03rubicon
Adventurer
Well it was around August of 2013 when I knew I wanted to upgrade from my older 2003 Rubicon TJ to something that was much better on ride quality and could get me places with a lot of gear and do so with a little better gas mileage than the 12 I was getting with the Rubicon with just 33's and a 4" lift.
The search began for a Trail Teams Fj that I knew would most likely be a little out of my price range but I decided it would be neat to go the route that a fellow co worker had gone and obtain a salvage vehicle from a southern state and have his boy Sergie rebuilt it for me so that I had a solid platform to go off of. I knew I wanted to customize this vehicle and it may take a few months to get there, but so far the time and effort have been very rewarding and it has been the perfect vehicle for our club adventures and advertising platform.
The FJ when it was dropped off to Sergie in August of 2013. He gave me a 2 month deadline and held tight to it, as the vehicle was ready exactly when he said it would be. Let the games begin.
One of the first items that I was going to get on it was some sliders, so while the truck was in the shop, I began the work on them and brought them back to a much more aesthetically pleasing sight.
Here is how they started. You can see how they ended up later in the build thread.
Ended up buying a new fridge to install in it as well. Received this item from the scratch and dent online market place and only paid $280 for it, which I thought was a steal. It's and 80 quart.
And as of 11/26/13, this is how the vehicle came back to me in stock form from the Serge-meister. He is a fantastic fabicator and body guy and would likely go to him again if I ever need to save a bundle on a vehicle that I know I'll be taking off the beaten path and beating up a little as it is. The vehicle has 51K miles on it at this point in these pics and is as close to new as you can get. I'm very happy with it.
The search began for a Trail Teams Fj that I knew would most likely be a little out of my price range but I decided it would be neat to go the route that a fellow co worker had gone and obtain a salvage vehicle from a southern state and have his boy Sergie rebuilt it for me so that I had a solid platform to go off of. I knew I wanted to customize this vehicle and it may take a few months to get there, but so far the time and effort have been very rewarding and it has been the perfect vehicle for our club adventures and advertising platform.
The FJ when it was dropped off to Sergie in August of 2013. He gave me a 2 month deadline and held tight to it, as the vehicle was ready exactly when he said it would be. Let the games begin.
One of the first items that I was going to get on it was some sliders, so while the truck was in the shop, I began the work on them and brought them back to a much more aesthetically pleasing sight.
Here is how they started. You can see how they ended up later in the build thread.
Ended up buying a new fridge to install in it as well. Received this item from the scratch and dent online market place and only paid $280 for it, which I thought was a steal. It's and 80 quart.
And as of 11/26/13, this is how the vehicle came back to me in stock form from the Serge-meister. He is a fantastic fabicator and body guy and would likely go to him again if I ever need to save a bundle on a vehicle that I know I'll be taking off the beaten path and beating up a little as it is. The vehicle has 51K miles on it at this point in these pics and is as close to new as you can get. I'm very happy with it.
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