It's Home! and what an amazing drive!

***Reminder, you can click any of the images to see full size.

Well, after a long drive and a lack of sleep, the chassis sis finally home!

My weekend went like this:

[Friday]

4:30am wake up for job #1.
5:30am-2:00pm Work #1
2:00pm-4:00pm Work #2.
4:00pm, drive to get the truck I would be borrowing for the trip, thanks to Warren!
5:00pm, finally home for a few hours sleep before overnight shift.  (Sleep was lacking at best)
9:00pm Wake up to return to Work #1
10:00pm-6:30am at Work #1 (no sleeping, we are not on standby here)

[Saturday]

6:30am home for a shower and leave.
7:45am, depart the driveway for Santa Margarita, CA with a friend on board to help keep conversations interesting and me awake.
Approx. 6:00pm we arrived at Hendrix Motorsports!
7:00pm, leave Hendrix back toward home.
10:00pm we were too tired to continue, so we stopped in Bakersfield for the night.

[Sunday]

5:00am Wake up and get on the road
5:45am, on the road home
2:00pm arrive back at home, unload, and hit the sofa, exhausted.

It's amazing how 1250 miles will wear you out when you are just sitting.

Now a little about the trip.

If you have ever driven I-40 across AZ and the high desert of CA to Barstow, you know watching grass grow is more interesting.  Then, from Barstow we took 58 West all the way to Santa Margarita. The section of 58 from Barstow to Bakersfiled is interesting, you climb over Tehachapi pass and see train tracks twisting through the mountains all the way.  I was thinking of Kevin every train we saw, and we saw a lot.

The second major segment from Bakersfield (further west actually) on to Santa Margarita is amazing. This road is BEAUTIFUL!  It is a long winding route through the coastal ranges of CA, but everything from Solar Farms to farming, oil fields, Natural Gas drilling, and Bison!


SIDE NOTE: I have a new appreciation for drought now.  I have lived in AZ for over 16 years, so "drought" is common.  When we crossed CA, the land was not just dry weeds and patches like AZ, it was baron, dead, sterile, not even weeds were growing.  Now that is dry.  CA folks, my heart goes out to you; you folks need water.  Until this trip, I never have crossed the AZ border on 40 and thought how green AZ was.


The trip was amazing!


Then we found our destination, loaded, and set off for home, going around to avoid the winding mountain roads after dark.

I used magnetic trailer lights to light the back of the chassis for our night driving.
It worked great!

Looking for dinner, we found an amazing little town called Templeton.  What amazing history and such in this town.  Check out this working feed mill.  That is not brick, it is stacked wood planks, stacked on the wide side, so it was super strong, and has stood the test of time.

We found dinner in Paso Robles, then on to Bakersfiled for the night.  The following day we had low clouds covering the mountains, but it was a beautiful view.  We stopped and took a train picture for Kevin in the mountains.  Also, Philip took a couple shots through the glass of the sunrise.

It is drives like this where I often wonder how people can deny the existence of God, it was so beautiful.



Once we got home, we unloaded the chassis and placed it on the frame for storage.  I hope to hang it from the ceiling so I can roll out the frame to keep working.  For now, it sits on the ramps and waits for the project to continue.

A very special thanks to Phillip for accompanying me on the drive, Ray for the help unloading, and John for the supervision,

Until my next update, thanks for the prayers and keep sharing this project with your friends.

Driving

Drove to Ca+ pick up chassis + now drive home=tired

Ready and waiting

It's done!

Not the buggy (I wish), but the chassis.

I am at work tonight until 6:30a then I hit the road with a friend and drive to CA to pick it up.

Prayers appreciated for safe travels.

In the works

Got a picture from the guys at Hendrix! It's being built now.

Engine Tear Down

I was able to get one day of work (or at least a few hours) on the tear down.  With the help of a friend, I went where I have never gone before, engine dismantling.

Tons of pictures of all the vacuum lines (even though I am pretty sure they are going away with the EGR system and emissions stuff), and then I began to learn what it what on the engine and what I will need to block, cover, or replace when it goes back together.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves, but thanks P.M. for all your help.
(Click for larger images)

 

 

 and finally, I got in there today to take a couple shots from how far we got.  Next step, remove the engine from the frame.

Slow going this weekend

Well, more brake lines and fuel lines removed as I prepare to remove the engine.  I also completed the steam cleaning and got it much cleaner than it was.

The rest of my work was research on the transmission and transfer case situation.  After a few referrals, I finally got to speak with Jim, formerly of Inchworm, and he and I chatted about the adapter kit sold by Low Range Off Road for the automatic transmission.  It is the correct plate, and I will need 2 top-shift transfer cases.  I have a lead on one already.

Jim is a great guy and full of knowledge.  He is now relocated to Taylor, AZ which I laughed because he is now closer to me than Low Range is, near Salt Lake, UT.

Anyway.  More to come, thanks for continuing to pray for the project and if you can support me either with man power or a few dollars toward the parts, it would be greatly appreciated.

God Bless.

Weekend Progress

(Click on any images to enlarge)

This weekend started early on Saturday with disconnecting the remaining parts from the firewall and readying the body for complete removal.  By mid morning, the buyer was here with a trailer and we loaded the entire 4Runner on his trailer, then went to his friends house who had a hoist in the shop.

Side Note: Its a small world if you didn't already know that, the friend was a relative of a close friend who I have rescued on the off-road trails from years ago with his own rock crawler Toyota.

Anyway, we off-loaded the 4Runner into his shop, then hoisted the body off and rolled the bare chassis out and back on to the trailer.The entire process only took about 30 minutes.  The ceiling hoist was a huge help.

Back home, the chassis got rolled back in to the garage and put away for the day since we had some family activities to do.  I did manage to drain the fuel from the tank and remove the gas tank.  3 buckets of fuel were removed, it was bad fuel, not good for our van.

I also took some pictures of the Transmission/Transfer case.  It was not the model I expected, it appears to be a A340H, not an A340F which is easier to modify, so I am researching options for this setup.

 

Sunday, after church and some tool shopping (HF sales rock!), I borrowed a steam cleaner and cleaned the entire chassis.  I was having difficulty with the AMP draw needed from the house, so it was not done the best it could, but it is much cleaner now.

 

 

 

Finally, pushed it back into the garage for another week of work.  Hopefully, we will get the engine removed soon and get to cleaning and grinding on the frame.  The chassis should be ready at Hendrix Motor sports by the end of the month, so I will be heading out to get it soon enough.  As I tell my neighbor, then it will look cool, but still be a long way from done.

Anyone have any contacts in the parts world, my list of needs is growing.  I will be contacting the UCORA past sponsors first as a thank you for their generous support in the past years.

That wraps up another weekend of project work.  The kids are back to school now, so my weekends will be a bit tighter with family time, but I hope to get one good day per week work at the least.