Lets see some of your other projects.

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This thread needs some posts....

 

[Rharms1]

Ford

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omg…the holy grail of automobiles…   

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Time to resurrect this thread.

Picked up a new toy today. It’s a 2004 Jeep Wrangler X. Actually, it’s his…that’s Jr. and he’s getting ready to take Mom for her first ride, but we’re planning on some off-roading and maybe even some camping. Special thanks to Mr. Bones, our resident Jeep expert, who coached me through a couple promising opportunities and a bunch of my dumb questions.





Hey, we’ve got quite a few new members. Any projects or toyz?

[mrbones]

Awesome. I think that thing will go just about any where!

[danh600]

Mom doesn't look too sure about getting in there.

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Haha…really! Getting in and out of there is quite an ordeal. I need to get some nerfs or something. Anyway, she’s really warming up to him driving it. First, it’s really quite stable; no worse than our Jeep Liberty, anyway. Second, it’s perhaps the slowest car that was ever invented. 

[sticky]

Thought this was abouit bikes. 

[bagobones]

Title says "other projects".

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Hence the beauty of the forum…we’re all over the place. 

[danh600]

Yea, I love all the different cars and truck projects. I was into cars, trucks and boats a long time before I discovered the joys of a bike.

Sadly, I have nothing to contribute to this thread. I am a terrible mechanic. So I have to drive something practical since I have to pay to have it fixed.

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I’ve got a new photo of our Jeep.



We were out with our Jeep Club today in a place a little south of Ocala. Kind of a gnarly riding area. My son was actually driving (he’s the guy in the dark red shirt to the right) and I’m actually still hanging by my seat belt inside the cabin in this photo. That’s a fairly steep ravine we were coming up. He was in 4wd low and had the front wheels locked. He was on it pretty good and it just got hard right up the side of the ravine and sent us over on the side. No injuries, not even a scratch on us. We got a winch line on the side to upright it and another to pull it forward and were out pretty quickly. That's why we ride in groups. These Wranglers are pretty solid. In fact, I ripped out the busted windshield and drove it all the way home about 75 miles on back roads. It looks like I'll need a new windshield frame, glass and the frame hinges. If I can find them it's just nine torx bolts and we're good to go. Didn't even crack a fender flare.

[bagobones]

Holy crap!  Glad you both are OK. Your son is still probably crapping his pants. Maybe you could take the windshield off and just wear your motorcyce helmet instead - "spyder" style.

[mrbones]

Wow. Good thing there's no injuries. Does it look worst than it is?

[v65infla]

I am glad your both Ok Bill and wearing your seat belts.  Your son just learned a very valuable lesson with relatively low consequences that he will carry the rest of his life.  Next time he will recognize those set of circumstances and take actions to prevent wrecking. 

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Does it look worst than it is?

Yeah, that looks bad but they all do. Equipment damage was very minimal. It was pure fluff in there, just soft dirt and clay mix which the entire place was. Rocks may have been different, but we’ve agreed we’re not playing on rocks. You know the damage that does. The Olympic rocker guards did their job, like I said the plastic wheel flares didn’t sustain even a crack or bend. We’re just looking for a windshield frame and at least the left hinge, maybe the right, looks a little tweaked. And of course some new glass for the frame. I still stand by my contention that these wranglers can be either the safest vehicles or the most dangerous…just depends on whether you’re wearing seat belts.

I am glad your both Ok Bill and wearing your seat belts. Your son just learned a very valuable lesson with relatively low consequences that he will carry the rest of his life.  Next time he will recognize those set of circumstances and take actions to prevent wrecking. 

True indeed on the learning experience, although this was 100% my fault. He’s a dirt kid and knows what he's doing, but when we’re not on simple marked forest roads, my job is to be both in the co-pilot’s seat and on my feet. I spend half of our time in places like this walking, scoping and spotting out ahead. Anything unusual looking, I’m on my feet. Then I get back in and say, okay, here’s what we’re gonna do. In this case, I didn’t walk this ravine. Other Jeeps had already made it up…one didn’t but backed down. Since I didn’t walk it, I didn’t know what was there and all he could do was put it in 4 low and grind it out. So, yes certainly a learning experience for him, but I’m taking the fault. My bad!

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All fixed…got out of this with just a windshield frame, glass, and the front windshield frame hinges. But we also installed a “full” front roll bar last weekend just in case.