I know I made the right choice when this is the reaction of the former owner, Dave. Great guy and gave me a great price. He included a set of older doors and glass, extra doghouse and a shovel and pick up top.
Getting across the border was made much easier by doing my homework and having the EPA and DOT forms filled out ahead of time; after about 20 minutes, we got through without having to pay a dime! All the border cops wanted to know what the hell it was. lol
The first thing I need to do is deal with the leaks around the front windows and from the swamp cooler on the roof. Next I will be replacing the seats with corbeau baja XRS suspension seats. I also intend on doing the 123 ignition system and a change over to power steering. The mechanical fan squeeks badly, but it just needs a tension adjustment. Not sure if I want to switch to an electric dual fan and new radiator or not yet. Interior needs a major cleaning and then I will slowly redo the interior in back to convert to full camper mode.
The cab is decked out like the space shuttle, with a serious array of switches and buttons added by the owner to control the various lights outside for the top, front, sides. It has a remote controlled spotlight up top controlled by a joystick in the center console. There is a backup cam which needs to be replaced (the screen is shot). The stereo deck needs to be replaced, the 10" LCD screen works and will switch from DVD player to the PC he had in it (which I will replace with my own. A keyboard goes in the glove box, all the wiring is run off the inverter.
There are 3 batteries, 2 are auxilliary to run all the various stuff, and there is a cutoff switch for the main battery so when you are camping you dont drain it via the assorted electronics, fridge, swamp cooler, etc. There is a setup for solar panels which is wired into the inverter and diverts to the batteries to charge them, though the panels are gone.
My girlfriend actually bought this for me as a gift, I think shes a keeper! Though I am concerned that I just entered into some sort of indentured servitude.
I will be posting lots more pics on my blog as I begin the journey of redoing this amazing vehicle. I want to thank all of you guys here for real4x4, you and it were instrumental in my choice to get this instead of some boring-ass jeep wrangler. It is perfect! Rock on!
-MadMax
