Builds Zeke, the 1975 Wanderer and DD (1 Viewer)

[120mm]

So, Lela was inspired when I removed the rear view mirror and both sun visors to clear the field to install the windshield.

So today, while I was in the gym, instead of waiting patiently, she decided to chew off this and give it to me when I got back in the truck:

Oh well. I have some high strength 3M emblem glue which I need to try out.

 

[bobm]

My Cane Corso used to eat the couch when he was alone.

 

[120mm]

My Cane Corso used to eat the couch when he was alone.

I just visited my gun dealer to pick up a new toy, and his Cane Corso is similar.

A few years back, before he got really big, he ate an entire 4 foot ornamental juniper tree. In front of us. And quickly enough that we couldn't intervene. I love these big mutts.

 

[bobm]

Ya that was the 1st 3 to 6 months. Dog was best river had. Super loyal. Would've died for me.

 

[120mm]

Well, Zeke took us up to my mom's house in NW Iowa for Thanksgiving, for an additional 300 miles. That makes it 2000 or so miles in the first month of ownership, which was kind of a goal, I guess.

I still have a slow coolant leak coming from that bypass hose; will order one from O'Reilly's to see if it fits better. It ate/leaked a quart of oil in the first 2000, which is ok by me.

Fun fact, I've spent the last 10 years working internationally with a super talented woman who grew up 8 miles from where I grew up, in the same tiny part of the world, only 20 years later. She's become my best friend and most of my overseas Landcruiser adventures, (in a series 76 wagon) were with her in the front passenger seat. Magic Carpet Ride

Zeke brought Lela to meet her, and as you can see from the picture, the introduction went very well.

 

[120mm]

Got after some old, bad rust repair. The big wad of Bondo they used to repair it had broken loose, and was literally flapping in the wind as I drove down the road, making a ruckus.

The sharp corner in the top right is a no go when I come to welding a repair panel in, since it will concentrate the heat, but I will cut it off once I've formed a patch. I also left the attachment seam bolted to the frame, so I will know it's size and shape for the repair panel.

I'm thinking of changing the shape of the support, as the original style traps mud/salt/foreign matter, encouraging rust formation.

 

[Ol Yeller]

I have this exact repair waiting for me to give it some love, and lots more have already been done if you read through a few threads on here, interestingly it is almost the exact failure I've fixed on several Datsun 510 front fenders over the years. I guess the Japanese engineers all went to the same school of how to build the perfect rust trap!

 

[120mm]

It's funny, but the Japanese auto registration and inspection system encourages discarding cars after 4-6 years. Inspections become more invasive and expensive until it becomes more cost effective just to get a new car. I imagine there is no positive incentive to designing a car that doesn't rapidly rust out under those conditions.

I used to buy import Japanese engines back in the day and it wasn't uncommon to get cheap, low mileage engines from Japan. It's been a couple decades since I did that, so I am unsure if it's still a thing.

 

[Ol Yeller]

I used to buy import Japanese engines back in the day and it wasn't uncommon to get cheap, low mileage engines from Japan. It's been a couple decades since I did that, so I am unsure if it's still a thing.

I've never gone that route personally but, yes I know the 510 guys still buy front cuts to get low km engine, often in higher spec than was offered on our shores.

 

[120mm]

Nothing picture-worthy, but I had Zeke aligned by a shop that really knows how. Driving is much more stable now, especially off road. My front tires had been kind of chewed up on the outsides by excessive toe-in.

I also bought the Lisle no-leak funnel, and got some bodacious bubbles out of the system, which, combined with reconnecting the heater valve, caused the heater to work much, much better.

The valve is looking pretty shop worn, and some kind of replacement is probably in order.

Even after having cut out the big wads of bondo, it looks like I'll need to at least put a temporary patch there, as it makes a pretty atrocious noise driving down the road, even without the bondo wrecking ball at work. I think that might be one of my next projects.

 

[120mm]

Didn't get much done this week; I did get a job, however. Since I'm retired from contracting, and this is intended to be the last paying job I'll have, I was looking for things that sounded interesting, and not necessarily in line with some kind of promotion path.

I had it down to a big wig job with Principal Financial, a job at a local materials laboratory breaking glass (no kidding) and driving Monster Mining Trucks 300 feet underground.

The 10 year old boy in me ended up choosing off-roading in a big way:

Pay is good, hours are horrible, but I'll be producing an actual product that people need and use, for the first time in my professional life.

I'm wondering if there is an off-shoot of off-roading called "under-grounding?"

On the Zeke front, I scored a Viair 450p for $142, shipped from Amazon. They evidently had it on some 15 minute, 50% off special that picks random products.

I hear nothing but good things about it, and like the fact that several folks recommend it highly for 35" tires.

I tried out my magnetic pan heater for the first time, and it worked great. Engine turned much faster than the morning before at 15 degrees F. I do need to find a carb pre-heater of some sort to really help the choke out, though. I think I will visit a junkyard and grab an air cleaner assembly off another car and rig some heater hose to the header.

 

[120mm]

Cut out some blanks for the fender sheetmetal repair

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

Coal, or Copper?

 

[120mm]

Coal, or Copper?

Limestone, actually. Iowa's major mineral. All those little sea creatures that used to populate the waters that used to cover America's Midwest died, and their exoskeletons made literally hundreds of feet of lime rock.

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

nice. so can we call you limey?

 

[scrapdaddy]

Limestone, actually

Missouri too!

 

[Ol Yeller]

Many years on my Viair now, great product, sounds like you scored a sweet deal too...

When you say underground, I assume open pit with those big boys?

 

[120mm]

Many years on my Viair now, great product, sounds like you scored a sweet deal too...

When you say underground, I assume open pit with those big boys?

The Viair was a surprise. I went to help inflate a neighbor's tire yesterday, and realized I accidentally sold my el cheapo HF rig with Marjan, my FZJ80. I came on here to see what was good and someone recommended the Viair 450p. Everywhere I searched they were $259-300, but I checked Amazon just in case and saw this special, counting down from 15 minutes.

With crop land topping $12,000 an acre, no one open pit mines in our neck of the woods any more. We literally mine limestone through grid style shafts. Deep into the dark go the monster trucks.

 

[120mm]

I took Zeke up to Northwest Iowa again to see my mom and siblings.

While there, the temps plummeted to -10 F. I got to experience my first really cold temps with the truck and learned three things: 1. The alternator belt was too loose; 2. The driver's side door wouldn't close completely, and 3. I have coolant leaking around that dodgy bypass hose, which allowed coolant levels to drop low enough that the heater sucked at that cold of a temp.

I drove 15 miles in sub-zero temps while desperately trying to hold the door shut, hoping my lights wouldn't die completely on me, and that my dog wouldn't climb into my lap while I tried to see through the tiny hole the weakened defroster had made in my windshield.

I fortunately was able to park in my brother's heated garage, so I was able to tighten up the alternator belt, top off the fluid and get the door latch unstuck, so I could drive the three hours home in relative comfort, though I'm still sucking with that bypass hose. Hoping for warmer weather so I can fix it for good.

 

[scrapdaddy]

Got to love an adventure! Glad you made it home and sounds like the door guts need to be taken apart and cleaned/lubed good.