In spite of our own trials and tribulation, my wife and I remind ourselves of this every single day. There are alternatives that could be far worse!
So we bought a Jeep—2006 LJR
- Thread starter DaveF
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That’s the healthiest attitude,Dave, although certainly hard to keep at times. As I think you know, I know exactly what it’s like when it goes the other way.
I found the only way to do this is not watch CNN, MSNBC, or FOX for one day.
Agreed... the positive though I guess is it makes it even sweeter when we can enjoy days out, the good days...
I pretty much never watch the news... my sanity can't handle it.I found the only way to do this is not watch CNN, MSNBC, or FOX for one day.
MountaineerTom
LJ Enthusiast, Retired USAF Weapons Loader
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Sometimes on days my wife feels at her worst and is really down, she will say something similar to me. I have to reassure her every time that I ain’t going anywhere.
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My wife had said the same to me when she was gong through Chemo and Radiation for cancer 2 years ago. We got thought it, but she still has a few side effects. The sad part is like this forum my wife is on a women's cancer forum and she you would surprised that guys have left their wives when they found out that they had cancer. What a bunch of A Holes, if this cancer would have happened to me I don't know how I could get though it without my wife by my side everyday like I was for her. I guess some guys don't truly believe " in sickness and in health" in their wedding vows
Her best friend found out she had brain cancer last March and I think she will no longer be with us in a few more months. After these events we said Fuck This Shit we need to start living. So we sold our old cabin upgraded to a nicer Mountain Home, I started working 4 days a week and taking 3 days weekends. We will towing the jeep to Sedona AZ on Friday for a week and will be jeeping with a couple of guys from this forum on Sunday. Taking a side trip to the Grand Canyon.
You never know when god will be calling you or your wife's name to come home. At 66 we said live life like there is no tomorrow because you never know when your last day here will be.
We weren't married yet, we'd been engaged for like 3 weeks when she first found out about the ITP and was in the ICU... she tried to give me an out then too... but as Blaine said earlier.. that was never really an option.My wife had said the same to me when she was gong through Chemo and Radiation for cancer 2 years ago. We got thought it, but she still has a few side effects. The sad part is like this forum my wife is on a women's cancer forum and she you would surprised that guys have left their wives when they found out that they had cancer. What a bunch of A Holes, if this cancer would have happened to me I don't know how I could get though it without my wife by my side everyday like I was for her. I guess some guys don't truly believe " in sickness and in health" in their wedding vows
Her best friend found out she had brain cancer last March and I think she will no longer be with us in a few more months. After these events we said Fuck This Shit we need to start living. So we sold our old cabin upgraded to a nicer Mountain Home, I started working 4 days a week and taking 3 days weekends. We will towing the jeep to Sedona AZ on Friday for a week and will be jeeping with a couple of guys from this forum on Sunday. Taking a side trip to the Grand Canyon.
You never know when god will be calling you or your wife's name to come home. At 66 we said live life like there is no tomorrow because you never know when your last day here will be.
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I have no idea what kind of person could abandon someone in that situation, but it's definitely not the kind I try to be.
My wife is also a cancer survivor (thyroid) and we both understand that life can be fleeting so we definitely are working hard to get to a point we can retire a bit early (current goal is 2030 I'd be 59, she'd be 61) but we are also trying to take every opportunity to live life today as well.
B00mb00m
The Church of Cutting Brakes of Atlas-Front Digs
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Hey how did those big old JL's do at Evans? I'd like to replace that yota with a coilovered LJ in light khaki metallic.
Hey how did those big old JL's do at Evans? I'd like to replace that yota with a coilovered LJ in light khaki metallic.
I'll go back with you sometime, it's quite a drive to get there but a cool place. I suspect with the rains coming in though it will become a slip and slide.
so we had 18 vehicles split into 2 groups, of them there were like 7 or 8 4 door JK/JL's... I think 5 or 6 of them lost fenders
Total damage total for the group I was with is as follows:
JL's
2x ripped off rear fenders
2x broken rear tail lights (only one was the same as the fender)
2x broken front marker lights on front fender
1x rear passenger door with an 18" gouge put in it
1x plastic wheel hub shattered (WHY do people wheel with these?!?!?!? )
WJ
1x destroyed steel winch line (user error)
1x broken tail light
Toyota
2x new dents on truck bed sides (both sides)
CJ
1x soft top tear along top edge
Dave,Between flooded basements, wheeling and vacations, and other life items I haven't had time to do much to the Jeep worth posting here. I've talked to a few about how my wife and I got into Jeeping, and I thought I'd share a bit about that, why I am staunchly pro Covid vaccination, why my wife and I were absurdly careful about distancing from others in 2020, and how our Jeep has changed our lives.
