My TLC experience (10 Viewers)

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I emailed Method about a custom setback. No dice.

I just ordered 5 wheels from Main Line Overland of the Evo Corse Dakar Zero wheels. That stung a bit.
 
My console finally done did shown up.

Not real impressed. Paint is mediocre. No freaking way would it fit with the 5spd without either moving it back, or bending the shifter.

I moved it back about 3", it's enough to shift, but it's real tight getting into reverse. I'm planning on pulling the rear heater anyways this winter, and that's what is holding up pushing it further back. Another inch or two would be adequate I think.

I've got the rear heater unbolted, and just kinda sitting there for the time being.

I'm assuming I can just loop the hose for the rear heater back into the firewall and be fine until I get the vintage air installed?

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Reverse is annoyingly tight.

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It will be nice having reasonably lockable storage. Breaking into a 40 is only slightly more difficult than using the key. (Assuming the key is already in your hand, and not in your pocket. Then it's a toss up.)
 
You'll want to cap off the rear heater lines individually, rather than looping them. With no rear heater core as a flow restriction, most of the coolant will bypass your main heater core. With the rear heater lines capped, you'll still get flow through the front heater core.

Andrew
 
You'll want to cap off the rear heater lines individually, rather than looping them. With no rear heater core as a flow restriction, most of the coolant will bypass your main heater core. With the rear heater lines capped, you'll still get flow through the front heater core.

Andrew


That makes sense. I'll get something to cover those pipe ends, and probably spill coolant everywhere in the cabin this weekend...
 
Winter is almost here. I finally decided to hook up my heated seats.

I'm not real impressed with their ability to heat up. They do warm up, but it'd take a long time to get to the point where they would be too warm.

I made a temporary bracket to hold the switches and left all of the wires really long. My grand plan is to make a panel that goes in the front face of the console to house all of the aux switches. I like the layout of the dash, and don't want to alter that. Anyways, depending on where the transmission and shifter ends up, that will affect where the console ends up, which will affect where the switches end up. So I'm kind in limbo until the engine is swapped.


My temporary bracket.

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Switches in.

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And my spot to mount it. I put a longer 8mm bolt into the driver's side front and just put a nut on it to hold the bracket in place. Not ideal, but a good short term solution.

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My console finally done did shown up.

Not real impressed. Paint is mediocre. No freaking way would it fit with the 5spd without either moving it back, or bending the shifter.

I moved it back about 3", it's enough to shift, but it's real tight getting into reverse. I'm planning on pulling the rear heater anyways this winter, and that's what is holding up pushing it further back. Another inch or two would be adequate I think.

I've got the rear heater unbolted, and just kinda sitting there for the time being.

I'm assuming I can just loop the hose for the rear heater back into the firewall and be fine until I get the vintage air installed?

View attachment 2806645

View attachment 2806646


Reverse is annoyingly tight.

View attachment 2806647

View attachment 2806648


It will be nice having reasonably lockable storage. Breaking into a 40 is only slightly more difficult than using the key. (Assuming the key is already in your hand, and not in your pocket. Then it's a toss up.)
I had that console but removed due to the shifter being too close to it as you mentioned. Nice looking cruiser.
 
I had that console but removed due to the shifter being too close to it as you mentioned. Nice looking cruiser.
Looking at some pictures of other people's vehicles. My shifter is way back from others. I'm thinking I read somewhere that it is going to move forward with the R2.8, but I might be making that up.

I also don't know which top cover I have, and if it's the one I need, or if I have to source a different one.

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I've made plenty of poor decisions in my life. Drugs, alcohol, run ins with the law. But never a wrangler. Not once.

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😂

Just kidding wrangler people.

A body work friend and I, (mostly him), straighten out the passenger side frame rail today forward of the radiator. Somewhere in it's life it got a little crunched. It's not perfect, but it is much better. Doing that made me ticked off my steering wheel while going straight was turned to the right about 45º so I replaced the tie rod end at the end of the steering box arm and adjusted it so the wheel was straight. Apparently I need to replace the other four right away, because just that tightened up the steering a whole bunch. I've had new tie rod ends sitting around since right after I bought the 40, I just haven't gotten around to it. It's not perfectly straight, but it's close enough. Hard to tell if it's wind, grade, or what, but it seems a pretty even split between a little this way, and a little that way going down the road. So close enough.

