Lumpy's 89 Camo Jeep Offender
Lumpy's 89 Camo Jeep Offender
My 89 started out factory metallic blue. I'm a licensed Amater Radio Operator (Ham) and I tend to install antennas on anything that moves or sits still. After mounting a couple on the Astro, I needed to spray a bit of primer around the holes where I did the antenna mounts. This led to that, long story short, it went from factory blue to Krylon/Rustoleum camo.
I did the paint job in my driveway. We have the world's largest Joshua trees in our front yard. So I let the Joshua's cast their shadows on the van, that's what I used as the "template" for painting. Wherever there was a shadow, I'd use one color. Where there was highlight, I'd use another color.
Nice thing about this kind of paint job is it's a "paint job in progress" all the time. Anytime there's a scratch, baked on bird poop, whatever, I just hit it with a blast from the rattle can.
I drive my RWD 89 into the deserts of Arizona on it's stock 215/75 tires, no suspension mods, stock rubber rear springs, and when the 4x4 Jeeps and OHV's see me coming, they sometimes have a hard time figuring out "what's that thing?". I've been asked more than once "Are you the border patrol?".
Camped in the desert, or just for the day, I set up my portable Ham Radio station and make contacts all over the world. I can operate all the radios mobile or portable, on essentially every frequency I'm licensed to transmit on. I've made contacts with essentially everywhere, Australia, Hawaii, N and S America, Alaska, Europe, Russia, Japan.
Here's the current googlemaps street view of my house with the van in the process of turning from metallic blue to camo.
Here's the "finished" (always in progress ) van as my QSL card (hams exchange cards to verify they've made contacts with other hams).
Parked somewhere on the Apache Trail, view of the Superstition Mountains.
At camp, tilt up 33 ft antenna mast, camo netting.
That tilt up mast in the DOWN and ERECT positions (cue Beavis n Butthead)
The antenna mast separates into five 6 ft sections. It slips into a tilt up thingie that mounts on the trailer hitch receiver. Here's the rack I built to hold the mast sections. The mast rack is 2x lumber (painted camo, like everything else I own). It's mounted to the aftermarket roof rack that you see in some of the photos. Mast sections are held in place with bolt-friction fit, and slide in/out on nylon table leg "bottoms". Those little button thingies that you screw into the bottom of your table legs to make things easier to move. Needless to say, the mast was originally raw metallic color. And I, Uh, painted it.
Here's a detail shot of the NØEQ insignia (my FCC callsign) on one side of the rack. I made the stencil out of a manilla folder. To get the shadow effect, I first sprayed it in DARK paint, then when it dried a bit (minutes for Krylon) I shifted the stencil up and left by maybe a quarter inch and sprayed it with LIGHT paint.
This 89 Astro has 282,000 miles. New engine a few K ago. New differential very recently. Lift and shocks go in some time in the next couple of weeks (I hope). At some point, I think it'll be time for a new transmission. I'm pretty sure the 282k miles are all on that one tranny. It leaks a bit, soft shifts a bit.
More photos of the Ham Radio aspect if you're interested at my website -
Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke
http://www.n0eq.com
I did the paint job in my driveway. We have the world's largest Joshua trees in our front yard. So I let the Joshua's cast their shadows on the van, that's what I used as the "template" for painting. Wherever there was a shadow, I'd use one color. Where there was highlight, I'd use another color.
Nice thing about this kind of paint job is it's a "paint job in progress" all the time. Anytime there's a scratch, baked on bird poop, whatever, I just hit it with a blast from the rattle can.
I drive my RWD 89 into the deserts of Arizona on it's stock 215/75 tires, no suspension mods, stock rubber rear springs, and when the 4x4 Jeeps and OHV's see me coming, they sometimes have a hard time figuring out "what's that thing?". I've been asked more than once "Are you the border patrol?".
Camped in the desert, or just for the day, I set up my portable Ham Radio station and make contacts all over the world. I can operate all the radios mobile or portable, on essentially every frequency I'm licensed to transmit on. I've made contacts with essentially everywhere, Australia, Hawaii, N and S America, Alaska, Europe, Russia, Japan.
Here's the current googlemaps street view of my house with the van in the process of turning from metallic blue to camo.
Here's the "finished" (always in progress ) van as my QSL card (hams exchange cards to verify they've made contacts with other hams).
