Goose - Our Poptop FZJ80

[NM-Frontier]

That looks great, love the bench. Interested also in the noise levels.:sombrero:

 

[SOAZ]

That looks great, love the bench. Interested also in the noise levels.:sombrero:

First Highway and offroad test of the sound and temp insulation is complete. We realized the interior is so quiet that we're now hearing new noises from the rear view mirrors and corner of the window. I guess that means it works! haha!

The biggest confirmation for me was to put my hand on the transmission tunnel underneath our Tuffy Console. I couldn't for the life of me tell if it was warmer than the surrounding floor. I checked it several times while heading down the highway at about 70-75MPH. I decided it might just be a tiny bit warmer?

To compare, when it was bare metal it was a 1 second hold before it was too hot to keep my hand on it. It hurt like hell. Offroad we felt like the truck was finally "sealed." Don't get me wrong there are still some spots we need to plug, but it really felt like we were insulated temperature, dust and sound-wise.

So far so good!

 

[NM-Frontier]

Sounds like it works pretty good! Nice work!

 

[SOAZ]

Sounds like it works pretty good! Nice work!

Thanks Gordon. We moved onto some little stuff this weekend, but rode mountain bikes mostly. Mud flaps and a Dorkle. ;-)

I put on a set of rallyarmor mud flaps since they are thin and don't interfere with the tires suspension travel or maybe I just want to pretend the 80 is a rally car. There is a cavity in the back of the front wheel wells on both sides of 80's that I think the main purpose is to catch and preserve mud for future generations so we'll see if these put a stop to that. (This photo reminds me the rear bumper is in need of a sand blasting. :-/ Bright spot in the photo is just a bit of satin black paint. It dried just about matching. Also the angle on the exhaust makes it look mashed, but it's not. Is that enough excuses?)

Mudflaps always look sorta cool in a purposeful sense and sorta "old man-ish" truck as well. As long as they work, I'm happy. Lots of left over mud from last weekend when we did our annual trip to a 24 hour mountain bike race, but the roads where a mud pit.

On the precleaner front I went with the same thing that always worked so well for me on the 4runner. A Donaldson Topspin. Although the 80 has a great cyclonic filter for an OEM setup I notice that the air filter is covered in dust after a long weekend of silty offroading. The "pea trap" seems to catch all of the big stuff, but I remember the days of the Donaldson pretty much keeping the air filter pristine despite offroading for a living back then. So, with a longer trip in mind I threw on an "El Cheapo" TMS snorkel and the Donaldson precleaner.

Here is the China Snorkel thread on Mud. https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/snorkels.855952/

I think it was this picture that made me think "Yah, that knock off brand is good enough for me!" Photo and truck of "Booger Weldz"

The internal guts of the HD topspin are all metal unlike the normal Topspin. Not sure that it's needed, but hopefully I can bash it into more trees this way.

Interior is coming along as well.

 

[NM-Frontier]

I'm guessing you were at 24 in the Old Pueblo, bummed I missed it this year but I have a real love/hate with that race, its hard for us to escape to the desert and just get rained on. Warmer or colder then last year?

Any ways those flaps look sweet!

Keep it up!

 

[SOAZ]

I'm guessing you were at 24 in the Old Pueblo, bummed I missed it this year but I have a real love/hate with that race, its hard for us to escape to the desert and just get rained on. Warmer or colder then last year?

Any ways those flaps look sweet!

Keep it up!

Yep 24HOP was a mud pit getting in last weekend. This weekend we just rode around Phx. For 24hop we go in a back way from Florence on dirt so although we had a lot of mud, but thankfully we didn't see any vehicles. I saw pics that the main entrance was a mess with stuck cars and a nice bottleneck. Smart folks remembered to bring the "weed killer" sprayers to get the mud off the bikes drive train so we borrowed one.
The rain stopped by morning and after 1 lap the course had no mud and a blue groove better than I've seen. I think it was the fastest course we've ever had. Lots of broken lap times and lap counts. We were just screwing around this year, but it was fun to see everyone killing it. Also, NO RAIN, sleet or snow during the race so that was a nice change. Temps were in the 60's during the day and above 40 at night so not bad as long as you were working. Haha!

Thanks, I ordered these flaps before the race, but after finding nooks with mud for hours I was wishing I'd installed them ahead of time. Big changes to the truck now. I'm working on writing up our little adventure to Canada to cut the roof off. :snorkel:

 

[phsycle]

...Thanks, I ordered these flaps before the race, but after finding nooks with mud for hours I was wishing I'd installed them ahead of time. Big changes to the truck now. I'm working on writing up our little adventure to Canada to cut the roof off. :snorkel:

I was going to ask when the roof chop was coming! Looking great so far. I am going to order those RA flaps as well to replace the rigid, but flimsy stock ones on my Tacoma.

I'm going to have to try to make it to Old Pueblo one of these days. A friend of mine has a team every year there and keeps wanting me to come down. Says a ton of fun.

 

[SOAZ]

I was going to ask when the roof chop was coming! Looking great so far. I am going to order those RA flaps as well to replace the rigid, but flimsy stock ones on my Tacoma.

I'm going to have to try to make it to Old Pueblo one of these days. A friend of mine has a team every year there and keeps wanting me to come down. Says a ton of fun.

Yah, it was a long weekend of driving and working. The plus side, the top didn't fly off on the drive home, so there's that!

24HOP is sort of a big party. From a "secret" (not secret) party on Friday night at the Whiskey tree to the rock drop finish line party with mariachi band. I've done it solo/singlespeed and another time we all shared a $40 Kmart bike for the race. I don't think there's a bad way to do it.

 

[SOAZ]

Well, I finished our write up of our weekend drive to Canada and back. We cut the roof off of our truck and drove home hoping it wouldn't fly off, as you do.

The best dumb thing we've done: https://www.dirtsunrise.com/single-post/2018/02/27/The-best-dumb-thing-weve-done

Campteq setup at the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo last weekend. New mosquito netting, bed pads, cabinets etc etc. We finished it up about an hour before leaving for the race. We still have a lot to do. I'd consider it 65% done.

 

[phsycle]

Best part of that set up is the pink flamingos. :sombrero:

 

[SOAZ]

Best part of that set up is the pink flamingos. :sombrero:

They scare away all the mountain lions. :coffeedrink:

 

[phsycle]

Well, I finished our write up of our weekend drive to Canada and back. We cut the roof off of our truck and drove home hoping it wouldn't fly off, as you do.

The best dumb thing we've done: https://www.dirtsunrise.com/single-post/2018/02/27/The-best-dumb-thing-weve-done

Wowweeeee! What a venture! With how it looks now, I bet it was all worth it!

 

[ttora4runner]

That was an epic quick trip.

 

[SOAZ]

Wowweeeee! What a venture! With how it looks now, I bet it was all worth it!

That was an epic quick trip.

Thanks, it was totally worth it, but I'll never try something like that again. Glad we gotterdone!



Dorkle glamor shot.

 

[XJLI]

Hey I found your thread. Everyone is getting on those RA flaps... I have to get myself some, but I prefer the floppies which are much more $. Snorkel looks mint, now you're as cool as that Scion.