige primer. So definitely no undercoat and no sanding went into that part as it should have.

The hood was also perfect on the outside, but full of runs and dust on the inside.

The doors. Although straighter and flatter than should even be allowed on a Land Cruiser, the paint work is patchy, runny, saggy, no under coat over the 2K etch primer and full of DUST (REMEMBER I TOOK THE BLOODY THING TO HIM BECAUSE OF THE DUST HERE) I am no spray painter, but I could have done a far better job right here than he did on any of the parts he did. (Insides of the hood aprons are just raw etch primer!!!)

I'm OCD, OCD, OCD, and that is the standard I have worked to on every little piece. I did not believe I could do an acceptable job under the conditions I have here and THAT IS THE REASON I PAID 50% MORE THAN THE GOING RATE TO GET THE BEST GUY TO DO IT RATHER THAN I TAKE IT TO A LOCAL PANEL SHOP TO DO IT. IT HAD TO BE PERFECT. HIS OTHER WORK I'VE SEEN IS PERFECT. BUT THIS STUFF IS A F@#$%$@*&K UP. It just shows you, you never can tell. You gotta watch them all the time. Damn!

I've repacked everything and Tuesday morning 07:00 when he arrives at his shop I will be parked in his parking spot...

An unhappy camper.

Sorry, I have taken no photos of this mess, I was just too angry.

What I did achieve yesterday was to get the split rims and front bumper sandblasted and etch primered them this morning. They're looking good. (no runs and no dust in the paint) I got some grey chip resistant epoxy top coat. Matched to the colour on a 3/90 rim from a spare that had never seen the road or the sun. It looks damn good to my eye. I cannot tell the difference between it and the Grey used on Masset Ferguson tractors. The paint guy says there is a difference but I really can't see it. I'll let them bake in the sun and get the 7.50 x 16s fitted on Wednesday, which will be exactly 1 year after I started stripping it.

The colour on the roof and head light bezel is the correct Cygnus White and just looks RIGHT. Any other white would just not be right. I'm glad I decided to go factory on that. Well, actually it wasn't me that insisted on that, but the MWFD.

Lots of writing and no pictures...

Here's one of the MWFD's son Tom, (MWFD co-pilot) getting the previous HJ45 sideways while running away from a storm while he was driving it 1000 miles across the country (back roads all the way) after we bought it. I was driving ahead of him in a Merc and had lost traction on the loose stuff so knew what was coming and waited for him to take the photo.

Next morning the MWFD took the Merc and abandoned us, so we bought a couple cases of beer and cruised the last 500 miles home.

This is the cruiser I have repo'ed. The body is completely rotted off but mechanically it is perfect, with new OME suspension on. I'm thinking of doing a nuts and bolts on it, including changing it to LHD and send it to him for his 30th b'day. (I had promised to fix it for him and never did. Guilty conscience.) Anyway he had a good couple of years use out of it while living out here, and loved it. It is the original Dagha Boy, and he ran it with a wildebeest skull and horns strapped to the bush bar. Unlike the CJ7 he used later it never let him down on the road.

 

[Dagha Boy]

I have one piece that is still in rough condition that I have to clean up and restore, but I'm reluctant to destroy the decal on it. I have looked all over on the internet and cannot find this one. Does anybody know where I can get one? Maybe Beno?

It's pretty battered but if I can't get a new one I seriously considering taping it off to retain it. Please help.

 

[cult45]

Mask off the decal and cut the paint back with cutting compound. Then clear. It's good to have some things that aren't perfect, unlike paint.

PS. You witnessed Warney off the set of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. I wouldn't call it TV and because they're working on such trash I loathe to call them countrymen.