Project Rusty Buildup Thread!

[Damian Grihalva]

Indy gets a little boring for about 45 feet....


... till you get to this little obstacle. Pull a tire on it and take some poser shots!



...then another 45-50 feet later you reach the crossroads. To the right is Patriot, the hardest, but shortest way through Indy. Straight is Liberty, its really long (1/2 mile) but not as difficult. We hung a right and drove up Patriots entrance!





That's the hard part of the entrance, then you get a little break (the section between me and rusty) and then you get a nice sized rock you need to drive over.


Same position, from the front


Here's mike in the same spot:

[Damian Grihalva]

A little drive....


And you find yourself at the begining of the Air-Hole.


AirHole is a large bath-tube-ish area that most people get into and the front passenger tire heads skyward. Here's Rusty flexing through it:


Most people that don't have sweetly set up rigs end up like this:


After A-hole you drive for a bit (another 40-50 feet) and get to Coffin Rock. Rusty climbed it easy ~ and that's the RIGHT line.




To give more perspective on how tall that ledge is. Here's Mike on the same line.




For me, its just under arm-pit height high (I'm 6').

[Damian Grihalva]

After another drive ~ this one about 60 feet ~ you get to the exit. Its a pretty nasty thing, but its a rush all the same. I've almost tipped over backward twice on it now, but I still have been able to drive out without a winch or strap. :grinpimp:

No pictures of me going it, but here's Mike making it look hard! :evil: ~ JK Mike! You can see how steep parts of this trail really are in this pic.

And I know some guys that have ended up at the bottom on accident!

Needless to say, we hooked Mike's winch to the back of Rusty to make sure he didn't go over. He used the winch a little bit, but still climbed out relatively easy.




Well that's a virtual tour of Indy and the end of Rusty's build. Hope you liked Rusty's buildup and his trip first wheeling trip captured on 'film'. I've got to say that I'm STOKED that Rusty works so well. I'm going to be sad to see it go ~ in case you didn't know, Rusty's for sale ~ but I'm extremely pleased with the way it came out (as far as performance, comfort, ease of driving, and looks).

But I get my jollies from building ~ wheelin' is good and fun, and a terriffic stress reducer, but my joy is pushing the envelope ~ and its time to get onto building my next buggy. It'll be allot like Rusty in many ways, but completely different in others. I don't think it'll be as capable as Rusty is, so I'm going to have to get cracking and practice my [wheeling] moves ~ but it'll allow me to 'one-up' myself. I know Rusty is a huge build that came out great ~ some may question how I can one-up it, but trust me ~ what I've got in mind is definately a more complex and challanging build ~ and I can't wait to get to it.

I'll update this thread with little stuff I do with Rusty (there's some wiring to finish, cleaning and painting ~ stuff like that). I'll also post pictures as time and energy allow.

Thanks again for everyones input on this build. That's to those who've sat for hours reading it. And if you're looking for a great buggy with VERY low miles. Remember: It can be yours!

[Damian Grihalva]

Well, I dropped off Rusty last Wednesday morning. The new owner, Chuck, lives in ID and after taking a test ride on Friday around his house ~ decided to run a local rock crawl event. After less than a day of seat time, Chuck reported taking second place against 35 other rigs, 5 of which were competition built rigs and teams that actually compete in various nationally recognized rock crawl guys.

Here's a picture


I'm looking for more pictures, will post as soon as I find some.

[Damian Grihalva]

Oh, while I'm at it, I might as well give my award to the best 'discovery' from this build. I haven't done this in the past ~ at least publically. Basically, I think I will from now on ~ and even change some of the old builds to include this 'discovery award' ~ or as I like to say "Item I won't build without" award.

Background: Thoughout all my builds, I learn one thing or another. In each build, there are some parts I use, and others I will not use again. For example ~ My last build, Snoopy (aka Beater Buildup) proved the awesome performance of Ram assisted steering and the absolute comfort of Corbeau seats. These two items really shined and became members of the 'Items I won't build without' club. Hence you see that Rusty sported Corbeau Baja Utra WIDE seats, and Performance Offroad's Hydraulic Ram steering.

However, unlike Snoopy's build ~ Rusty incorperated several new items that I hadn't used before ~ on a personal rig. There was the Coil-over shocks, full link syspension, AFI's fuel injection system, IROK tires, and a few others. Similar to before, Rusty's build did include one componant that really REALLY shined ~ proving its worth and has hence has become an 'Item I wouldn't build without' ~ Can you guess what it is?
















