How does it feel being honoured with the nomination for Z.O.O.M. 2016?
bit of a surprise, my jimny is pretty mediocre & my lj's a work in progress, guess if it has to be someone it might as well be me but must be scraping the bottom of the barrel lol.
So tell us about yourself. Who are you, What's the meaning to your username, Where do you live, and what do you do for a living?
well my user name is just my after hours business name abbreviated 'GraphicXpressions', which is primarily freelance photography. my full time job is as a graphic designer at a local print & sign shop. i'm also in the samfs as a retained fire fighter.
outside of work i'm a father of 4, enjoy fishing & camping & of course 4wding is just a natural extension of that. being in the southern flinders ranges & also on the spencer gulf here in south australia really accommodates all those activities too.
How did you get started in Suzuki's & how many have you owned?
mate at work introduced me to them. initially encouraging me to buy a gq patrol, which i eventually sold & upgraded to the jimny. the jimny came about as he told me about the beachport trips he did with the AZ guys & showed me pictures of their jimnys. to me the jimny just looked like a mini-patrol & ideal as a daily drive plus offroader so i just decided to get one.
since fiddling with the jimny & spending a bit too much time on AZ i've ended up buy an lj50, tried to buy an lj80 & will soon be buying an lj50v as a parts car.
picture of lj50:
How long did it take you to build your zook to what it is today?
i haven't actually had the car for 2 full years yet so not long, but it's not exactly setup for extreme adventuring, more a compromise between daily use & off road.
Any changes in store for your Suzuki?
i have a 110amp falcon alternator sitting on the bench in the shed, a dual use deep cycle battery on order so they're imminent. after that i'm looking at a 6000lb winch. i don't foresee too much after that as it pretty well has everything i want, well i'd like some new front seats maybe.
What has been your best modification?
easily the baleno G16B. after fitting the larger tyres the car just lost all of its zip. the G13BB was also gunking up & of course getting slooooow & the G16B has just turned out to be a real gem of an engine *touchwood*.
picture of new engine fitted;
What has been your worst modification?
another easy one, the 2" eBay lift kit, what a piece of junk ! nothing wrong with the king springs, but the ultra king shocks simply aren't for a jimny. when compressed they're far too long & resulted in a bent & torn front shock mount. they're also far too hard for the car & you could literally stand on the tow bar, bounce up & down & get no suspension movement.
picture repairing the shock mount:
If you could have anybody else's zook, who's would it be and why?
can't recall the person's name, but there's a couple of fantastic looking lj50 soft tops i see on facebook from time to time. would simply love one in great condition which i'm hoping to return mine to. apart from that i don't mind jezza's 'the underdog' or steve's 'hedgepig'. something about the sierras i really like & they've got their cars setup fairly well for what they do.
What has been your best 4wding trip?
i've done 4wd trips, but the best are always fishing/camping trips where the 4wd just compliments it. had a blast at mills beach which isn't far from cowell in south australia. fishing was great but had the gq back then. also a few trips to cadell on the murray have been awesome as well, but not 4wd trips, 4wd just engaged to deal with the soft sand & get to & from the campsite.
If you could go to any place in the world to wheel, where would that be?
anywhere in tasmania, as i'd only be within a few ks of some of the best fishing spots around no matter where it was.
Tell us what the wheeling is like in your area?
in all honesty it's not great. like a lot of places they're either closed off, too far away or the land owners charge far too much for driving on what is essentially paddocks. further north, past port augusta it's meant to be brilliant, but here in the southern flinders ranges there is very little.
here's a pic taken on the bridle track, not far from where i live:
What is it about the auszookers that brings you back for more?
the shear amount of information here with people really being creative in how to achieve what they want from their vehicles, but at the same time being really open about how they did it & sharing.
What about the auszookers forum would you like to see changed?
the physical site is pretty rubbish if i had to be honest. it shows that the people who ran the place lost interest & just left it to look after itself. would be great to see it set up on invision powerboard, with the new owners pushing new life into the place as well. time will tell i guess. recently bigjimny.com underwent some changes & it's very good, be great to see AZ take it a step further.
Now for the million dollar question, who do you select to be the next Z.O.O.M. & why?
I've chatted with that Ackery Dackery fella, used his website too, be great for it to be him.
love the LJ