North Carolina, 2013

[ClydesdaleKevin]

All is in the dumpster except the dinosaur board and cover, and the eco/thermostat switches. 

About to go assemble catapults!  Its cold outside, but at least my workshop tent will be warm...we use a food dehydrator to shrink the dowels, which runs at 160 degrees.  It makes assembly easier, AND heats the workshop...lol!

Off to work! 

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

All the catapults are done and stained, and marshmallows and bags and whatnot are gotten, and all before 5:30pm!

So in 2 and a half days, Patti and I built 50 Bandit catapults, 50 Twister catapults, 25 torsion Catapistols, 25 Mousetrap Catapistols, and 5 Trebuchets.  And I'm talking regular 8-5 type work days...SWEET!!!

Hopefully we'll sell out of them this weekend and will have to do it all over again next week...lol!

Now I've got to start researching what to do about a cold air intake.  All the pre-made systems either require the use of your original bottom of the air cleaner (Banks for one), which we no longer have, or they want an arm and a leg and your first born child, like Spectre.

Anyone have a lead on where to get the part that would go on the carburetor?  Like an air box that would just bolt right on with a place to hook up an air intake hose?  I've been looking, but can't seem to find one anywhere.

Kev

[jkilbert]

I saw this on the weekend gear head shows on Spike TV. It an Airaid  U Build It , universal cold air kit. It sounds like it might be the ticket for you.
John

[jkilbert]

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/aid-101-302/overview/


Forgot to put a link for an example..... D:oH!


John

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Thanks John!  I ended up getting a Spectre Performance plenum (that's what the air box is called), from Summit Racing rated at 900 CFM...gotta watch that when picking one...most of them are rated at 650 CFM.

Gotta go set up the booth now...cold as heck right now!  Brrrrrrr....

Kev

[DonD]

Ooooo, more bling!!!

[ClydesdaleKevin]

LOL!  Yep!  And I'm going to route the 4 inch hose the way Banks routes theirs, but instead of an airbox filter, I'll use a big red cone type filter, probably a K&N, right behind the grill...easy maintenance, and definitely cold air!  The relatively small surface area of the plenum should also help keep the carb cooler, since it won't reflect and trap manifold heat nearly as much as the pretty shiny Edlebrock air filter housing...lol!

GREAT day at faire today, and should be even busier tomorrow!  The weather is supposed to be considerably warmer, and this is Marketplace weekend, so there are a lot of buyers and shoppers getting ready for Christmas!

2 more weekends left after this, then a week of catapult building in preparation for Arizona in February, then pack everything down...and then its vacation!!!

And yes, this winter we do indeed plan on boondocking a LOT!  We will be staying in Tombstone for a week, but that is the only campground on our agenda.  Even Louisiana this year is only going to be for a few days.  Everything else will be National Forests and BLM lands...I'm so excited!

Now if I can only get my generator guy out this year for a tune up!  He didn't show up last year, and still hasn't shown up this year! 

Lots of little projects to do in the next few weeks in addition to the catapults, but we'll get 'em done.  We always do!

Now to read for a bit!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Another great day yesterday...and 2 more weekends to go! 

Lots to do this week, but manageable.  A lot of what gets done this week is going depend on others, like if the upholstery guy finishes this week, then we can reinstall the dash, but if not we'll have to wait until next week.  Depending on how fast the plenum ships will determine when that project gets done as well.

The blacksmith did an awesome job replacing the bearings on the seat pedestal for us, so that's done...but I can't reinstall the seats until the dash is back in.

I do want to grease the fittings, change the oil, and troubleshoot the air leak in our front air bags this week though, so I'll definitely get that done.

Today however is pretty much a day off, hanging out with Patti and the pups.  I'll be making a materials run shortly to get it out of the way, and hopefully pick up dog food, but other than that its a lazy day.