Affordable Fuel Injections TBI conversion (Part IH1200 on their website or the Stage2 kit on ours) easily takes the 'Item I won't build without' award for this build. Yes the DUI dissy was one of the products that really showed its worth, but you learn something while driving either on the side of the rig or with the nose skyward and front tire 3-4 FEET off the ground. And that is the absolute blessing of being able to step on the gas and the engine responds.

Snoopy studdered once or twice ~ and I mention how gratefull I have been for well-tuned carbs, but the TBI system installed on rusty's otherwise stock 345 was simply the best modification I could have done on this build.

The following stories are true:

Story 1:
I kid you not ~ while driving out of the Independance Trail system, Allen and I were chatting about how Rusty was doing. Not paying too much attention to what I was doing I found myself a little right of the 'right' line. We were effortlessly climbing an incredable ledge, then Allen and I got a little quiet when we stopped seeing tree tops and started seeing nothing but sky. A quick glance up through Rusty's roof showed me the trail BEHIND me ~ and a as I looked over at Allen and he looked at me ~ both of us a little surprised/shocked at what was about to happen. Needless to say, I stopped feathering the gas and instead of flipping over backwards, Rusty slowly settled back down on the front tires. "I think we should try another line" I stated. "Ya" was the reply. And I backed up a foot or two and hugged the left side and we made the exit without any further incident.

Things like that give you the 'butterflies-in-the-stomach and 'cold-feeling across your forehead' you get when a cop pulls you over. And although I didn't really notice it at the time ~ the ability to simply let off the gas, choose another line and go up it without any problems whatsoever can be contributed directly to the performance of the TBI system.

STORY 2

Another such story is when I was climbing through AirHole (same trail). It was my first trip through Indy, I didn't have a spotter or any other rigs with me. Needless to say, it was 3 years since I drove the trail and I didn't have the right line. Rusty was sandwiched in the hole, front tires against the walls in front, rear tires blocked by the walls in back, and I was at at least a 45* angle towards the driver's side.

My wheeling companion for the trip was a member of my church's bishopric ~ who never saw extreme wheeling before. I'll be honest, while chatting with him, I was literally looking up at him ~ not just because he's tall, but he was literally above me while sitting next to me. Needless to say, he wasn't about to get out and tell me where to go from there.

While sitting there I realized the perdicament I was in. No other rigs, no winch, nothing to strap to or with ~ and I could hear the valve train start to click from the lack of oil preasure. If I were carbed, I would have been 'dead-stick' ~ not running. But I wasn't, engine was running, Joe and I were there looking at each other thinking 'what now'. Instead of panicing, I put Rusty in first gear, feathered the throttle, then a little more, then a little more...then presto ~ Rusty climbed the wall in front of us and we were free and making forward progress. Once we exited the Airhole I stopped and let the oil preasure build back up while Joe and I got out, took a look at what we just came through ~ and did a little victory dance.

In this last example there was a few things that saved our bacon. The D60 axles w/ alloy shafts held together under EXTREME preasure. The IROK tires never gave a moment of no-traction, the cut up and clearance body and cage work made clearance when clearance was needed ~ but if you take away the engine running ~ none of those items would have saved us alone. It was the TBI system that kept reliable power and a running engine. How different Rusty would be without this key componant of the build.

For those reasons and many more un noticed incidents ~ the AFI TBI conversion makes the 'Item I won't build without' list. OH, and if you're thinking that I'm getting a monitary benifet for saying this, think again. I give credit where credit's due ~ and that's why AFI is getting this 'award'. GREAT JOB and a GREAT PRODUCT ~ AFI will be hearing from me again....and again.....and....you get the picture.

[Damian Grihalva]

Just got word of an online video of Rusty at the comp. Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HZzSSeA4T4

[Damian Grihalva]

Its been a while since I updated this thread. I know Rusty is gone to another guy, but I just got some pictures emailed to me so I figured I'd share them.... Man-o-man, do I love seeing this thing on the trail.








:smokin:

[Damian Grihalva]

More:

[Damian Grihalva]

Rusty on White Knuckle Hill (Behind the Rocks Trail, Moab)

[Damian Grihalva]

All for now.