Sorry people who don't exist (or I don't know, who knows, maybe I've got a million followers and don't realize it). I got a new job, moved to a new city, started and try to maintain said job, etc. I haven't posted in forever. I don't know if I'll be able to too often going forward, it's not like anything's really changing in my current life (and that's ok!), but just so you know because I know you're worried, I'm alive and well as is the Colonel.
And about the Colonel! Nothing's really changed since I posted last. Moving is expensive and it wiped me out. Recently I've been spending on other hobbies and haven't put anything new on the Jeep. But all that changed today!
I bit the bullet. I put some money down on a lift! 2.5" Teraflex lift with Rancho RS9000xl shocks and a Rancho control arm. I'm having it installed, so beaucoup bucks. But if I tried to install it myself? Well, that would be impossible. If I enlisted the help of a friend I don't have, I don't even know enough to know if we would be doing it right. So heck with it, I'll pay for convenience on this (although I think it would have been a lot of fun to learn how to do it myself).
Just getting the lift at this point. Later I'll put some BFG All Terrain 35s on that bad boy and I'll have a tank. Until then I'll be cruising 2.5 inches higher on factory wheels and tires. :-/
Anyway, I'll try to get on again and post pics. Finally something to talk about! And if you'd like to help me out with tires, just send all of your money to Discount Tire on my behalf. haha
Saturday, February 20, 2016
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Mountain Trip Forthcoming! Supply run...
My dad and I are going to take a trip to the Arkansas mountains this weekend (that's the current plan anyway). I decided to take this opportunity to stock up on some things I'd been meaning to get. I got some towel seat covers (these guys) (in yellow of course) that I wished I'd had a couple weeks ago while at the beach. I also got some other little things: a flashlight, a fire starter thingy, fire tinder thingies, a tow strap cuz you never know, a rain poncho to make the single one I currently carry around an official set of two, and a "space blanket" (glorified thermal blanket that doubles as a tarp, seat cover, tons of stuff) to also make the one I have a set of two. I had an REI gift card and I also got an emergency medical kit with it. I hope I have a place to put all this stuff! These are things I've been wanting to have available to me, the type of things I'd know I'd kick myself for not having if I got stuck out somewhere while adventurin'. I'm planning on taking "the good camera" on our trip as well (maybe, "Jeep security" being what it is - non-existent - I might not) so maybe I'll get some good shots. To Adventure!
Friday, August 7, 2015
Grille and Insert
Since going to Topless Day I've had a couple (quite a few...) projects I've wanted to do with the Jeep. "The Jeep" is officially a.k.a. "The Colonel" now by the way, his name being Colonel Mustard. One such project was bed lining the grille with truck bed liner and painting a mesh insert to match the yellow body.
First of all, I'm inept at these sorts of things so I didn't really know what to look for. I bought a grille from CARiD.com (this guy) (I didn't want to screw up my factory grille) and a mesh insert (this guy). After I ordered I thought to myself... how am I going to paint these things? I started looking for info on how best to do it myself, specifically for the insert, and found that people actually HATE this particular mesh insert. Oh well. That's what I get.
The grille was pretty perfect. It came as just a big ol' piece of black plastic totally unfinished and a little scratched up but I didn't care, I was going to bed line it anyway. The mesh insert came powder coated black. I started looking into where to find color-match paint and how to prep/prime the powder coat for painting. I fell in over my head pretty quick, and perhaps I didn't look in the right places, but it seemed that for a spray kit to accomplish such a task was about $60 (this is just for painting the mesh insert). I'd also read that it might be possible that I'd need two cans of paint, possibly of primer as well, and if I bought 2 kits that'd be $120! I started re-thinking the whole project...
I ended up taking the mesh insert to Maaco to see if they'd paint it for me, and if so how much they'd charge. Long story short, they charged me $80. Then I took the grille to a bed liner company and they only charged me $50 to bed line it. All in all I got a professional paint job of the mesh AND the bed-lined grille for the $120 I thought I might have to spend on paint for the mesh alone! I call that a score, and my takeaway is that sometimes it's NOT cheaper to "do it yourself". Please don't try to convince me otherwise, I'm lazy.
After I picked the stuff up and got it home, I started really looking at it as I prepared to put it all together. The Maaco paint on the mesh was already chipping. I'd heard Maaco isn't the best in the world, but I figured it was just a little mesh piece, not a whole bumper or something, give them a shot. But yep, the paint was scratching off. Mostly on the back though, so that's good. I thought once I got it attached it would be ok unless a rock jumped up and hit it or something, and in that case I can probably just use touch-up paint. The bed-lined grille looked amazing.