Coffee first, then off to Lowes and Home Depot!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

So I got an early start yesterday and went to Tractor Supply for Taste of the Wild dog food for the pups, then picked up everything I need for this week's production at Lowes, then headed home.  On the way home I stopped by the other pet food place, and they had 7 cases of ToTW cans waiting for me...so I had to drive home for more cash (10% off at that place if you use cash).

When I got home and offloaded everything, I decided to stop by Petco on the way to the other pet place, and return the unopened cans of Merrick the pups didn't like.  They gave me a gift card, and then when I got in the Jeep, I noticed the brake light was on and the pedal was squishy!

I got under the Jeep, and saw that the leak was coming from the rear passenger side drum, right where the brake line goes into the wheel cylinder.

I still had front brakes at least (the rear is on a separate circuit), so I carefully drove to the pet place, bought the dog food, then went in search for a shop to fix the leaking brake line...since its my only day off and I really didn't want to do it myself yesterday!

Only 2 shops were open anywhere within a reasonable distance since it was Veterans Day, and there wasn't a Monroe or Meineke anywhere around for miles!  I had just about given up and was on my way to an auto parts store for a brake line, when I saw a small shop set back from the road that was open.

Its called Sosa's, and is owned by a nice fellow from El Salvador that mostly does silly mods to old Toyotas, like vintage Toyotas from the 70s.  I pulled up and asked if he could take a look at the Jeep.

He said no problem, jacked it up, removed the wheel, and undid the brake like.  Yep, the brake line was cracked right around the flair.  No problemo he says, goes into his tool box, and pulls out a flair tool and cutter.  Very similar to the way we do propane fittings, he had the end of the brake line repaired in minutes, reattached everything, then had me pump the brake while he gravity bled the system.

20.00 later, it was all fixed!  Brakes perfect again, no leak, and no brake light...SWEET!

A rock must of kicked up and hit the line, or else it might have gotten snagged on a root or branch in the campground.  Who knows, but at least its fixed now, and didn't cost me a lot of time or money!

Nice guy...I tipped him 10 bucks.

Still no word from the dash guy, the Spectre plenum is still somewhere in Georgia, and no word from the genny guy yet either. 

So its business as usual today, planing, cutting, and drilling all day long.

After my coffee of course!

Kev

[HandyDan]

Don't you love it when things work out so magically.  It makes a person believe in karma. 
Dan

[ClydesdaleKevin]

I know, right?  Most shops would have charged me a fortune, said things were wrong that weren't, or even if they were honest wouldn't have even tried to fix the brake line, but would have insisted on replacing it.  Sosa is from El Salvador, where they try to fix it first if they can before replacing things...lol!

Got all my planing done yesterday, and a lot of the cutting, but then Patti wanted to go to the store, so we were out and about for a few hours.  She wanted to look at wallpaper and fabric, etc...so that is what we did, and some grocery shopping.

She managed to nail the genny guy down to coming out either Friday or Monday.

And the plenum is here in the mail room, so I'm going to go pick it up, then get back to work on cutting, then drilling.

I sure hope it warms up soon!  It got down to 22 degrees last night!  And its still below freezing!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..........

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

And a LOT of parts got cut out today!

I have enough parts now of the small 10 and 15 dollar catapults to cover the next two weekends, opening day of Arizona, and student days in Arizona...yay!

And I froze my butt off!  It was cold all day!  Fortunately the tent was warm by the time it was time to drill, since the dowels had been cooking all day in the dehydrator...lol!

The plenum came in today, so I test fit it to the carburetor, and it is awesome!  Heavy polished cast aluminum, and at the absolute perfect angle to run the 4 inch intake hose!  This is going to be easy!  Finally, an easy project!  Another neat thing about its configuration is that it can be left in place, and you can still reach the mixture screws and idle screw.  That will come in handy when I advance the timing and lower the idle accordingly!

Pictures will be coming soon, as soon as I finish installing the system...which will probably be the beginning of next week.

