Anyone done a Gambler 500 event?

tntmo

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San Diego, CA
I had first heard of the Gambler 500 several years ago, but I couldn't attend one due to my schedule in the military. Well I retired a couple years ago and have been thinking of building a car and having fun. I like having projects, especially ones that are sort of "out there" so this really fits me well. Has anyone here ever been in one of these events? I have a vehicle that I'm considering using, will post updates as I go, if things go in the right direction.

 

tntmo

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649
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San Diego, CA
A while back I picked up a salvage title Lexus IS300 with a quarter of a million miles on it for pretty cheap. It runs good and it's all there for the most part. I've been slowly gathering up parts, buying things and selling things to get it set up the way I want. The car was lowered, which is pretty much the wrong direction for off road use. :D

I recruited a friend to help and we got working on the car. We took off the coil overs and cranked them up as high as we could. Then I cut a 1" HDPE plastic cutting board into some spacers for the top mounts of them. This gave us a few inches of clearance for $15. Then we went to town with the Sawzall and the grinder and removed a bit of the fenders front and rear. The front wheel well needed some gentle massaging with a BFH in order to get full lock to lock turning.

I had decided on running 14" rims because there was a decent off road tire available and it would keep overall tire diameter lower. This meant that we needed wheel spacers to clear the calipers, which also gave the car a wider stance which looks pretty cool but will likely be hard on all the suspension components. Compromise is a requirement! We installed some cheap fender flares, the rears had to be partially mounted to the rear doors but it looks ok. I got a roof rack at the local Pick-A-Part off an SUV, it needed some modifications to work but it's mounted very solidly.

The front bumper was cut down a bit, I think it makes the car look quite aggressive. I want a roof basket, I had the plastic tub laying around so that's what's going on it for now. The car still needs a skid plate to protect the oil pan. Other than that, it's about ready to go. I have lots of other things I'd like to do, but mostly just fun/cosmetic stuff like paint and lights, etc.

Let me know what you think. There might be a local event soon, I'm looking forward to having fun, meeting cool people and helping clean the environment.

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tntmo

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I went for my morning run the other day, some jerk had dumped a pile of trash at the end of our street. This bed frame was in the pile, so after looking at it for a second I decided that it was a blessing in disguise. Instead of seeing a junk bed frame, I look at it as a half fabricated roof rack! :D

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tntmo

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The most important part of a car like this is the go fast stripes. I put three on this car, I wanted to make sure it was plenty fast.

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tntmo

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San Diego, CA
Ian from FourWheeler did up a Mercedes 300d for the Gambler on the last episode.
I saw that, it looks like I'm doing things right because my build is pretty similar. I don't have a winch though, but I do have a tow strap and whiskey.

Today I re-purposed an old bed frame that some jerks dumped at the top of my street a while back. I have been storing it behind my garage for a while knowing that I would think of a good use for it. I shortened it a bit, put some old scrap iron on it for support bars, booger welded it all together (I blame the operator, not the machine) and painted it black. Nice roof frack!

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tntmo

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649
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San Diego, CA
I have added some stickers, more lights and more stripes because there's never enough! Will post pictures later.

My first Gambler event is this weekend in Lucerne Valley, two days of self guided rally including on and off road sections with a camping meet at the end of day one. If anyone is in the area come on out. Will be picking up trash and having fun with the rest of the misfits!
 

tntmo

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Joined
Nov 10, 2017
Messages
649
Location
San Diego, CA
Over the weekend, got to attend my first Gambler 500 event. If you have any interest in this stuff at all, definitely go! Everyone is super cool and you can bring any car/truck/suv/van you have, you don't need to build anything special. I did, just because I wanted to and it was fun but there were people in everything from a rock crawler Ford with three link one ton axles to a completely bone stock Saab. We hauled a few tons of trash out of the desert and had a great time going places some of these vehicles weren't expected to be.

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