Builds “It’s only an axle swap and a motor swap” aka AK2AL aka Dream Build

[Godwin]

Posted the Flying Pig for sale for $55k if anyone wants it.

Willing to keep RTT, awning, RCVs and stuff and drop price. Maybe take a cheap Pig on trade.

If no one wants it, I’ll clean it up over holidays and auction on BaT.

I've driven this rig, but more importantly I've seen you drive this rig, and I think $1000.00 is a generous offer. I can pick it up this weekend.

GLWS

 

[bobm]

Maybe it won’t sell

Was it sumptin i said

 

[PabloCruise]

Maybe it won’t sell

If you are thinking that way, don't sell!

 

[gonzopancho]

Imagine putting the first row of shingles on the cliff side of those roofs way back when?

Don’t have to.

In 2003 I did the tear-off of the old shake roof on this thing. Reason I did it is that it had a shake liner that was about 21% asbestos.

Every roofer in Spokane had bid the job for the PO. The roof had active leaks, some of which you could put your head in. If a commercial outfit did the job, all kinds of permits had to be filed, and the local county EPA was getting the money from the permits and itching to write-up every violation they could find at $10k per.

But as the owner of a private residence, I didn’t have to do any of that. (They wrote the NOVs anyway and we ended up in court with me showing that it was a private residence and therefore their BS was invalid.)

Anyway, So I found a roofer who was willing to let me do the tear-off and would dry in behind me. Then (during the following week) subsequently set the copper shingle system you see there.

12/12 pitch (that’s 45 degrees to you and me), 60 squares (6,000 sqft) of roofing area, some of it over 3 stories off the ground.

The only part that caused me actual panic was that little bit below the dormer window to the left of the chimney on the front of the house. That was difficult because I was certain that I was going to fall and the safety line wasn’t long enough to go over the dormer. The only way to get it done was to just go ahead and cope with the risk of a fall, I had a line but I knew if I fell and it held it was going to be there for a while, as there would be no way to pull myself up, and the fire department would need to be called. A roofer with over 35 years of experience who had never fallen did fall on that job (from a lot lower). He was fine, but it frightened him enough that he quit the trade.

The eyebrow over the windows on the face was done using freestanding scaffolding.

The roofer later told me he got some questions at a local roofing supply house before he started:

“I heard you got the Glover (Mansion) job.”
“Yup.”
“Who’s doing the tear-off?”
“The owner.”
“who?”
“The owner.”
“Isn’t that 12 over 12 pitch?”
“Yup.”
“The owner, of the Glover Mansion, is doing the tear-off?”
“Yup.”

That task took every weekend from early August to December that year. It was hot when I started and really cold and slippery when I finished. It was also really dirty, as the eruption of St. Helen’s in 1980 had dropped a bunch of ash in Spokane, and quite a bit of it was still trapped in the shakes 23 years later.

The roofer later confessed that he’d had a crew standing by that first weekend, as he didn’t think “a 40 year-old high-tech guy” would stick with it. We started on that highest peak. Yes I left that gargoyle up there because the wife thought it would be funny, and nobody since has had the nerve to go get it.

This is also the only time in my life I’ve tended bar, as we had a full liquor license for the events my wife would book (mostly weddings and corporate events.)

About 5 years later I invited that same roofer out to Hawaii to reroof a much smaller house there with the same metal shingle system, this time in aluminum. That job was a lot more fun though it did involve resheeting the roof with 3/4” plywood, and I put all of that up on the first and then second story by hand.

Bit of exposure off the backside of that one, as it has a 1000’ deep valley behind it, and the wind wanted to carry the plywood sometimes.

Yes, those are sliding doors to nowhere. I didn’t put them in, and I never got a chance to replace them, though I did remodel that whole house, including adding 53 overhead light fixtures (there were 0 when we bought it), all new sheetrock on the ceilings, remodeled 3 bathrooms, the kitchen, new flooring, custom cabinetry that my cousin and I built in the garage, and painting it inside and out.

 

[Lifelong40Fan]

55s should be a piece of cake after all that!

 

[bobm]

I was hanging from my leg 3 stories up after ladder kicked out, was caulking windows on turret room of old Victorian ! Nothing below but floor joists for deck ! My leg was between rungs and I was hanging upside down ! Guy I was working for (who set the ladder!) Says you want me to come up and get you ( ya know what happens with a Fulcrum!!) I go you come up this ladder I'll ****ing k*ll you . Had to use my arms to take my body weight and turn around upside right while being on ladder. Knee swelled up like .

 

[TachedOutOffRoad]

Wow

I haven’t posted this thread in a year

Got divorced, sold my house, in a rental, bought some land, sold some land, took LX450s to CO, took Tundra to Moab, buying a house, fallen in love again, drive the Frying Pig once a week to feel like a teenager. Normal stuff.

Pics from SSS ‘23. No real wrenching all weekend. Got the Iron Pig award for driving the farthest!

 

[TachedOutOffRoad]

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[TachedOutOffRoad]

Oink

 

[TachedOutOffRoad]

Bacon

 

[TachedOutOffRoad]

CO trip with the kids in July.

My sons black LX blew a HG in NM, limped it to shop in CO.

Bought another FJ80 that night, moved all the camping gear over, then drove the Snow Princess all over CO and back to AL where I sold it for what I paid for it

 

[TachedOutOffRoad]

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[TachedOutOffRoad]

CO

 

[TachedOutOffRoad]

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[TachedOutOffRoad]

My step mom passed this summer and my pops missed the CO trip with my sons. In Sept we just beat the snow by a week and went out in the Tundra to Moab, Arches National Park, Canyonland National Park, Ouray, and Silverton CO

 

[TachedOutOffRoad]

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[TachedOutOffRoad]

The 6 year old taking my pic told me to pose like a ballerina. I crushed it obviously.

 

[TachedOutOffRoad]

Oh, the Snow Princess’ exhaust blew up on the way back from CO.

We cut up a bunch of beer cans and patched it up to make it a few more hours on the way home.

Got some serious respect from the teenagers for fixing the truck with beer cans.

Special thanks to my buddy Matt who filled in as a driver last minute and cooked for us all trip. @Oakmulgee40 he saved the trip for me and kids and really showed out his Hobbit grill skills all week.

 

[TachedOutOffRoad]

Oh, I also got accepted to fly one of the very few Army fixed wing aircraft. Will go to the course next year. VIP transport stateside and super sneaky spy gear overseas. Pretty sweet gig and dream job for an old Warrant Officer.

 

[TachedOutOffRoad]

Pig stuff, had a broken knuckle stud.
Was able to weld a nut to it and swap it without pulling whole knuckle off.

It’s been a really fun, reliable, hooligan truck. Brings a lot of smiles.