Attaching the mesh to the grille was a beast of a job. Well, kind of, I'm sure it could have been worse. You have to bend these bars over the mesh and drill holes into the grille in a couple difficult places. The locking nuts for the little bolts were tiny and difficult to manipulate with your fingers in some of the tight places they were supposed to go. It took quite a while and I almost really messed it up (drilling fail), but in the end I got it done. I did notice though that there's a plastic part on the grille that inserts into the body of the Jeep and it broke a little. It's still attached but it was cracked. Hopefully that won't become a problem.
The last hurdle, I didn't realize it when I took the grille in to get it bed-lined, but there is a rubber weatherstrip on a Jeep grille's top where it meets the hood. If I'd realized it and thought about it, I would have had the bed liner guys tape off that part or something so I could get a good, flat place to stick the weather strip on. But, oh well. I ended up sanding the heck out of it. I got it to stick really well actually! Yay!
Anyway, sorry for the long post, maybe I'm just trying to make up for lost time! Here's a bad picture of the final fruits of my labor and cash.
You can also see my name sticker on the side there. The bubbles all worked themselves out by the way, I hadn't mentioned that to y'all yet I don't think. It looks great!
Jeep wave count: Still coming...
First of all, I'm inept at these sorts of things so I didn't really know what to look for. I bought a grille from CARiD.com (this guy) (I didn't want to screw up my factory grille) and a mesh insert (this guy). After I ordered I thought to myself... how am I going to paint these things? I started looking for info on how best to do it myself, specifically for the insert, and found that people actually HATE this particular mesh insert. Oh well. That's what I get.
The grille was pretty perfect. It came as just a big ol' piece of black plastic totally unfinished and a little scratched up but I didn't care, I was going to bed line it anyway. The mesh insert came powder coated black. I started looking into where to find color-match paint and how to prep/prime the powder coat for painting. I fell in over my head pretty quick, and perhaps I didn't look in the right places, but it seemed that for a spray kit to accomplish such a task was about $60 (this is just for painting the mesh insert). I'd also read that it might be possible that I'd need two cans of paint, possibly of primer as well, and if I bought 2 kits that'd be $120! I started re-thinking the whole project...
I ended up taking the mesh insert to Maaco to see if they'd paint it for me, and if so how much they'd charge. Long story short, they charged me $80. Then I took the grille to a bed liner company and they only charged me $50 to bed line it. All in all I got a professional paint job of the mesh AND the bed-lined grille for the $120 I thought I might have to spend on paint for the mesh alone! I call that a score, and my takeaway is that sometimes it's NOT cheaper to "do it yourself". Please don't try to convince me otherwise, I'm lazy.
After I picked the stuff up and got it home, I started really looking at it as I prepared to put it all together. The Maaco paint on the mesh was already chipping. I'd heard Maaco isn't the best in the world, but I figured it was just a little mesh piece, not a whole bumper or something, give them a shot. But yep, the paint was scratching off. Mostly on the back though, so that's good. I thought once I got it attached it would be ok unless a rock jumped up and hit it or something, and in that case I can probably just use touch-up paint. The bed-lined grille looked amazing.
Attaching the mesh to the grille was a beast of a job. Well, kind of, I'm sure it could have been worse. You have to bend these bars over the mesh and drill holes into the grille in a couple difficult places. The locking nuts for the little bolts were tiny and difficult to manipulate with your fingers in some of the tight places they were supposed to go. It took quite a while and I almost really messed it up (drilling fail), but in the end I got it done. I did notice though that there's a plastic part on the grille that inserts into the body of the Jeep and it broke a little. It's still attached but it was cracked. Hopefully that won't become a problem.
The last hurdle, I didn't realize it when I took the grille in to get it bed-lined, but there is a rubber weatherstrip on a Jeep grille's top where it meets the hood. If I'd realized it and thought about it, I would have had the bed liner guys tape off that part or something so I could get a good, flat place to stick the weather strip on. But, oh well. I ended up sanding the heck out of it. I got it to stick really well actually! Yay!
Anyway, sorry for the long post, maybe I'm just trying to make up for lost time! Here's a bad picture of the final fruits of my labor and cash.
You can also see my name sticker on the side there. The bubbles all worked themselves out by the way, I hadn't mentioned that to y'all yet I don't think. It looks great!
Jeep wave count: Still coming...
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Mobile!
I'm sitting at a coffee/taco shop experimenting with mobile blogging. So far so good. I'm not sure be told you yet, but I got a new grille and mesh grille insert for the Jeep. My goal was to get the grille sprayed with truck bed liner for rugged durability (and to look flippin sweet as Napolean would say) and to paint the mesh the same color as the rest of the Jeep.