Parked somewhere on the Apache Trail, view of the Superstition Mountains.
At camp, tilt up 33 ft antenna mast, camo netting.
That tilt up mast in the DOWN and ERECT positions (cue Beavis n Butthead)
The antenna mast separates into five 6 ft sections. It slips into a tilt up thingie that mounts on the trailer hitch receiver. Here's the rack I built to hold the mast sections. The mast rack is 2x lumber (painted camo, like everything else I own). It's mounted to the aftermarket roof rack that you see in some of the photos. Mast sections are held in place with bolt-friction fit, and slide in/out on nylon table leg "bottoms". Those little button thingies that you screw into the bottom of your table legs to make things easier to move. Needless to say, the mast was originally raw metallic color. And I, Uh, painted it.
Here's a detail shot of the NØEQ insignia (my FCC callsign) on one side of the rack. I made the stencil out of a manilla folder. To get the shadow effect, I first sprayed it in DARK paint, then when it dried a bit (minutes for Krylon) I shifted the stencil up and left by maybe a quarter inch and sprayed it with LIGHT paint.
This 89 Astro has 282,000 miles. New engine a few K ago. New differential very recently. Lift and shocks go in some time in the next couple of weeks (I hope). At some point, I think it'll be time for a new transmission. I'm pretty sure the 282k miles are all on that one tranny. It leaks a bit, soft shifts a bit.
More photos of the Ham Radio aspect if you're interested at my website -
Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke
http://www.n0eq.com
-
- I have my van tatooed on my cheeks
- Posts: 4379
- Joined: Sat Sep 09, 2006 3:35 pm
- Location: New Haven, NY
Re: Lumpy's 89 Camo Jeep Offender
Finally a write-up! Nice van and it's awesome the funny looks you get from the group who have the only off-road capable vehicle in the whole wide world. Gotta love Jeepers.
Current rides:
2013 Toyota Tundra DC 4x4
2008 Dodge Nitro 4x4
2005 Nissan Sentra 1.8S Special Edition
Mileage spreadsheet
Vans owned:
1986 Safari 2.5L 4 speed manual - scrapped
1995 Astro 2WD conversion 4.11 posi, shift kit, DHC rock rails - sold to Skippy
1998 Astro 4x4 D44, D60, NP231, full hydraulic system with 9k# Milemarker winch and snow plow - sold to Lockdoc
2003 Astro AWD all stock - traded for a 3/4 ton truck
2005 AWD, 4.10's - sold to skippy
2013 Toyota Tundra DC 4x4
2008 Dodge Nitro 4x4
2005 Nissan Sentra 1.8S Special Edition
Mileage spreadsheet
Vans owned:
1986 Safari 2.5L 4 speed manual - scrapped
1995 Astro 2WD conversion 4.11 posi, shift kit, DHC rock rails - sold to Skippy
1998 Astro 4x4 D44, D60, NP231, full hydraulic system with 9k# Milemarker winch and snow plow - sold to Lockdoc
2003 Astro AWD all stock - traded for a 3/4 ton truck
2005 AWD, 4.10's - sold to skippy
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- I sleep in my van
- Posts: 431
- Joined: Fri Jun 08, 2007 11:50 pm
- Location: Orange County, CA
Re: Lumpy's 89 Camo Jeep Offender
I love your van! And I also love the idea of using the tree shadows for the paint scheme. Brilliant!
-James
1987 LT
249,000 miles
1987 LT
249,000 miles
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- I plan to be buried in my van
- Posts: 1768
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- Location: Bellingham, Wa
- Been thanked: 1 time
Re: Lumpy's 89 Camo Jeep Offender
I like the cammo look.. but not because its "the cammo look"
looks like you have the reflective glass on yours too. Ive been looking at the preforated vinyl stick-on cammo sheets to cover my reflective glass (when needed) but it seems everyone is way to proud of that stuff to sell at a reasonable price.
is that a light weight cammo net? ifso where can I find that?
nice van! do you have dual batteries or some type of exotic power source on it?
looks like you have the reflective glass on yours too. Ive been looking at the preforated vinyl stick-on cammo sheets to cover my reflective glass (when needed) but it seems everyone is way to proud of that stuff to sell at a reasonable price.
is that a light weight cammo net? ifso where can I find that?
nice van! do you have dual batteries or some type of exotic power source on it?