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Not Landy related, but the corn got picked in front of the cabinet shop today. I was riding around in the combine for a bit with my buddy who runs it. The bunnies were scattering and there's a real magic in watching a hunting dog lose her flipping mind hammering rabbits. The little freak show about had a heart attack running down the two she got.

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All in all, a real nice day.
 
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I've done some stupid things because I was horny. Just jumping in front of a car, has never been one of them.





I REALLY hate deer. This is the second one I've killed in this thing. First one, no damage.

Looks like bezel, bib, radiator, and passenger turn signal. I hit the prairie maggot at about 5:30pm in Iowa. I just unhooked the trailer at the shop, at 2:15am. Ugh.

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That passenger turn signal assembly went on four days ago. I'm real angry.
 
I'm definitely putting a pre runner bar on the front bumper when the time comes.

This would've likely just been a front end covered in guts had I put a proper bumper on sooner.


The driver's side headlight looks like it's disappointed in me.

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Well at least it didn't go through your windshield and kill you. That is the suck for sure.
 
That sucks. Sorry.
We have plenty of wildlife locally and I’ve considered different stinger/grill guard ideas. Mind you this is just my opinion.
  • If you had a stinger style( ie forward slanted hoop) would it push the deer under the truck? I worry about in that situation the deer would go under the vehicle. This in turn would create a sketchy handling situation. ***This might be more on my mind due to the lift/tire situation of my truck.***
  • Grill guards have their place and probably work well for smaller animals. Around here, and I assume around Minnesota, moose are the other moving targets out there. An overbuilt guard will destroy a frame when it catches a large mammal. As much as the parts you lost hurt, imagine if you bent you frame.
All that being said I have a radiator hoop in the garage I want to attach to the my cruiser. In my mind, said hoop needs to be triangulated to make it work and I like the stinger look, I think…
 
Well at least it didn't go through your windshield and kill you. That is the suck for sure.

For sure. I'm thankful for that. I don't think I was up to 60mph yet when I saw it, (I had just turned onto the road I hit it on maybe 3/4 of a mile earlier), and I had a pretty good bead on it as it came out of the ditch. My guesstimate is I hit it at about 30mph. The bumper took out the legs, then the body crumpled into the grill.
 
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That sucks. Sorry.
We have plenty of wildlife locally and I’ve considered different stinger/grill guard ideas. Mind you this is just my opinion.
  • If you had a stinger style( ie forward slanted hoop) would it push the deer under the truck? I worry about in that situation the deer would go under the vehicle. This in turn would create a sketchy handling situation. ***This might be more on my mind due to the lift/tire situation of my truck.***
  • Grill guards have their place and probably work well for smaller animals. Around here, and I assume around Minnesota, moose are the other moving targets out there. An overbuilt guard will destroy a frame when it catches a large mammal. As much as the parts you lost hurt, imagine if you bent you frame.
All that being said I have a radiator hoop in the garage I want to attach to the my cruiser. In my mind, said hoop needs to be triangulated to make it work and I like the stinger look, I think…

I have a radiator guard / light bar mount that would hopefully prevent something caving the front that badly. That and the 8274. I guess the tribute to my dad's cruiser may be a helpful addition.

Although I dislike the look of a stinger, I'd bet that it would be really effective to move something out of the way.


