2017.04.25 - UPDATE! - VACATION...!!!!!
It was long overdue.... we needed a family vacation. Oddly, we chose to leave the snows of New England... and head to .....the snows of the Rocky Mountains.

It was all planned out, and our bags were packed.... plane tickets in hand, etc. We were heading to Denver, CO.
A few days before the trip, I got a message from a fellow 1st Gen enthusiast (Michael) from Seattle, WA... he was going to be less than 30 minutes away from my house and asked to stop by to see the "MAW" truck.... who could say no?
It's always fun meeting "internet people" in real life. We spent a pleasant hour (or two) talking about trucks and builds, etc. His son Connor snapped the photo to capture the moment.... not a single strand of hair between the two of us!!! HA!
We jumped on the plane to Denver and spent a couple days checking out the city... and the zoo, riding go-karts....eating good food, etc. Made our way up to Boulder and had lunch at "The Sink" and went to Red Rocks to let Charlie experience that. Eventually we made our way all the way up to Breckenridge.... which I guess the locals just call: Breck. Got in a solid day of spring skiing and had a great time.
Once we got back (and did about 6 loads of laundry) there was a little time left to get into the garage... I had previously ordered up some small LEDs to experiment with and installed them in the upper corners of the rollcage to see what the effect would be like for a makeshift dome light.
Even with only 4 LEDs... the effect was pretty blinding... with a dimmer, it was possible to get a nice useable light which will be great for setting up a sleeping bag in the bed, or finding the beer cooler, etc.
It seemed like a winning concept, so the process began to start building metal "gussets" in the cage corners that would hold the LEDs in place.
Each one is slightly different, and the bends in the upper cage bars require some extra effort to build a proper-fitting and good looking gusset... it seems to be working out nicely so far. Before much longer the cage will need to be finish-welded and the through-holes drilled to run all the wires. I'd decided that with a bit of care and proper grommeting, there's really no reason why the wires can't be completely hidden iniside the tubes.... and it will be cool.
To break up the monotony, the rear frame was cleaned up a bit also. New mounts will need to be fabricated to create the landing spots for the bedfloor and underside cageplates. (You can see all the cuts and residual welds from where the rollcage had been welded-down directly to the frame, on the distant framerail)
And.... as luck would have it, Charlie has been obsessed with Go-Karts ever since arriving back from Denver. So I did some research and found a great and inexpensive "starting point" for a fun father/son build...
This is a 24V electric Go-Kart that is already well-documented online... there are instructions to upgrade it to 36V and 48V to increase speed... replacement motors, battery charge options, etc. Charlie wants to design a cool wing for it, and also add metal panels to close-in the sides.... and add some painted flames too. This is going to be a blast.
He wants to call it "The Ghost Car (TGC)"... so look for a new build thread soon!
-G