Our friend Mike, out in Colorado, put together a site for his Scout project. He’s a lot deeper into his project than I am into mine (by that I mean total restoration) and he’s got a ton of great pictures documenting how he’s doing things. A recent post on his steering column rebuild has me dreaming of a turn signal that cancels correctly…

In other news, one of the smaller things I picked up on Sunday was an incomplete set of rollbar pads. Due to their age and exposure to the elements, the zippers on both downtubes were frozen stiff, but the crossbar and rear arm pads came off with a little coaxing. The zippers are all pretty rough and some are missing teeth, but for $10 I figure I can have new zippers installed and buy some crash-rated foam to replace what they came with.

IMG_4301

Last night I used an old trick for fixing the zippers: I rubbed them liberally with candle wax until I could get all three to catch and zip. I think I’m going to have Jesse cut the other two off for me and set them aside, so that I can have a full set to work with.

IMG_4303

→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.

Date posted: February 28, 2013 | Filed under friends, Purchasing, Repairs, Scout | Comments Off on Online Friends

Our friend Mike, out in Colorado, put together a site for his Scout project. He’s a lot deeper into his project than I am into mine (by that I mean total restoration) and he’s got a ton of great pictures documenting how he’s doing things. A recent post on his steering column rebuild has me dreaming of a turn signal that cancels correctly…

In other news, one of the smaller things I picked up on Sunday was an incomplete set of rollbar pads. Due to their age and exposure to the elements, the zippers on both downtubes were frozen stiff, but the crossbar and rear arm pads came off with a little coaxing. The zippers are all pretty rough and some are missing teeth, but for $10 I figure I can have new zippers installed and buy some crash-rated foam to replace what they came with.

IMG_4301

Last night I used an old trick for fixing the zippers: I rubbed them liberally with candle wax until I could get all three to catch and zip. I think I’m going to have Jesse cut the other two off for me and set them aside, so that I can have a full set to work with.

IMG_4303

→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.

Date posted: February 28, 2013 | Filed under friends, Purchasing, Repairs, Scout | Comments Off on Online Friends

Hullabaloo

Date posted: February 28, 2013 | Filed under finn, friends, photo | Leave a Comment »

In Small Things That Give Me Hope For Humanity news, The house from My Neighbor Totoro does in fact, exist, and you can tour it.

Date posted: February 28, 2013 | Filed under entertainment, shortlinks | Leave a Comment »

I like the design and love the idea of this website: Atlas Obscura bills itself as a compilation of “Curious and Wondrous Travel Destinations”.

Date posted: February 28, 2013 | Filed under shortlinks, travel | Leave a Comment »

This morning I met up with Brian H. and made a run down into Annapolis to pick up a Traveltop. I was a bit hung over, but Peer Pressure fired right up and made the trip easy. After meeting the seller at his house, we wound up talking to him for a good hour and a half before we started turning wrenches. It turns out he’s been buying and parting out trucks for the past couple of years, and he wants to thin his collection out a little.

New travel top

This top is in really good shape. It’s baby blue with a roof rack, and apart from some minor rust issues under the driver’s window and leaks where the chrome strips sit on the top, it’s clean. The liftgate is in fantastic shape, the handle works perfectly, and the glass is all good. I’m going to pull the sliders out of my spare top and replace these as well as the seals, and maybe weld up a lot of the holes before painting it white.

New travel top

He threw in a set of Kayline bows he had laying around, and I picked up a spare windshield with a tiny crack in the side as well. We made sure to invite him up to the next wrenching day in the springtime, and hopefully we can get a couple of other locals to meet up when the weather gets warmer.

New travel top

→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.

Date posted: February 24, 2013 | Filed under friends, Purchasing, Scout, Trip Logs | Comments Off on New Travel Top, New Friends

Nepenthe Homebrew

OH MY GOD I’M IN TROUBLE: Nepenthe Homebrew just opened up on the ground floor of the mill building I work in.

Date posted: February 22, 2013 | Filed under brewing, photo | Leave a Comment »

10 1/2.

I had the good fortune to be invited out for a bowling evening with friends at Dave & Busters last night. The venue was nice but played havoc with my ADD; too many flashing lights and noisy machines. Bowling was fun, and when I settled into a groove I actually did pretty well. Don’t go there expecting a decent draught beer selection, though.

Date posted: February 22, 2013 | Filed under entertainment, friends, photo | Leave a Comment »

Drive-In Stop & Eat

I shot this on 35mm film sometime in 1990-91 on my way to or from college. I believe it was somewhere between the Bear Mountain Bridge and Putnam County, but I’d guess it’s long gone by now. When I peeked in the windows, the counters were piled high with clean plates and cookware.

Date posted: February 20, 2013 | Filed under history, photo, photography | Leave a Comment »

On the ride home, a segment about trademarking Idaho Potatoes on NPR got me thinking. So naturally, I sat down and registered Finn’s domain name. I wonder if I should grab the short version too…

Date posted: February 18, 2013 | Filed under finn, geek | Leave a Comment »