Well shoot. Foods here. As I'm typing with my little thumbs here I realize I want to post pics along with all this anyway. I'll try to update later. :-)
Well shoot. Foods here. As I'm typing with my little thumbs here I realize I want to post pics along with all this anyway. I'll try to update later. :-)
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Bubbles and Other Troubles
So I proved once again that I don't know what I'm doing. I put on my vinyl name stickers last night and I was most concerned about getting it straight. You've got this really long and narrow string of letters, it was a bit awkward to put on (didn't want to remove all the backing at once), maniplutaing this little plastic ruler to keep it straight... And we finally got it on for better or worse. We measured again and it was pretty straight! Vinyl stickers are surely removable, but I don't think they'd be salvagable in any way so this was one of those "do it right the first time" moments which I hate and am notoriously bad at. But it was straight and looked good. VICTORY!
Then we took the paper backing off. O.O D'OH! I didn't even think about bubble prevention! What's wrong with me!?
WAH!!!! IT'S SO BAD!!! I feel so stupid. I mean, it looks "ok", but I just feel like this all could have been prevented if i was smarter about stuff. Why do I attempt these things on my own?
Anyway, from far back enough it looks pretty decent.
I've read that sometimes the little bubbles will work themselves out over time, and if all else fails I could resort to the push-pin fix, but dangit. Even if I do work them out with brute force it's still not going to be as perfect as I want (I'm a bit of a perfectionist). I wish I could do things right the first time and just have them come out awesome. Such is life I suppose.
In other news, check out the sweet angry eyes I also put on the headlights (pictured above, you can just make them out)! It looks GREAT! It's also ILLEGAL! :-| I think, I'm not sure. I didn't even think about checking up on the laws before putting them on because, seriously, they're not a safety hazard. My headlight light distribution is fine. But they're not so great I want to pay fines for having them. I can't find a straight answer, but Texas law states something to the effect that you can't have a cover obscuring the headlight. Does that mean an inch or less on the top corner? I don't know. Apparently so, at least in some other states from what I've since read on the interwebs. I'd rather not find out the hard way. So now that I've 3M-tape-stuck the heck out of these things to my car, I'm going to have to try to pry them off probably. At the risk of getting a ticket, I'm looking for a cop at a convenience store or something that I can just stop and ask if it's ok. And since I can't find a single Texas site that says definitively if Angry Eyes are legal in Texas or not (maybe I'm just missing an obvious site?) I might be the only site on the entire internet that can give you a straight answer on that once I ask. I'll be sure to post what they say. Perhaps from my jail cell, but I'll post it.
Jeep Wave Count: Still haven't tallied it. I will. Eventually.
WAH!!!! IT'S SO BAD!!! I feel so stupid. I mean, it looks "ok", but I just feel like this all could have been prevented if i was smarter about stuff. Why do I attempt these things on my own?
Anyway, from far back enough it looks pretty decent.
I've read that sometimes the little bubbles will work themselves out over time, and if all else fails I could resort to the push-pin fix, but dangit. Even if I do work them out with brute force it's still not going to be as perfect as I want (I'm a bit of a perfectionist). I wish I could do things right the first time and just have them come out awesome. Such is life I suppose.
In other news, check out the sweet angry eyes I also put on the headlights (pictured above, you can just make them out)! It looks GREAT! It's also ILLEGAL! :-| I think, I'm not sure. I didn't even think about checking up on the laws before putting them on because, seriously, they're not a safety hazard. My headlight light distribution is fine. But they're not so great I want to pay fines for having them. I can't find a straight answer, but Texas law states something to the effect that you can't have a cover obscuring the headlight. Does that mean an inch or less on the top corner? I don't know. Apparently so, at least in some other states from what I've since read on the interwebs. I'd rather not find out the hard way. So now that I've 3M-tape-stuck the heck out of these things to my car, I'm going to have to try to pry them off probably. At the risk of getting a ticket, I'm looking for a cop at a convenience store or something that I can just stop and ask if it's ok. And since I can't find a single Texas site that says definitively if Angry Eyes are legal in Texas or not (maybe I'm just missing an obvious site?) I might be the only site on the entire internet that can give you a straight answer on that once I ask. I'll be sure to post what they say. Perhaps from my jail cell, but I'll post it.
Jeep Wave Count: Still haven't tallied it. I will. Eventually.
Monday, July 13, 2015
My Gosh...
Whoever is checking this blog, I'm sorry. I went on vacation for a week, and then work decided to blow up on me once I got back. In fact I'm still too busy to post adequately, so I won't even try. But I wanted to let you two or three know that I AM still here and I WILL be posting again once the dust settles a bit more. Items to discuss...