Lots more drilling and cutting and sanding tomorrow.  I have to get 50 and 50 of the Bandits and Twisters completely done tomorrow, as well as 25 more torsion pistols.  Patti has a good start on 25 more mousetrap pistols, so those will also probably be finished tomorrow...which will give me all day on Friday to build 6 ballistae and get everything stained.

I might even have time on Friday to start cleaning up the dash area for the dash reinstall, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Good weather predicted for the weekend...lets hope it stays like that!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Good grief its cold again!  21 degrees!

Since we have the new carpet completely covered in carpet film and those rubber mats with the puzzle edges, we can't run the furnace.  So we are running 2 ceramic heaters (1 in the bathroom), and the Buddy heater on the counter.  We don't want to run the catalytic Wave heater with the puppies unsupervised, since they might burn their little noses, so the Buddy heater on the counter where they can't reach it is a better idea.  Nice and warm in the house, not so much outside!

About to bundle up, take the pups on their walk, then go to the workshop to start sanding the mousetrap parts for Patti, then drill more holes.

Once it warms up I'll cut out my torsion pistol parts, then get those started, but that won't be for a while.  Its supposed to get up to 56 degrees today, but yesterday it was only 42 degrees at its warmest, which froze my butt off since I was out in that cutting all day.

On the bright side, I'd rather work in the cold than the heat any day!

Off to it!

Kev

[MotorPro]

  "Finally, an easy project! "   Be careful what you say. After many years of engine building ,fabrication and racing one thing I learned is that the jobs that I decide areeasy are always the ones that kill me.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Lol!  Well, not to utter famous last words...but I was fully expecting to have all kinds of stuff in the way of the intake hose, but the angle of the plenum puts it right in the open space where the original intake hose was that attached to the original snorkel on the factory air cleaner.  I'll have to change the intake hose, since the plenum requires a round one, not a flattened one like the stock one, plus the stock one is too short...but I'll be ordering a Spectre hose and buying the filter Monday morning from O'Reilly's .  The have the perfect filter in stock, but only stock the 3 inch and smaller hoses.

Crazy amounts got done today, and there is a heck of a lot to do tomorrow, but it will get done!

The upholstery guy called and said the dash is done, and wanted to deliver it tomorrow night...but we asked him to come on Monday instead...we still have to clean up the dash area and get it ready for the reinstall, and I sure won't have time to do that tomorrow!  And its supposed to rain Sunday night, so Monday is way better.  He said it came out great!  We can't wait to see it!

Now to read a bit before dinner and bed!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Huge amounts of catapults are DONE and on the stain rack to dry, marshmallows and bags are gotten, lunch and breakfast vittles are also gotten, and I'm beat!

GREAT weather forecasted for this AND next weekend!  Hurray for kind weather gods!

Lots more to do before we hit the road on vacation, but with all we got done this week, we'll have time to get everything else done on the list in the next 2 weeks.

On the list:  Change oil and filter, change both fuel filters, check diff and trans fluids, install cold air intake, grease all fittings, clean the roof and solar panels, water the batteries, troubleshoot and repair the air leak in one of the relatively new front air bags, reinstall dash and new radio, install new kitchen faucet, repair secondary freshwater tank, check the rest of the fluids and air pressures, check belt tightness (got a squeal on the way here), advance timing and lower idle, clean the mildew off the fiberglass nose and tail of the RV with Scrub Free, finish the final carpet details around the pedals and kick panels, repair the bowed walls in a couple of places with special glue, reinstall the pedestal to the passenger seat, reinstall both captain's chairs, reinstall the desk...all the while building catapults for final weekend here, and opening weekend in Arizona...then the great packdown when its all said and done.

Then vacation!

It looks like a big list, but we'll wittle it away in now time!

Now to read a bit!

Kev

[LJ-TJ]

   
• PICTURES, DON'T forget the pictures.

