Towards the end of March 2020 the Fuso Canter 4x4 FGB71 host vehicle was delivered to our company AAV4x4 - Australian Adventure Vehicles, for the start of our personal Global Xplorer Build.

They say the first cut is the deepest and it is when you get the grinder out to cut into a brand new $70,000 vehicle, there is always some trepidation, be it my vehicle or that of a clients.

All is well though.

Being a long term vehicle, I am bound to drive some of our great beaches.

This vehicle is also planned to be overseas for some years, thus rustproofing was important.

I elected both the Bitumen and the ERPS electronic system.

AAV offer insulation on the floor to deaden the road sound and also offer a further heat shield from the engine.

I went further and it was an entire weekend to strip out everything in the cabin and head/sound shield the entire cabin.

With negative overseas temperature travel in mind this is the main reason.

Perhaps for Australia this extra time & expense would not be necessary.

Meanwhile in Cape Town , Sth Africa the module has been constructed and is now in a container on route to Brisbane.

Around the end of March, the container arrives and unloading begins

There is still much work to be done but at least it now looks like a Global Xplorer.

With clients builds always taking priority it was some time before our personal GX was completed in June 2020.

Now it’s time to do some further remote testing.