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That sucks. Sorry.
We have plenty of wildlife locally and I’ve considered different stinger/grill guard ideas. Mind you this is just my opinion.
  • If you had a stinger style( ie forward slanted hoop) would it push the deer under the truck? I worry about in that situation the deer would go under the vehicle. This in turn would create a sketchy handling situation. ***This might be more on my mind due to the lift/tire situation of my truck.***
  • Grill guards have their place and probably work well for smaller animals. Around here, and I assume around Minnesota, moose are the other moving targets out there. An overbuilt guard will destroy a frame when it catches a large mammal. As much as the parts you lost hurt, imagine if you bent you frame.
All that being said I have a radiator hoop in the garage I want to attach to the my cruiser. In my mind, said hoop needs to be triangulated to make it work and I like the stinger look, I think…

I welcome all opinions and thoughts. The only thing I'm actually good at, is building cabinets. 😆

There is moose up north, but not where I live. They are cartoon big in real life. Like way bigger than a horse. I don't think any bumper is saving you on that one. There the vehicle takes out the legs, and the body wipes out the roof. They are dangerous as heck to hit. I think most deer are around 120# around here, and I think they max out around #160 for a big buck.

The deer I hit a month or two ago, that was a yearling. Probably around 80 pounds. It scrambled on the road, lost it's footing, and fell over. I didn't even find fur on the rig, so I think it glanced off the bumper and the wheels took it all. I'm not sure what the correct answer is, but keeping it out of the interior would be a priority. Even if the impact of the animal coming through the windshield doesn't hurt you, when a deer ends up inside, it can kick the crap out of everything and put a major hurt on you that way. The bumper I have designed, but haven't had built yet), has a notch in the middle between the frame rails. I'm thinking that might do some good to funnel an animal towards the center. Not saying that is a magical cure, but might help.





I just made a claim with my insurance. An adjuster is going to get back to me. I've got a $1000 deductible. I should've set that a little lower. I usually go low on Comprehensive for that, and usually high on collision. I can afford to fix my screw ups when they happen, but a tree falling on it in a storm, animals, or other acts of god I don't feel overly responsible for.
 
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I welcome all opinions and thoughts. The only thing I'm actually good at, is building cabinets. 😆

There is moose up north, but not where I live. They are cartoon big in real life. Like way bigger than a horse. I don't think any bumper is saving you on that one. There the vehicle takes out the legs, and the body wipes out the roof. They are dangerous as heck to hit. I think most deer are around 120# around here, and I think they max out around #160 for a big buck.

The deer I hit a month or two ago, that was a yearling. Probably around 80 pounds. It scrambled on the road, lost it's footing, and fell over. I didn't even find fur on the rig, so I think it glanced off the bumper and the wheels took it all. I'm not sure what the correct answer is, but keeping it out of the interior would be a priority. Even if the impact of the animal coming through the windshield doesn't hurt you, when a deer ends up inside, it can kick the crap out of everything and put a major hurt on you that way. The bumper I have designed, but haven't had built yet), has a notch in the middle between the frame rails. I'm thinking that might do some good to funnel an animal towards the center. Not saying that is a magical cure, but might help.

The dip at the center could also be a pretty good buckle point if you hit something hard enough, would would probably be good. It may twist the front frame horns a bit, but those are easier to straighten than a frame.
 
The dip at the center could also be a pretty good buckle point if you hit something hard enough, would would probably be good. It may twist the front frame horns a bit, but those are easier to straighten than a frame.


That's true too. When the power steering goes on, I know the left side frame rail has to be plated and beefed up forward of the cross member. I was thinking it might be a good idea to plate the other side as well to add some strength. It can't really hurt? Then the hoop/grill guard could fold back if something went awry as well.
 
Not really important, but I was curious if I was talking out my ass.

Moose weight: 840-1500 pounds less than I thought.
Horse weight: 900-2000 pounds (I think 2000 is for some of those freak pulling horses though, not your normal thoroughbred)
Whitetail Deer Weight: 125-165 Average. With a huge doe being 155#, and a huge buck being 227#
 
That's true too. When the power steering goes on, I know the left side frame rail has to be plated and beefed up forward of the cross member. I was thinking it might be a good idea to plate the other side as well to add some strength. It can't really hurt? Then the hoop/grill guard could fold back if something went awry as well.

I plated both sides on mine.
 
I’d try to find a guy that can massage the original pieces back to presentable. I’d hate to lose all of that original patina.
 

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