[M & J]

What he said.. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[Madathlon]

You know what, I like to see some of these catapults you are building 

[JDxeper]

go back to the home page, scroll down and his web site Siege The Day and you can see some of his works.

http://www.stdcatapults.com/

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Extremely busy day at faire today!  I actually went back to the workshop this evening and finished and stained 2 more ballistae!  Its our best day so far this year in NC, and its supposed to be even better weather tomorrow!

And yep, my website is linked on the homepage of this forum thanks to Mark, so you can see most of the catapults we make.  I haven't had time to add pics to the website of our 10 and 15 dollar catapults though.

And I forgot to add one more thing to our list:  The doors for the cabinets over the driver and passenger seats, over the visors, are those roll top desk type doors.  And they are falling apart!  I fixed them once, but not they are even worse.  So out they go, and I'm just going to remove the whole apparatus, then make oak doors like a regular cabinet, special hinges that swing out and hold them open, and be done with those troublesome roll top doors...which are chinsy plastic anyways.

That won't take me long though with all the woodworking tools at my disposal...lol!

Okay...more marshmallows are already gotten for tomorrow, and now its time to get back to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books!

Kev

[HandyDan]

I hear you on the Tambor roll doors.  I've already replaced half of the tracks in my coach and they are already breaking again.  I have been contemplating making doors, but I'm no wood worker.  The other option is to go to Colaws RV Salvage and just buy some cabinet doors.  They have hundreds of them. The main obstacle to installing them is all the vinyl that covers all the cabinets.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

I'm either going to install them recessed in the opening of the vinyl, or just over them with tight sealing latches so they press into the vinyl when closed, making a good seal.

Not sure exactly how I'll tackle it, but that will start on Monday along with the rest of my list.

Rain coming in today, but its not supposed to really get here until around 6pm, and that's okay with us!  The faire closes at 5:30!

I've got to go bring up the marshmallows and ballistae to the booth soon enough, but I have plenty of time for coffee first!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

The rain held off until 4pm, and sales were great, so we had an awesome overall weekend!

And I was thinking about it today, and decided to tackle the overhead cabinet door project in a completely different way than I was intending.  Since the tracks in mine are aluminum, the problem is the plastic coated cardboard they used as the slats in the rolling doors.  Solution!  I'm going to reconstruct the doors, using the original slats as a template, and refabricate each slat out of 1/4 oak strips, which I'm going to glue down to a piece of canvas, then stain the oak, coat it in spray spar varnish, and be done with it!  Good as new, and now thin oak instead of cardboard coated plastic!  I may have to plane the pieces even thinner than 1/4 inch, but I don't think I'll have to.  Should be a permanent lifetime fix!  And relatively easy to do!  Especially since I've already removed the doors once from the tracks and know how to do it now.

Tomorrow I have to run to O'Reily's first thing in the morning and buy the new Spectre air filter and order the 4" intake tubing, then get materials for all the projects and catapults (including the new kitchen faucet), then thoroughly clean up the dash board area in preparation for the dash reinstallation.  He's bringing the dash to us tomorrow night, which means I'll be reinstalling it Tuesday morning, which means I better pick up a new cd player/radio with 4 inch speakers while I'm at it, so Patti can finally have her music!

I'm also going to reinstall the captain's chairs on Tuesday, and put the house back in some semblance of order, but I'll finish the carpeting on Monday.

I've got to get as much as I can done off my project list this week, and build a bunch of catapults for next weekend...and do the same all over again next week.

Gonna be a busy couple of weeks before vacation!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

About to go down to O'Reilly's and Napa and get the stuff I need for the mechanical projects, then stop by Lowes for the thin oak strips, then a fabric store for some canvas, then back to the rig to work on the projects.

First up is getting the dash area all cleaned up, since the dash will be delivered this evening.  Then I'll just keep plugging away on the other projects until dark.

Off to get supplies!

Kev