A date which will live in infamy.
Posts Tagged ‘Jeep #18’
Jeep #18: Now Spring is Really Here
Well now that weekend winter is apparently over and the weather is back to 70 degrees, here’s a picture.
The bolts holding the winch on have already oxidized, which I think is absolutely ridiculous. I’ll have to find new bolts that can endure more than 12 hours of moisture, I guess.
Also, the hydraulic controls for my clutch died, so I’ll have to take care of that before I get the steps on. Not that I’m, complaining. Since I bought the car I’ve only had to spend $12 in parts to keep it running smoothly. Not bad for a 20-year old car, eh?
Jeep #18: Light Bar Installed
I have decided not to do the go-lights, simply because they cost about $250-$300 each, and there are four of them. Add that to my hesitation of putting anything that can be easily unbolted and walked away with, and no fucking way. I’m already terrified about someone stealing my winch, to the point of asking a buddy to leave tacks of weld on the bolts once I get it on. I currently have two light bars, the one you see in the pictures will have lights attached to it, and the other will just be a bare-bones bar like in the opening scenes. The one in the pictures is a little taller than I’d like it to be, but from my best estimates it is the same height as those in the movie.
Jeep #18: Breaking in the Soft Top
Rained all day today, finally an excuse to snap on the soft top and test it out.
And of course we had to go puddle-hunting! The pictures didn’t turn out too well, unfortunately.
Bought a pair of ATV winches from Harbor Freight to see if they were about the right size… nope, way too small. I am now on the hunt amongst the Colorado 4×4 community for a broken or cheap new-condition winch, uphill struggle I know. Logan’s uncle apparently has a smallish one that might fit the bill. I won’t find out until tomorrow, though.
Jeep #18: Soft Top Hardware
So in order to keep my project jeep more ‘canon’ to the film, I bought an aftermarket factory-style soft top hardware set, along with a matching brown bestop. Basically I caved in during a heavy rainstorm somewhere between Longmont and Boulder at like two in the morning, deciding to get a soft top just for such occasions. I figured it would look like the jeep in the movie and if the weather got ridiculously shitty I could pull the whole thing up with minimal effort and continue on my way.
The jeep I bought came with a black supertop, the hardware of which doesn’t look anything like that in the film, but I managed to set up the whole thing by myself, with no previous knowledge or experience, in about a half hour.
Tonight Logan and I tried getting the new thing on, and for the love of god two hours later we still can get it to fit perfectly. The hardware setup is ingenius, with the sliding bars that fold down and all lock together. But the actual canvas part, mother of GOD… fuck YOU bestop. I figure that if I am on the road with that thing and it starts raining, not only will the storm have passed by the time I get it all zipped up, but it will likely be a whole different season.
Hey it looks shnazzy and cannon and all that, but I don’t quite think I like it. If I can figure out how to make the top work tomorrow then I’ll likely keep it, but for the trouble, the impracticality of it, and how it generally makes the jeep feel that much more closed-in I might just return the sucker and seek out a used Supertop.
Jeep #18: StarFest 2008
In other news, last weekend marked the goings-on of Colorado’s largest science fiction convention, StarFest. I had brought the ecto to the convention last year and was asked to park it by the entrance by staff who regretted me not telling them I was bringing it down ahead of time. They asked if it would be possible to put the cars inside the hotel for 2008, and I told them I’d be in touch.
Shauna and I arrived at the DTC Marriott around 8 the day before the con to load the cars into the hotel. For the DIAS all we had to do was drive up a ramp and into the convention center, and for the Forney Museum there was a loading area and everything.
Not so this time around.
We had to turn the cars off and push them through the main hall, down an adjacent hallway, turn them around in the atrium, and back them into their parking spots… all the while making sure the cars never touched the carpet by rolling them on plastic sheets. Pain. In. The. Ass.
Anyway, we did get them in and I spent Friday crawling under and around the cars, hand-cleaning everything from the mirrors to the wheels. Here are some pictures from the weekend, taken by other con-goers and found by me on the internets.
