Lumpy's 89 Camo Jeep Offender
Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 4:07 pm
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
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. 