My wife has an auto immune disorder called ITP (don't ask me to spell the full name). Basically ITP is her immune system attacking her own platelets and killing them faster than she produces them. Platelets if anyone doesn't know are what causes your blood to clot and without them, a simple bump on the head can be fatal. Her ITP showed itself shortly after we got engaged some 16 years ago, and did in fact nearly kill her, as she was in the ICU for 3 days and the doctors told me she had less than a 30% chance to live. Covid has made the past year (pre vaccine) very scary, if she got covid, her immune system would go into overdrive trying to fight it, which would then in turn drop her platelets to zero... the very drugs used to fight the covid infection, would be highly likely to kill her.
Since then we have had to change how we live, including how we spend our free time. For some time we had a boat, and a motorcycle, with long term plans to travel the country on the bike, but over time we found it was just too dangerous for her to ride so we used the bike less and less. Low platelets, and the brittle bones she now has thanks to the drugs (basically chemo) she has had to take over the years just makes riding too dangerous.
I kept thinking about what we could do, a hobby we could enjoy and still get out doors but keep her safe, when one day driving home I saw a built Jeep, and the idea entered my head... we talked it over and a bit over 3 years ago we went ahead and I sold the bike and boat and used the money to buy our LJ. I miss the boat and bike sometimes, but we LOVE the Jeep, and I never regret the change.
Since that day, and especially the past year or so with covid which unvaccinated would outright kill her, the LJ has been our refuge, our way out of the house where she can ride in relative safety but still get out doors.
All this has come to mind since back in July we had a 40 person film crew come to the house and film her in a testimonial for a new drug that has really changed her life, our lives. She's acting as an ambassador for the drug, trying to spread the word to others with ITP that this option exists, just as she does with the support group she leads here in Seattle.
The coolest thing is that my wife is the star in the video as she talks about her ITP story, but the co-star is the Jeep, because a big part of her ITP story is the impact the Jeep, and wheeling in the outdoors has had for us. It was so awesome that they wanted to put footage of her in the Jeep in this story. If anyone wants to see pictures of what a film crew invading your house looks like, I can post those too
Posting the video link below, feel free to watch or not, but I just wanted to share and say thanks to everyone on here who has helped me with this Jeep, from small to big questions because the Jeep has truly changed our lives for the better.
I just got a few minutes to watch this. That presentation was so well done I would have thought she was an actress playing the part. and not a real person. I can't fathom what you have both been through and will continue to do so. Even with all of this you are lucky lucky man to have such a beautiful and strong women by your side. Don't forget to tell her that every day.
18 minute video out of a 16 hour shooting dayDave,
I just got a few minutes to watch this. That presentation was so well done I would have thought she was an actress playing the part. and not a real person. I can't fathom what you have both been through and will continue to do so. Even with all of this you are lucky lucky man to have such a beautiful and strong women by your side. Don't forget to tell her that every day.
they took a lot of takes and did a good job piecing it together. Really not exaggerating the 40 man crew... I counted them! And yeah, the catering was pretty damn good for free food all day The filming was even live streamed back east where they had the product and legal advisors on a conference call nitpicking.
B00mb00m
The Church of Cutting Brakes of Atlas-Front Digs
Supporting Member
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GEEZ thats a lot of rigs. Glad to hear they had to pay for their size a bitI'll go back with you sometime, it's quite a drive to get there but a cool place. I suspect with the rains coming in though it will become a slip and slide.
so we had 18 vehicles split into 2 groups, of them there were like 7 or 8 4 door JK/JL's... I think 5 or 6 of them lost fenders
Total damage total for the group I was with is as follows:
JL's
2x ripped off rear fenders
2x broken rear tail lights (only one was the same as the fender)
2x broken front marker lights on front fender
1x rear passenger door with an 18" gouge put in it
1x plastic wheel hub shattered (WHY do people wheel with these?!?!?!? )
WJ
1x destroyed steel winch line (user error)
1x broken tail light
Toyota
2x new dents on truck bed sides (both sides)
CJ
1x soft top tear along top edge
Thats a respectable bit of superficial damage (especially the door). I went to Evans with a guy on my like 3rd time wheeling. It was pretty rad but that was when i drove to survive and didnt go seeking anything cool out. I think cutting brakes at Evans would be a blast. Lots of tight turns to experiment on. I've wanted to go back but never have made the trek back down.
