3eyedwagon

Napa's store oil is made by Havoline, one of the largest oil manufacturers in the world. I'm sure all the other automotive chains use similar practices. It's kinda like buying batteries; lotsa companies sell them, but only a few companies make them! I think everyone here is dead on the ****, as long as you stay with an oil that has correct certification, and ratings; you are fine. I've been running NAPA oil in almost all of our company rigs for years now. The main thing is to keep up on the maintenance.

I think everyone has a good list going. I would definitely change the chain to a strap though. I know I'm going to get for this one, but I could really care less. I've found this super handy for both vehicle excursions, and more importantly hiking excursions. I always carry a rifle, or pistol of some sort. This may be protested by some, but where I live, and have grown up; it is a tool that can be compared to a shovel or an axe. There are some things that a firearm can do that nothing else can. My brother, and I once got lost south east of our home for 17 days. Luckily, against my mothers advice; I had packed my Ruger 10/22 bullpup, and ample ammunition. That little bit of insurance kept me, and my bro from spending two very hungry weeks wandering the Cascades. That rifle was nothing fancy by any means, just a $250 chunk of steel, and plastic. But the jobs that a firearm can perform are often worth their weight to lug along. I also carry a small carbine in my vehicles, as deer/elk are ALWAYS getting hit on my stretch of highway. As sad as it was, I once had to put down a horse after it had been hit by a Mustang. As much as it sucked; I was glad I happened by so that horse didn't have to spend 30 painful minutes thrashing around in broken glass. I tend to not like to let things suffer, if I don't have to. Also, once while in Search & Rescue, my group located an injured hunter after he used the international 3 shot call of distress. Whatever your opinion on them may be, firearms, while they must be respected, are INCREDIBLY useful tools.

Not that many, but I got a few One Eye Audiophile Scott In Bellingham R Kirky Alaska Style Qman Zap There's a couple others I met at Scott's shop, but I can't remember their board names.

I would guess that's why he is using 10w-40. I usually bump oil viscosity up in the summer time, in preparation for trips through mountain passes in higher temperatures than normal. I've never found any real problems with running a slightly higher viscosity than usual. Especially if it is a multi-viscosity oil. Then again, everything I do this to is high mileage, and usually a v8. So, chances are; I'm not going to hurt it.

Ahh. I shoulda noticed that from the color, and slight blur. Good camera work man!

Check the door jams, the radiator core support, and be sure to read the vin plate thouroughly. Sometimes it is kinda hidden on there. Those are my only ideas.:-\

Step 1: Get one of those motion sensor lights from Home Depot. Step 2: Sheet metal screw it to the rear, above the license plate. Step 3: Wire a short cord with a common house plug. Step 4: Buy a Honda Inverter Technology generator. They are really a great investment anyways. Step 5: Place the generator in the rear of you vehicle, and run the short cord from the light to it. Step 6: Every time you plan on driving some where; start the generator! Now, when the police officer pulls in behind you; he will trip the motion sensor, and your "license plate light" will automatically turn on!!! :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: Glad I could be of some help!

I agree with your point on this. If you don't know the history of the vehicle, it is always best to assume the worst. I'd treat it like it has been mostly buffed off. I've done this to a few older rigs where the clearcoat had started getting hazy. You can even pull it off on paint jobs where the clear coat is peeling. It's more difficult, but it is doable. I would find someone who knows what they are doing, and has experience doing something like this before. Even if you have to remove the clear, you can lightly sand the color coat, and shoot from there. It sounds like you are just going to scuff the clear, get the haze out of it, then re-shoot a new clear over it. It should work just fine. I'd go no coarser than 1200 grit for a job like that though. Any more, and it will show through like a turd in a punchbowl. Be sure to find out what the stock paint system is for that particular vehicle. I have never messed with painting Subs, so I have no idea what to tell you there. Just be sure to be very careful with what paint system you use to refinish it. Not all clearcoat systems are compatible, and even though your paint has had years to cure; incompatibility could cause a chemical reaction, and ruin any work you have done. This is where an expert is a must. Good luck!

Oh come on! That's the only way I can get a tan around here in the winter!!!

It looks like nice work. I'm a big fan of ingenuity. And if it works for the guy, who the heck am I?

Whatever ammount of lift you are doing, be sure to match the same dimension with the shocks. I messed around with this a bit on the shocks I made. I made a set 1" shorter than my lift to act as limiting straps, I did this as I had heard of the problems EA81s had with breaking rear axles with the tire completely dropped. They worked fine, however, they did bottom out under compression. Aside from it being annoying; I'm sure it was very tough on the stock mounting. So, in my opinion, if you are doing a 4" lift; be sure to do 4" extension on your stock shocks. If you go too long, you will allow more rear suspension flex, and probably break axles with the suspension dropped/flexed out. If you go to short; you will experience the bottoming out that I did.

Looks like 10lbs of ***** in a 5lb bag to me! But then again; a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!!

Considering some of these pictures in the deep water are in the daylight, and other more desperate ones are taken after dark, I have to ask; Was it a long day of wheeling???

