So, not being able to go out into the closed National Forest and such for basically for 4 months+ , what have you gotten done? Personally I was able to pretty much complete an adventure trailer, a rear rack for above my spare for the chain saw, a spare tire mount for my Rotopax, mounted 4 point harness, and moved my CO2 tank, all for the 89 Raider. For our 88 Shogun put a Montero Sport locking axle in with Old Man Emu 2" lift springs, welded up the front diff, mounted Aisin manual hubs, put in a different 4g54 2.6 and keeping my fingers crossed it good. And a bunch of lights to make the kid happy. I think that’s it.
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Hmmm. I don’t have pics of the pretty much completed trailer. I’m so horrible about pics. My biggest regret from my MOD '17 trip. No pics with you guys I met. Individual pics. With a good firm handshake of getting to meet the guys I had been talking to for years and consider friends. I’m working on it.
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We’re all working on it these days, Frank. Glad to see you’re here. And you’ve been busy!
I’ve been making the most of the downtime by tinkering on Fezzik here and there. So far I’ve replaced upper and lower ball joints, outer tie rod ends, driveline fluids, and installed my ADD fuel tank armor. I’ve also installed a set of manual Aisin hubs and picked up a couple cubic feet of odds and ends—Siberian control arm bushings, noico insulation, more than a few wiring/LED projects, etc.
Currently waiting on radiator #4 to arrive so I can put ol’ Fez back together and drive my own vehicle again. (It’s been a circus.) After that, I’ve decided to start collecting parts for the 4.90 regear, as my front axle, transmission, and tcase are all leaking—and I’m tired of downshifting into 2nd gear todo 45mph uphill on 31s.
Beyond that, most of my free time has gone into the TGP website remodel, which is damn near complete. Just tweaking some little things here and there and we should be live. Wo0t!
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I reaaallly want to do another trailer build. 
It’s been weird. I work from home normally so on the surface it’s been business as usual. For the first half I was considered “essential” with the aerial gig, and the second half I’ve been home on “standby” in case the other photog (the good friend who recruited me) gets tired of it, so I’ve been hesitant to start anything I can’t walk away from on 48-hour’s notice. Last week the project finally “ended” for the time being (we’ve heard that before). I’ve also been fortunate for a change…and current clients have seen an increase in sales instead of a slow-down.
I did find time to build a new workstation during brief visits home, only to have it fried by a CyberPower battery backup that failed destructively for no particular reason (no surges on the line side). That’s been the biggest time-suck this past month…trying to service clients from an ultralight notebook that’s only really designed for running camera backups and light field edits. MSI has been less than helpful in helping to troubleshoot (zero communication, in fact) so I may have to just rebuild from scratch.
Excuses-a-plenty, I still managed to take some advantage of these “slow” months at home, primarily motivated by being stuck at home in the summer and wanting to be comfortable for a change.
I built a new fence to replace the crumbling, rotten old one that fell over last year. The new one is twice the height (6-feet) and twice the length, and will be getting built-in planters for herbs and smaller garden goodies.
With the fence done I finally got the hammock I’ve been wanting for years. Oh, and I built a 12x16 pergola-bench-thing with misters. Wide angle lenses are fun—the bench is actually 8’ by 8’ with a 30" high back. The table is 5’ x 3’.
I still need to build a cabinet in the triangle corner of the pergola bench (with a planter on top), level the area by the hammock, pour a patio between the pergola and house, and inside the pergola either pour a second level of patio (probably) or deck over the isn’t-level asphalt (the pergola/bench was built correct to a new deck/patio height). And yes, I need to paint the house and “covered canoe rack” (a covered canoe rack is not a “shed” per city code 
).
I started on outdoor lighting, but it’s got a long way to go. It’s all waterproof 12VDC so it’s easy to work with and reconfigure while powered up until we get it just right, then I’ll go back to hide all the wiring and seal it all up. Most importantly, no permits and it can handle being directly under the misters. The goal is a nice comfy red glow over seating so people can see each other, and warm-white downlight over surfaces so people can see to play poker, read/write, etc. (I abhor visible bulbs). The table is getting a fire “pit” too (gas), which with my nerdy nature will probably be a stainless heat shield with pipe-and-fire or glass-covered.
The home gym we started pre-covid is about 80% done: still needs a weight bench, more weights/kettlebells, storage for bands, and the last half of trim installed. I also got about half of the flooring installed in the house (I’ll admit deliberate laziness here as the new flooring would separate me from the nice cold concrete floors my feet are currently enjoying).
My gear-building/electrical workbench still needs doors, drawers, and fascia; along with a mount for the monitor and a shelf for my bulk wire, soldering iron, 12VDC power supply, etc. The laundry hamper goes in the bedroom, and all that clutter goes in a rolling sewing cart I still need to build.
Fans. More fans. Even more fans. Every room in the house except the kitchen now has at least one ceiling fan. Interior paint is now about 3/4 done.
I figured out how to get a low-profile half-rack onto Ulysses using entirely stock mounting locations. I’ve also stripped out all of the aftermarket wiring and started Mk.III of the sleeper…really need to get that build thread going.
I suppose research counts as a Covid Project if considerable hours are dumped into it? I’ve completely exhausted all available resources on the Forester project for a swap that’s snowballed into something that’s either insanity or genius (perhaps both). All the parts are here, so it’s time to build…FrankenFoz.
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I started off working on the smaller Landcruiser: the snorkel was kind of the last big mod I’ve got planned for a while. But I’m now fully into the trailer build. Just waiting for my first coat of paint to dry. Here’s what it looked like this morning before I started…
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Chazz has been busy. I don’t even recognize the place anymore. Chateaux Layne-DanĂ!
And I do not envy the paint prep. Ugh.
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Never paint galvanized metal. Someone apparently never let the PO in on that tip…
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Goofy little project but I’ve slowly been replacing all the outlets in the house. Many of them are so worn that plugs fall out all the time.
We have a light at the end of our hallway, but the new fixture we liked didn’t have a built in switch, so I added a switch and a dimmer. Really nice since it doubles as the night light for the kids, I can adjust the brightness.
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Dude. I have a few like that. It’s that time of year when you want to get things done inside.
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