LJ Project Sandy

[UBZ]

New Rear bar for the LJ
Blazed it up and primed it this arvo , but forgot to take pics....







the outer tabs bolt through a hole drilled in the shackle tube bracket .

[zukmeista]

That looks great, nice and simple but still offers heaps of protection.

[UBZ]

That looks great, nice and simple but still offers heaps of protection.

yeah its all about trying to keep the weight down as much as possible, give good protection , while still looking ok
Weld bends make fabbing this sort of stuff quite easy .

Better pic of it blazed and primed up.


Also made some rear chassis mounts for the sliders last night, as i diddnt realy want to drill holes through the chassis.


And first phase of the Bullbar mounting brackets

[PuddleJumper]

Looking good!

[churchill]

Love your work!

[UBZ]

Cheers Guys

phase 2 of the Bullbar mounts .

[UBZ]

progress on the bullbar mounting
Chassis brackets are complete , hook mounting in place , just needs a final coat of paint now


Also changed out the seriously inverted factory front springs for some sagged SJ410 ones
Still ended up with a 1" lift . diddn't really want to change them but after adding the bull-bar and side bars , I was hitting the bump stops when driving on the road

[UBZ]

Bullbar on




Also made a antenna mount and spade holder for the spare wheel carrier

[UBZ]

Copied from the LJ Forum

So after weeks of preparation and hard slog , Sandy was ready for the road trip south for Zuki Central .


Looking all "Bling" with the revived bar work attached .

Seeing Its a long drive down to Wellington , I had taken the Thursday off work and was planing on a nice relaxed drive south .
Boy was I wrong . About an hour south of Auckland, I drove into the tail of a passing tropical storm . Typically the weather man had totally down played the severity of said storm .
At time I was crawling along a 15km /hr, with squalls of rain making the road and on coming traffic totally disappear . 150km/hr wind gusts , combined with the Defenders brick sided areo dynamics and the LJ sail it was towing made for some interesting moments to say the least .
A normal 9 hour trip turned into 13hrs........... but I made it in the end , turning up at the camp site at near midnight and waking most people with the distinctive Tdi diesel rattle )):


The Tow Rig

Day 1

I was woken early to a beautiful blue skied day, by the wonderful sound of Suzuki engines being revved to warm them up
Camp was abuzz with people doing last minute jobs , drooling over Zuks and generally talking the normal enthusiast BS .

I got my Tow hooks bolted on , chucked a bunch of tools and junk in the passenger foot well and headed off to scrutineering.


It looked like it was going to be a great event with the turnout of Zuks I was amazed at the amount of Vitaras (Trackers) present.
A really good mix of trucks from completely stock to seriously modified.

A couple more hours of chin wagging , an obligatory inspection of the truck ..... hooks , tow strap , fire extinguisher , roll bar , spade , etc etc ...
Received a cool goodie bag with a Suzuki torch , a 4wd Action mag , some stickers etc . Had a cup of coffee and Hot Cross Bun , more chin wagging
Finally we were ready to head off for some afternoon fun around the South Coast of Wellington ( Red Rocks)
At the last minute I realized I had fark all engine oil in the my spare container ... As Sandy likes to use a little I had to rush off to try and find some . A normally easy task turned into a mission, as all the stores were closed for Good Friday :pissed:
Luckily the 5th petrol station I visited had some suitable oil and I was ready for action.


18 Suzukis lined up ready to go ........ They were all waiting for me to turn up

The Event was being run by members of CCVC (Cross Country Vehicle Club) . These guys have spent years cultivating relationships with council and local land owners , resulting in us being aloud access to areas the general public is excluded from .

Instead of heading out around the coast like normal we went straight up a private track onto the hills above the coast.


A steep narrow grassy track with Zero room for error , meant I had to concentrate on driving , and unfortunate diddn't get many pictures


We climbed up and down some very steep valleys , had to pull a couple of stock vehicles through some minor stream crossings. but nothing too difficult .


Ended up onto top near the wind Farm


Views from on top towards to the north




Sandy looking tiny next to the modified trucks

We then dropped down to the beach and continued around the coast .
This is where I totally failed to take any pictures as I was having far to much fun in the sand .......
As expected Sandy was in her element and made light work of the deep soft sand , where the larger heavier trucks were getting stuck and bogged down .
We tried to get right around the coast to the lighthouse, but a call was made at Korrie stream to turn around. The stream was in flood and we did not feel like retrieving floating Zuks from the ocean .


We then headed back around the coast and through Devil's gate

Some lucky people actually have Batchs (tiny holiday homes) around the coast and we stopped after the gate (top left) for a BBQ and more chin wagging


A really nice relaxed cruise for the 1st day , along some tracks I have often looked at and dreamed of having access to . All rounded offf nicely with a bottle of red at a close friends house afterwards .....

[niblik]

awesome little write up.. woot!