What did you do to/with your van today?

[ihatemybike]

Grumpy: Messed with the blower motor/relay contacts and got it activate on the two middle settings.

[97CargoCrawler]

Tried to start it to go to work and wondered why it was so quiet inside the cab as the engine just cranked and cranked. I'm guessing fuel pump. MOTHER F'ER!!!!!! It sounded weird yesterday morning, and today it's dead. And to make things more interesting, it's parked on a steep hill (headed up of course) in front of the house and the garage is in back. Can't roll it back to work on it! And I'm like -$200 in the 'ole bank account and I don't get paid for a week. Awesome! Couldn't have crapped out at a better time. ](*,)

[ihatemybike]

Grumpy: Had it towed home.

[phr1$k37]

Awww man ... that sucks to hear two of you are having troubles.
You know my fuel pump has me worried as well. Still original ... working fine ... but when it DOES give it will just give and I will probably be stranded somewhere ... and yet it works so I dont want to touch it.

[reaper]

I spent 3 hours diggin out steph's van.
We were stuck 3 houses down from where my family lives.
We never made it there,so I dug it out & we went home.
The big secret to how we got the "all season" tire astro out is
cowpie shavings.Luckily there was a horse/cow field next to us,so I snuck some
poop/shavings & layed it down & the greasy goo got us out.

Was this stuck right before the left-hand bend turn? Trying to picture where Steph was stuck ... hah hah ... poop/shavings to the rescue!!

Yup that's the spot...26" of snow & 2 wheel drive rollin on
costco "all seasons".My van was buried at the folks place.
Abe you suck you had all the fun in the snow,nextime pick us up &
take us on one of your vanner snowcapades

[kings-x59]

Awww man ... that sucks to hear two of you are having troubles.
You know my fuel pump has me worried as well. Still original ... working fine ... but when it DOES give it will just give and I will probably be stranded somewhere ... and yet it works so I dont want to touch it.

so do it now and sleep at night...

[Rebel]

This weekend gonna do a little Frenched antenna thing somewhere on my van.

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/v ... =11ajgrp99

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/v ... =11cvqk3f8

http://www.corbettsauto.com/pictures/de ... ed_ant.jpg

[Smiliesafari]

Cool, Larry. Use a piece of exhaust tubing for the pocket. Cap the bottom with a freeze plug. Don't forget to weld a piece of small diameter tubing to the bottom of the freeze plug to allow for drainage. You can use a piece of neoprene tubing to direct the water to a safe location. Been there, done that. I used an electric antenna so I could pull the antenna down into the pocket to protect it.

[d3athm3talh3ad]

Cool, Larry. Use a piece of exhaust tubing for the pocket.

friend of mine wanted a bowtie shaped frenched antenna and had lost one of his bowtie exhaust tips down the road...we took the other, traced it on on the truck, cut the bowtie out, cut it to match the curve of the truck's cab, ground the chrome off and welded it to the fender, after capping the bottom and fitting a power antenna to it...

[9dawgs]

Unfourtunately nothing... I brought it home out of gas on Tuesday. I have another vehicle ('99 Landrover Discovery I) that had 3/4 tank so with the cost of fuel these days I've been using what I have. Plus is ain't a bad thing to drive the LR. I keep it for a date car with my beautiful wife

[crash]

gingerly drove the 99 to work & home yesterday, noticed that with after each start the volt meter on the dash is higher than normal for the first 10min or so... batteries don't like it this cold .. this morning probably going to run the 93 which has been sitting and not started for the last week (not my doing) .. not looking forward to heading out into the dark -9 F (-23 C) this morning, with the windchill -24 F (-31 C)

we've been selling interstate batteries at work this past week like ihop sells pancakes ... mmm getting hungry... lol .. i installed one is a ricer civic yesterday just before we closed, was outside for around 5min and nearly froze my ears/fingers off.



oh.. and might be installing my siruis radio on a dash vent today..

[Rebel]

Hey Skip,,appreciate the info. Had all this in mind other than the freeze plug but read this write up yesterday and it covered just about all the stuff to get er done I think.
Headed to parts store shortly,,30 mile drive,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,again.
Here's that write up in case anyone down the road wants to do this mod.

