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The Nefarious Island Rock Monkeys are a group of people who are dedicated to four wheeling, the four wheeling life style, and to helping keep this site on the Web.

I guess it is different things to different members, but for me it has always been a little more than just supporting the site.

At times it seems like we have gotten away from the roots, but get-togethers like this are a big part of what it is about for me. Friends helping friends.

Whenever a member needs something done, whether it be working on a truck, moving their home or doing something special for another N.I.R.M member, we're there to help each other.

Saturday:

Ah the joys of spring...in Victoria. I was hoping for a decent weekend weather wise, but instead we got dumped on (in Victoria terms anyway...really just a light sprinkling of snow).

The idea was to get some work done on my J-20, and do some work on other N.I.R.M member's trucks at the same time. As usually we seemed to spend more time on everyone else's trucks and not mine.

Oh well, it's all for a good cause anyway. Courtnee had a little surprise organized for Keith. She bought him some real turn signals (LED style) to replace the zap-strapped (to the grill) stock Toyota units, and a new U-joint for the front drive-shaft

Timo did the light install, and CB wiring for the new Cobra that Rosie had bought Keith for Xmas.

Ibby and Cody, with a little help from the other monkeys hangin' around the shop worked on Keith's drive-shaft. Turns out that what was thought to be a bad U-joint was actually a bad slip yoke fit. I just happened to have a Toyota front shaft kicking around so I donated that to the cause.

We also spent some time working on Keith's front lift shackles. After doing a CJ spring swap and cross-member spring hanger drop, Keith's pinion angle was really bad. Instead of reinstalling stock shackles, Ibby cut the centre braces out of the Conferr Shackles, and re-drilled the spring mounting holes to reduce the amount of lift by a 3/4". Without the centre braces he should realize a little more flex, and with less lift his pinion angle was improved.

Unfortunately we didn't have the right sized drill bit for re-drilling his shackles (silly Toyota thing). Not a problem though, we had the Dremel Master with us. Ibby drilled the holes out with a 5/8" drill bit, then used his trusty Dremel tool to enlarge the holes to the correct size. A little time consuming, but Ibby is one dedicated grease monkey.

Well, like I said I wanted to get the engine swap started on the J-20, but the weather wasn't being very cooperative. It was damn cold, and later it started to snow. Bucky, Ibby and I did manage to get the '79 Cherokee engine donor moved from the front of my house to the driveway next to the J-20. 4 wheel drives and forklifts go hand in hand.

Also, later on Brent-Lift started draining the propane system on the Cherokee. The shut off valve needs a little work it seems so I want the tank drained and have that repaired.

We had also planned on working on Connie's Toyota, and Tarrant's YJ. Due to the bad weather it wasn't easy to get motivated to work on more than one truck at a time since we could do that in the warmth of the Pink Barn.

I had a look at Connie's door hinges that were badly worn. They are a sealed unit, in other words you have to buy a whole hinge instead of just installing new bushings like some vehicle door hinges. She priced them out at about $60 a pop at the dealer. That would be a little pricey for four new ones for the two doors. I had a look around the yard because I have three sets of Toyota doors. I found only one set that still had hinges, and they were a little FUBARed too. Not a problem though, I am going to use those ones to make some new pins and bushings from some stainless steel and brass round stock. Turns out that Keith's Toyota is going to need this fix to.

Connie still needs major suspension work done on her truck that we didn't get to on the Sat. because we spent so much time on Keith's truck. I guess Connie is used to it by now, but for me riding as a passenger in it I have to say it is the stiffest truck I have ever rode in.

Next up was Tarrant's YJ. Tarrant has done a good job on some of the modifications since buying the Jeep, but the previous owner(s) did some pretty messed up funkey monkeying to this thing. I always get a kick out of "previous owner mods".

Ibby worked on the broken shock and the shock head that was still attached to the mount. I tackled the goofy dual shock set-up, and the hole in the exhaust. Ibby always gets the fun (read: tough) jobs. I cut one of the dual steering stabilizers out, and tossed it in my parts pile. In case you are not aware, if you bring your truck over to my place and receive free work, it is always welcomed when left-overs are left over if you get my meaning.

The steering stabilizer was actually attached to the driver's side spring pack. One of the goofiest things I've seen in a while. All that is needed is one quality stabilizer designed to handle the larger tires. I also TIG welded a patch over a hole in his exhaust pipe. The pipe was routed too close to the front drive-shaft, and as a result the shaft would rub the pipe. It eventually ate a elongated hole in the pipe. I took a section of some scrap exhaust pipe in the shop, cut it down and pounded it a bit to make it fit relatively close tolerance for a good weld. It's hard to TIG weld in these circumstances (especially with a foot pedal), and my finger is still fairly useless since almost cutting it off, but I managed to at least seal the pipe (if not a pretty weld).

That's about all the work we got done. Not as much as hoped, but monkey dung happens. It was just cool to hang out in the shop with the wood burner going, making fun with friends, and watching the snow come down outside etc. Some monkeys played around with the TIG welder, we ate pizza, made fun of each other, and generally had a great little N.I.R.M shop day. Those day dreams of having a fully equipped N.I.R.M Garage are starting to become more frequent for me.

Sunday:

Brian and I whipped down the road a bit, and scooped yet another project! Hee hee...just can't help it I guess. When things come cheap, for trade or free it is hard to say no to that little voice in my head

Anyway...a project to get started on later...

Still have to get the J-20 going, strip the GMC, Pony, Nissan, Cherokee, and drag the other Suzuki out to get started on that. Not only that, but the J-20 wants to be a CJ-20 when it grows up so...off to work I go...

Written by jo-jo

Ibsen get's downright serious...