Might make another good camping weekend... it was a very long day as a day trip, left the house at 7am, got home at 11:30pm. But we did decide to run the last few trails after dark which was awesome.GEEZ thats a lot of rigs. Glad to hear they had to pay for their size a bit
So, finally time to start a new project... installing new Genright Mini Boatside sliders. I have been told the ones I have were made by Fab Fours, though I cannot validate this as their website doesn't even show TJ/LJ products :/ The previous owner put these on and they worked enough that they fell way down on the list of projects... but I don't like how they have no bracing on the inside, they don't go wheel well to wheel well, and they don't have a shape I like
Here is the existing slider:
Here you can see the shape at the bottom corner of the tub, they actually drop down and protrude a bit, and I hit them on rocks on this corner regularly.
I spent over 4 hours to remove just the passenger side slider :/ ... there were 4 bolts through the side of the tub which were easy, but there were 16 small screws underneath that look like the one below... I was able to remove about 1/3 of them with just a screw driver but the rest took some combination of impact driver, or drilling to remove as they were so rusted/corroded.
With them finally off, here is what was left behind.
I took the fender flares off and started cleaning things up and folded under the pinch seam then did this one test fit to see 1. what I need to change and 2. how I could lift it up in place, as you can see not well.
Here is a photo of the test fit... the jack stands just 'sort of' hold it in place and I had to use multiple pieces of wood to actually get enough height on the jack to lift it to the tub... going to have to find a better plan as I know I need to press it up better (and safer) than that.
Here is the existing slider:
Here you can see the shape at the bottom corner of the tub, they actually drop down and protrude a bit, and I hit them on rocks on this corner regularly.
I spent over 4 hours to remove just the passenger side slider :/ ... there were 4 bolts through the side of the tub which were easy, but there were 16 small screws underneath that look like the one below... I was able to remove about 1/3 of them with just a screw driver but the rest took some combination of impact driver, or drilling to remove as they were so rusted/corroded.
With them finally off, here is what was left behind.
I took the fender flares off and started cleaning things up and folded under the pinch seam then did this one test fit to see 1. what I need to change and 2. how I could lift it up in place, as you can see not well.
Here is a photo of the test fit... the jack stands just 'sort of' hold it in place and I had to use multiple pieces of wood to actually get enough height on the jack to lift it to the tub... going to have to find a better plan as I know I need to press it up better (and safer) than that.
Looking good! Is that dirt showing after you took the slider off or a bit of rust? can we get a picture of the under side of the slider?
great build so far.
great build so far.
Yeah mostly dirt... I wiped it down and most came off. There is a bit of what looks like rust color left but I'm not sure if it's the body rusted or just rust from the back side of the slider.. will be doing more cleaning of it before I do the final assembly, probably scuff up the whole bottom and coat with primer/paint to cover up anything scratched/bare from drilling etc.
you want a pic of the underside of the new slider? I can do that when I get a chance sure.
No, there is no cutting of the tub at all, you take a persuader tool (BFH) and bend what I guess is called the pinch seam back about 60 degrees but no cutting of the body. I will need to make some modifications to my MetalCloak fenders to make it fit with them, and the new ones are cut long at the factory and you have to trim them to fit your wheel wells... Those will be the next steps once I figure out a better way to push it up into position so I can mark/cut accurately... well, as accurately as I can
Looking forward to seeing the install, if you can be detailed that would be great. Likely adding these in the future.No, there is no cutting of the tub at all, you take a persuader tool (BFH) and bend what I guess is called the pinch seam back about 60 degrees but no cutting of the body. I will need to make some modifications to my MetalCloak fenders to make it fit with them, and the new ones are cut long at the factory and you have to trim them to fit your wheel wells... Those will be the next steps once I figure out a better way to push it up into position so I can mark/cut accurately... well, as accurately as I can
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