Gwendolyn,,the Bowtie idea is great,,,got any pics of that mod ?

Basics of Basics" Frenched (sunken) antenna
by Brian Martin

One of the classic custom body modifications, the frenched or "sunken" antenna. I have always like the frenched antenna look. One of my favorites is on a '59 Chevy where the antenna is sunken in the quarter below the fin and then it runs through a hole you put in the fin up into the sky, cool, very cool. You can put them vertical, leaning or even horizontal. Find where you would like to put your frenched antenna. Make sure that your antenna base (be it power or manual) is going to clear everything on the inside of the panel. The next thing is to take a marker pen and put a line down the outside of the tube over the seam. Most all tubes (unless they are seamless) are going to have a seam that you don't want to be seen. Make the tube where it is and that way as you set up the tube you keep that on the outside of the hole and unseen, or at least nearly unseen. If you ignore this, you will end up with the tube welded in and the darn seam right in front of your face and you will have to grind it off or fill it with polyester putty or something. Doing "body work" inside of a 1 1/2" tube is not fun. Mark a round hole the same size as your tubing you are going to use (I prefer 1 1/2"). Cut the hole and stick the tube through it. You then lean the tube in the direction you want to go and start trimming the hole out on each side so it will lean up right. Trim more and more but only a little at a time. Let's say you want to make it perfectly straight up. One way would be to hang a string from something above the car with a weight on it next to your work area. There is your perfect vertical line to aid in making your antenna straight. Now, I don't recommend you making it perfectly straight, it will have the illusion of leaning forward, tilt it back just a hair. Once you have the hole cut out into the oval so the tube stands up straight, mark the tube around that edge of the hole so you can cut it.

Along the way or now you can put the bottom of the tube. I have found a very cool way to accomplish this. I use a deep freeze plug in the exact size as the tube. It has a nice radius on the end and looks very nice. Just fit the freeze plug up to the end of the tube and put a nice weld around the seam, that is all there is to it. All you need is to drill a hole on the bottom for the antenna. Of course a drain is highly recommended. If the antenna is going somewhere that water won't hurt then just drill a little hole on the bottom of the freeze plug next to the antenna. If it is in a place where you need to contain the water, just tack weld a tube on the hole and put a rubber hose exiting out the bottom of the panel to drain the water. At the top where you tack welded the tube put same seam sealer so it doesn't leak.

At the top of the tube, place it up into the hole from underneath and tack weld it. Making sure that it is still in the angle you want, tack weld around the edge a little at a time until it is fully welded. If you do this carefully, you will only need a little grinding or filing for near perfection. At the very least, a little plastic body filler will do the trick.

Tips on cutting out the hole. You could use a die grinder with a carbide tip cutter, a rat tail file, or sometimes even tin snips. I highly recommend getting two pairs of nice high quality tin snips if you are going to be doing any work like this. Wiss makes some of the best. Forget the yellow handled ones, they are for straight cuts only and to tell you the truth, I never even use mine. The red and green "right and left" handed ones are the way to go. They are not for left and right handed people, nor are they for only left and right handed turns. They are for when you are cutting on the left or right hand side of the metal. They will make a perfect straight line, better than the "straight" cutters. I'm sure I am missing something with those straight cutters but they just don't do the job for me. The die grinder or file is really the best way to go, nice and slow so you don't cut too much.

Anyway, have fun and be careful.




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Crash,,like that Siruis radio,,listen to it on TV all the time,,50 and 60's of course.

[thevalleyboy]

Bought a tent trailer with a slide out dinette - a 2003 Bonair 1200SL

[skippy]

Bought a tent trailer with a slide out dinette - a 2003 Bonair 1200SL

pics..pics...pics...we need pics !!!!!!

[thevalleyboy]

Photo's - well like a dummy I didn't take any photos - and the ones on the RV Dealers website I cannot download - so you'll have to wait until it comes home - they have to fix one zipper before I can get it here. Figured buy in the off season to save money.... I'll post photos when I get it home and start with the improvements....