Before I got my first set of wheels (which in my case meant a BMX bike), I was Mark’s slave, I mean “assistant”, helping him modify his muscle cars. You know, I was the pesky little brother making his older brothers work way slower than it needed to be as I probably asked a million questions. It’s all a blur, but the most memorable car he had (to me anyways) was his 1970 383 4-Barrel Challenger. That was the first time I saw the guts of an engine where he was swapping to a bigger cam. That was an eye opening day for me!

Ever since then, I’ve been hooked. My first car was a 1969 Pontiac Firebird that I scraped and saved and bought for $500. Don’t get all excited, that thing had more rust than it had sheetmetal. The engine was seized, the interior was trashed, and it was half blue, half primer painted. I learned to rebuild an engine, rebuild a transmission (and I’ll never do that ever again), replace U-Joints, swap interiors (from a pick-n-pull junkyard), replace a headliner, repair window regulators, bodywork, and pretty much anything else that goes in a car.

Since those muscle car days, I’ve mostly been a BMW 3-Series fanatic starting with a 1983 320i, and have owned at least one model over the past 20 years. Focusing mainly on tune-up type stuff, brakes, audio system upgrades, and car care to keep that paint shiny and the leather supple. That is until recently, I’m exploring some new territory with four wheeling in a 2000 Lexus LX470 (Toyota Land Cruiser equivalent). I have aspirations to turn it into a light overlanding rig. It was a great buy but it needs way more work than I originally expected (cooling system complete overhaul, ball joints, a bazillion bushings, hydraulic suspension overhaul and electronic tuning, etc, etc, etc)! Follow along, I have plans to add a section to this site for the build of this Cruiser.