Change in Plans?

So thinking about some of the issues we’ve seen with Brian’s bumper and the sag in the hinge has us thinking. In my post on the Binder Planet, I put out the call for other hinge alternatives, and we got some information about this hinge setup. It’s meant for a top-mount system, but Brian and I talked over an alternative that would work if we can find someone with a metal brake to fab it up for us:

It’s a C-shaped piece with two holes drilled for the hinge sleeve, and a third tab added in the center for extra rigidity. It gets mounted to the face of the bumper, then the sleeve is welded inside the holes, and none of the geometry of the bumper needs to be altered.

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Quick February Trip

I got Peer Pressure out of the garage, down to the gas station and around the ‘Ville this Saturday while the weather was somewhat warm. The motor ran smoothly and everything felt just as loose and wobbly as it had when I parked her in November. The forecast is for low 60’s this coming week, which means I may try to do an early-morning dump run before work.

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Blast from the Past.

I was poking around on our backup server last night looking for some pictures and came across some old shots of Chewbacca in and around the blizzard of ’03. This was one of her shining moments and paradoxically the final nail in her coffin; After digging out there wasn’t anyplace we couldn’t go in 4-wheel drive, but I don’t think she was ever right after bathing in road salt that year.

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Hidden Tunes Via An iPod.

Here’s a really interesting article on the Jalopy Journal with some good information about hooking up an iPod to a hidden amplifier. The interesting part is the iPod dock connector, which I’d never really thought about searching for before. I believe the Kenwood head unit I have is equipped with RCA jacks that will support AUX input, so I may switch over to that instead of a mini stereo cable out the front.

Update: I’m out of luck with the Kenwood unit (it’s got no aux inputs on the back), so I may just sell it on Craigslist. I never liked the control/button setup anyway.

Rear Bumper Fabrication

Mr. Scout and I have been talking about getting materials together and building a pair of rear bumpers jointly to save on materials and time, and he sent me a link this morning: a write-up on a project from the Binder Planet. The author built it for an 800B but the design could be modified for a Scout II pretty easily, we figure. The part that interests me is the swing-away tire carrier and Hi-Lift jack mounts, which would clear up a ton of space in the back of Peer Pressure.