- Got my foot pegs on, they're pretty cool with minor complaints.
- Just got my COL. MUSTARD name sticker, I'll try to get some good pics of the application.
- Got some angry eyes for the headlights. Kind of on the fence about them, eventually they'll make more sense (coordinate with my eventual spare cover, you'll see eventually I hope), but I'm still excited.
- Got some tail light covers with little Jeep emblems on them.
Think that's it. And honestly that's a lot. haha Still no lift, I kind of gave up on it for the time being. My next big purchase will probably be soft doors so I don't have to lug 160 pounds up two flights of stairs anymore (during the summer anyway...).
Jeep Wave Count: Continue to climb, and I AM making note of it (never stopped), but I'll need to count it up still. BAD blogger.
- Got my foot pegs on, they're pretty cool with minor complaints.
- Just got my COL. MUSTARD name sticker, I'll try to get some good pics of the application.
- Got some angry eyes for the headlights. Kind of on the fence about them, eventually they'll make more sense (coordinate with my eventual spare cover, you'll see eventually I hope), but I'm still excited.
- Got some tail light covers with little Jeep emblems on them.
Think that's it. And honestly that's a lot. haha Still no lift, I kind of gave up on it for the time being. My next big purchase will probably be soft doors so I don't have to lug 160 pounds up two flights of stairs anymore (during the summer anyway...).
Jeep Wave Count: Continue to climb, and I AM making note of it (never stopped), but I'll need to count it up still. BAD blogger.
Monday, June 15, 2015
Foot Pegs, JUST too late...
I recently had the doors off for about a week, but just put everything back on in anticipation of a lot of rain we're suppose to be getting. Wouldn't you know, the next delivery day after I put it all back on I got my foot pegs. :-/ For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, when you take the doors off your Jeep one of the most amazing pleasures in life is to cruise around with your foot hanging out of the car, preferably bare foot at highway speeds. You can get foot pegs to rest your foot or leg on that hook onto the door hinges. Like this...
Just set your foot on it and away you go! So I'm glad I got them, but now there's rain in the forecast for the rest of the week. Next week I'll be in Florida (probably won't be posting btw). After that who knows? So I'm not sure when I'll be able to use them. Oh well.
In other news, my wife and I almost ate it. We were driving home when we passed an unkept dirt road that I've always wanted to explore. Keep in mind what I said above, it's been raining here quite a bit lately. But it looked pretty flat and mundane, so we decided to check it out and I didn't bother with 4 wheel drive. It was all a mistake, and almost a BIG mistake. The dirt was more like quick sand it turned out with all the rain we'd been having. I lost nearly all traction after about 20 feet. I don't exactly have mud tires (far from it) and they got absolutely CAKED with mud. So we're in 2 wheel drive, and then traction control started kicking in. It keeps you from giving too much gas and spinning the tires, and it resulted in us traveling at about 1 mph, slipping left and right, steering wheel did no good, we were barely missing trees, almost slid off a little hill slope that probably would have rolled us had we gone over at the wrong angle, it was a mess! haha I wanted to pop it into 4WD but didn't want to take my foot off the gas long enough to do it. We made it to a paved alleyway - FINALLY - and decided we'd either never try mud again (I'm not interested in mud tires) or at least put the thing in 4WD before trying even boring looking dirt roads after 2 weeks of epic, flooding rains.
Jeep Wave Count: Still coming...
 | ||
| http://www.skidrowoffroad.com |
In other news, my wife and I almost ate it. We were driving home when we passed an unkept dirt road that I've always wanted to explore. Keep in mind what I said above, it's been raining here quite a bit lately. But it looked pretty flat and mundane, so we decided to check it out and I didn't bother with 4 wheel drive. It was all a mistake, and almost a BIG mistake. The dirt was more like quick sand it turned out with all the rain we'd been having. I lost nearly all traction after about 20 feet. I don't exactly have mud tires (far from it) and they got absolutely CAKED with mud. So we're in 2 wheel drive, and then traction control started kicking in. It keeps you from giving too much gas and spinning the tires, and it resulted in us traveling at about 1 mph, slipping left and right, steering wheel did no good, we were barely missing trees, almost slid off a little hill slope that probably would have rolled us had we gone over at the wrong angle, it was a mess! haha I wanted to pop it into 4WD but didn't want to take my foot off the gas long enough to do it. We made it to a paved alleyway - FINALLY - and decided we'd either never try mud again (I'm not interested in mud tires) or at least put the thing in 4WD before trying even boring looking dirt roads after 2 weeks of epic, flooding rains.
Jeep Wave Count: Still coming...
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