My plan had been to wait quite a while, storing up photos as I went... then start a thread about this and meter in the pictures over several days ... making it look like I was really fast at fabrication.
That's a stupid idea.
There are a couple of reasons why.
First of all, I owe a debt of gratitude to several of the good friends I've made here on these FJ Cruiser Forums just to have gotten this far and learned this much already. Failure to acknowledge this, and to pretend that I was able to quickly whip together a crawler based on my own merits as a garage fabricator would represent the extreme of selfishness and false pretense.
Second, there are many people who are as curious as I am, who are as enthusiastic as I am, but who either lack means or drive to launch into an ill-conceived plan such as this one... and to those I can offer the most valuable service of reporting the unedited and painful (and often expensive) truths that I learn along the way. For some it will be useful information that will help them avoid pitfalls that I find... the hard way. For others it might be the vicarious thrill of watching someone else suffer needlessly for their entertainment. After all, people love a good reality-TV show. This may be no different.
Lastly, and this may (or may not) come as a shock to some on here who have read my posts... I have a habit of typing, and typing a LOT. Therefore, I can think of nothing better than to keep a running narrative of my project, both physical and mental aspects... even if there are NO forum members that choose to read it.
If I *don't* type it here, I'll likely try to explain these thoughts to my wife, my daughters, my dog, my residents, my professional colleagues or anyone else who happens to get unfortunately cornered by me when my mind is locked into project mode.
In order to avoid that potential social suicide, I choose instead to start this thread now, rather than to wait.
That's a stupid idea.
There are a couple of reasons why.
First of all, I owe a debt of gratitude to several of the good friends I've made here on these FJ Cruiser Forums just to have gotten this far and learned this much already. Failure to acknowledge this, and to pretend that I was able to quickly whip together a crawler based on my own merits as a garage fabricator would represent the extreme of selfishness and false pretense.
Second, there are many people who are as curious as I am, who are as enthusiastic as I am, but who either lack means or drive to launch into an ill-conceived plan such as this one... and to those I can offer the most valuable service of reporting the unedited and painful (and often expensive) truths that I learn along the way. For some it will be useful information that will help them avoid pitfalls that I find... the hard way. For others it might be the vicarious thrill of watching someone else suffer needlessly for their entertainment. After all, people love a good reality-TV show. This may be no different.
Lastly, and this may (or may not) come as a shock to some on here who have read my posts... I have a habit of typing, and typing a LOT. Therefore, I can think of nothing better than to keep a running narrative of my project, both physical and mental aspects... even if there are NO forum members that choose to read it.
If I *don't* type it here, I'll likely try to explain these thoughts to my wife, my daughters, my dog, my residents, my professional colleagues or anyone else who happens to get unfortunately cornered by me when my mind is locked into project mode.
In order to avoid that potential social suicide, I choose instead to start this thread now, rather than to wait.