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- I plan to be buried in my van
- Posts: 2009
- Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2006 7:24 am
- Location: Evergreen, Al. 96 mile marker, where life is slow and there are no rules.
Re: Lumpy's 89 Camo Jeep Offender
Now that's a cool paint job. Gotta be careful,,Big Brother may be watching you a little closer than one of us other guys cruising around. With the netting,,looks like you're doing some snooping and pooping around.
89 Astro, 350 V-8, Shaved doors, Filled Slider, Corvette IRS, 94 Mustang GT Rack & Pinion(Thanks to Skip), Cad Tail lights from SoCalliV8 ( RIP) Miss you my friend.
VIDEO
If you drive illegally, they take your driver's license. If you're here illegally, they want to give you one
If guns kill people, do pencils misspell words
VIDEO
If you drive illegally, they take your driver's license. If you're here illegally, they want to give you one
If guns kill people, do pencils misspell words
Re: Lumpy's 89 Camo Jeep Offender
Thanks batmo and hebert12batmo wrote:I like the cammo look.. but not because its "the cammo look"
looks like you have the reflective glass on yours too. Ive been looking at the preforated vinyl stick-on cammo sheets to cover my reflective glass (when needed) but it seems everyone is way to proud of that stuff to sell at a reasonable price.
is that a light weight cammo net? ifso where can I find that?
nice van! do you have dual batteries or some type of exotic power source on it?
I too would like to have some of that perforated vinyl stuff. If you find a good source, please let me know.
Camo net is from Coleman's Army-Navy Surplus, colemans.com. It's really light. 10x20 net rolls up into a ball that fits into a typical sleeping bag stuff sack. It's a "net" made from very small diameter nylon cord, the various squares of camo color are plastic, like a kid's wading pool. Those squares are glued to the net. It's pretty indestructable. I don't baby it, it's taken lots of snags and wind. Lost a couple of the plastic squares is all.
Battery is a single, stock brick. Nothing special. When I'm camped, I run my portable radio(s) off of a separate deep cycle marine battery from WallyWorld. It's not connected to the van, I carry that from my backyard operating position to the van, drive the van to the desert, then sit outside the van with the radio.
Portable station setup in progress, netting not yet in place -
Some walrus operating my station -
Since those earlier pics, I've painted the radios. Do I need to say what color..
Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke
http://www.n0eq.com
Re: Lumpy's 89 Camo Jeep Offender
Rebel wrote:Now that's a cool paint job. Gotta be careful,,Big Brother may be watching you a little closer than one of us other guys cruising around. With the netting,,looks like you're doing some snooping and pooping around.
HeeHee. I am big brother..
Lump
-
- I plan to be buried in my van
- Posts: 2009
- Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2006 7:24 am
- Location: Evergreen, Al. 96 mile marker, where life is slow and there are no rules.
Re: Lumpy's 89 Camo Jeep Offender
I thought that was the case.Rebel wrote:
Now that's a cool paint job. Gotta be careful,,Big Brother may be watching you a little closer than one of us other guys cruising around. With the netting,,looks like you're doing some snooping and pooping around.
HeeHee. I am big brother..
Lump
Looked over your site and am impressed with the sound. If you ever need any equipement or upgrades on the recording side, check out my Fraternity Brother, Lane Sutherland with Sutherland Sight & Sound in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. New and used recording and sound equipment. Back in the day when I was in college there, I reconed speakers and built tube lights for the company. Since you're in the music biz, ,you may know this place. The cut stone building " Jackson Highway" is where Southerland Sight & Sound was at one time.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXY2NmrLuiw
You might enjoy this interview with Travis, one of many players around the area.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMWqXCdJ ... 1&index=23
89 Astro, 350 V-8, Shaved doors, Filled Slider, Corvette IRS, 94 Mustang GT Rack & Pinion(Thanks to Skip), Cad Tail lights from SoCalliV8 ( RIP) Miss you my friend.
VIDEO
If you drive illegally, they take your driver's license. If you're here illegally, they want to give you one
If guns kill people, do pencils misspell words
VIDEO
If you drive illegally, they take your driver's license. If you're here illegally, they want to give you one
If guns kill people, do pencils misspell words