The upright connectors between the two pipes can count in most situations. If the total flat surface area of the uprights in betwixt:rolleyes:, and the "flat" surface of the round tube makes 4 inches in height, you would be all legit. At least that's how a bunch of my police buddies, and I read/interpreted it. That was a good portion of my inspiration for the design of my front bumper. It is a tube bumper. BUT the uprights, and flat plate (even smaller sections of it than this) still count as "a technically flat surface". It's all really about interpretation of the law I guess. If a cop wants to hose ya, he's gonna hose ya.

Just to clarify for everyone; This guy is talking about a rear ea81 shock setup. Just figured I'd clarify before this turned into an EA82 post that is full of useless info to this guy....

If you are looking for Ipod, and Bluetooth interface capabilities; make sure the internal hardware, and software are made by Parrot. They make THE BEST Bluetooth stuff on the market, and their internals are found in all high-end Bluetooth capable players. I would however suggest you steer clear of actual Parrot brand in car decks. I have one I bought, and installed in my Roadmaster. The Bluetooth, and Ipod interface are some of the best I've seen, but the rest of the deck is junk. The rare times I try to play a CD, or MP3 CD, things go horribly wrong. My biggest suggestion would be to stay with the top brands (IE: Alpine, JVC, Panasonic, Pioneer, Kenwood, Sony, etc.), and buy an upper escellion piece. Pretty much all of the companies have both really horrible stuff (grey line crap manufactured to be sold at Wally World), and really top notch stuff that sells only in reputable local shops. Just find something you like the controls of, because that's what you are going to deal with the most. But be sure it is a good brand, and if it's $119 bucks installed at Best Buy: it probably isn't going to last as long as a slightly different model that cost alot more!

Yeah. The auto darks are hard to beat. I have had some real good luck with the cheapo "Astro" brand ones. It is a mass produced auto darkening solar powered welding helmet that Astro Tools just puts their name on. You can find the same exacts helmets under a multitude of names. You can pick them up for $80 now. I have two of them that I've had for over 4 years. They don't take any batterys, like some of the more expensive Autoshades do, and I've found them to be every bit as durable. Plus, it just doesn't make sense to me to have to turn a welding helmet on, and replace batteries when they run dead.....

Sorry man, never seen the setup of which you speak. I can totally understand why you want to do this, keeping it low budget and all. I'm a big fan of that kind of stuff. I would honestly look into the kind of setup I described, it was really simple. Basically it is the same idea, just welded rather than bolted. And if you already have a decent pair of stock shocks lying there, you may as well use them! Once you do go for new shocks though, mine were only like $45 for the pair at NAPA. Good luck with whatever you decide.

I'm not sure what gen you are speaking of, but by reading your bio I'm going to assume you are talking about an EA81 rear shock setup. For a temporary set of shocks on the rear of my EA81 wagon, I took the stock shocks, and ground off the upper mounting loop. The stockers were welded lightly, and some careful grinding took the top loop right off. Be careful if you do this, don't grind too deep or aggressively as you could damage the shock. I then cleaned, and dressed both pieces to prepare them for welding. I then cut 2 pieces of (one for each shock) 1/4" walled 1" diameter pipe 4" in length (for a 4" lift), and cleaned them on each end. I fish mouthed one end of the 1" pipe for the stock shocks upper loop to mate better to the 1" pipe. I then tacked everything in place, and gave it the roll test to make sure stuff was straight. When you weld the top piece onto the pipe it will get hot, and the rubber bushing will catch fire, so be ready to quench it frequently. The shocks worked fine, and I had only planned on using them temporarily. They made a couple of wheeling trips, and I never had any problem with them. I think OneEye still has them on a lifted wagon if I'm not mistaken. I eventually bought some aftermarket ones I ordered by dimension from the shock book. I think most all shocks anyone has found to use from other sources have required light fabrication to get them to work. Mostly just a redrill of the upper mounting holes. I believe the popular setup for a 4" lift is a set from a Toyota LandLoser. I'm not sure what mine are as I ordered them by dimension.

a little zzz and some and all of the sudden OH DANG!!! and I was like:

So when you gonna EJ that *&%$*%?

Ummmmm. Thanks?

It rains "just a bit" where I live, and I've made it my whole life without AWD. While AWD is nice, in the end, it isn't a necessity by any means. I could see justifying it in a place that gets snow 9 months out of the year, like maybe Alaska. However, to most of the 48 states, AWD is hardly a necessity. If someone can't drive a RWD or FWD vehicle in the wet, they probably shouldn't have a license!! As for the whole Darwinism aspect, if that holds true; around 90+% of people in the greater Seattle area should be killed in fatality car wrecks any time now, as most of the cars driving up, and down I-5 every day aren't AWD.

I forgot to add: Dude, if your name means what I think it means...... that is awesome. If by some chance it doesn't; I apologize if I have offended you. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Well done. Well done. I haytz it when all my stuffs is brokud and it dont werks rights.