The build continues with custom work on the floor pan, custom exhaust, and completed wiring. Then we hit the world famous Rubicon trail.
| Brett cut the floor to allow the Atlas transfer case to lay flat. He pieced together metal to cover the hole. This is so well done I have to point it out to people that are looking at the Jeep as it looks stock. |
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| When I open the hood the first thing you see is Jim Piatt's hood lift kit that really works (Every Jeep should have it)! Next, you view the neatest engine conversion you will ever want to see, the blown V6 with its injection system looks like it supposed to be there, even the heater hoses line up from the engine to the firewall (stock Jeeps never did). Fuses that were installed in a tidy row make the engine compartment a pleasure to look at protect the ARB pump and all the electronics. Nothing looks out of place. |
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| The end result is a great looking Jeep with exceptional ground clearance as nothing hangs down. |
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| Unlike any other off road vehicle that I have owned over the past 37 years, I now have one that I was not wrenching on the night before the trip. This I know is almost disgraceful. We all know in the Jeeping world that you have to be working on it right up until it is time to leave for the trip. It sure felt good to get a good nights sleep. I guess I'm just getting old. |
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| My wife Judy, in the last 42 years has put up with many trials and tribulations concerning that night before a run madness. We both worried a little as we set out in a not quite finished or marginal project vehicle. We both had some doubts about the mechanical degree of readiness the vehicles of the past had for those trips. Well that was the past this is the present. |
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| This year we signed up for the 53rd annual Rubicon Trip presented by the Auburn Jeep Club of which I'm a life member. |
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| New vehicle and degraded skills we headed out for the Auburn Jeep Club camp. We left at 3:30 PM Friday headed up 193 through Georgetown, stopping of course at Uncle Tom's Cabin (a requirement) then continuing up the new road to Ice House Rd to the Loon Lake turnoff across the dam, through the trees and the gatekeeper. The trail is fairly rough in a couple of spots but we arrive in camp at 7:15 PM still looking good |
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