Ollie's "BugEater" Build

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Hey Ollie, just an FYI that you might consider.

The best mod I made was to unscrew the auto shift knob. Pull it apart so you just have the top silver, black and first silver ring (can't remember if I had to cut off anything, it was over 2 yrs ago when I did it). Then cut the metal shaft down, again I don't remember how much, but just screw the shorter knob on and mark the shaft thats visible, then unscrew, measure how much was covered, and leave that much plus about a half inch for clearance. Then tap the shaft and screw the shorter knob back on.

This gives more room for the knuckles and/or allows the laptop to sit lower, if desired, to be more out of the way. I keep the seat slid all the way back and have no problem reaching it while down shifting while going down hill at slower speeds, but I have long arms so ymmv.

I know from your thread that I went into more detail than you need but in case some one else more my level wants to do it it might help them. It would have saved me some time back when.
 
holmanm said:
Hey Ollie, just an FYI that you might consider.

The best mod I made was to unscrew the auto shift knob. Pull it apart so you just have the top silver, black and first silver ring (can't remember if I had to cut off anything, it was over 2 yrs ago when I did it). Then cut the metal shaft down, again I don't remember how much, but just screw the shorter knob on and mark the shaft thats visible, then unscrew, measure how much was covered, and leave that much plus about a half inch for clearance. Then tap the shaft and screw the shorter knob back on.

This gives more room for the knuckles and/or allows the laptop to sit lower, if desired, to be more out of the way. I keep the seat slid all the way back and have no problem reaching it while down shifting while going down hill at slower speeds, but I have long arms so ymmv.

I know from your thread that I went into more detail than you need but in case some one else more my level wants to do it it might help them. It would have saved me some time back when.
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Thanks for the tips. I've contemplated doing that for a long time. I just might do that. I'll think on it a bit.
 
I'd like more details on how you got the airhorns married up with the stock horn controls. I already have OBA and just picked up a couple of wolo horns on ebay. I have yet to plumb the horns, but got them mounted on the roof next to my airtanks. I was honestly considering installing the old trucker style pull chain in the headliner...East bound and down...:hillbilly:
 
Looks good Ollie!
 
BMThiker said:
I'd like more details on how you got the airhorns married up with the stock horn controls. I already have OBA and just picked up a couple of wolo horns on ebay. I have yet to plumb the horns, but got them mounted on the roof next to my airtanks. I was honestly considering installing the old trucker style pull chain in the headliner...East bound and down...:hillbilly:
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Wow it's good to see you still out there Rick. How's Dig-Dug and the other half doing?

My alarm system sets of the vehicles horns as the alarm. It doesn't have an electronic siren/speaker. I simply spliced into to wire going into the horn, ran the wire back through a switch on my console, and went from the switch to the air horn solenoid valve.

When the switch I ran my control wire to is off, my car horn works normally. When the switch is on, my regular car horn sets of the train horns. Since my horns are controlled by my car horn, I just turn on the air horn switch when I get out of my car and they are armed. If my car alarm goes off my air-horns in turn go off with them.

My horns are fed from a 2 gallon air tank. If your horns have their own separate pump as some do I don't know how well this will work.

Let me know if you have any other questions.
 
There's a reason that I like various forums. If comments are constructive, you can get some good feedback. On a few of the sites I posted my RAM mount tray modification to people mentioned the vents on the computer not getting enough air. After examining the bottom of my computer more closely I realized that I did need to help my computer breathe better even though it's main vent is in the back. There are various vent areas on the bottom that the tray was covering. The air gets pulled in from the back then pushed through the computer out these other vents. So here's the mount tray after it's been modified for maximum breathablility for the computer. This set up will allow the the computer to breathe even better than when it's setting on a desk since the air will pass right through and not bounce off of a surface below the computer.

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A few years ago I replaced the factory stereo in the BugEater with a Clarion DVD stereo. I thought it would give me some better quality tunes with the aftermarket speakers I had already installed and the ability to watch some DVD's as well. It turned out that the sound quality sucked and I ended up buying an amplifier to help things out. The first picture below shows the Clarion and the second shows the amp and some Bose speakers I added.

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The sound quality improved immensely. The stereo was still a pain though. It wouldn't read my Ipod correctly and often times wouldn't see the Ipod at all. So I returned it to exchange it. Well, even the second one gave me grief but I lived with it. One of the other issues with the stereo was the fact that it had no stereo Aux plug to hook other devices like my laptop to. Well the other day it finally took a dump on me. I have a stereo built into my Kobalt toolbox (and a Fridge
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) so I decided to hook that up in the BugEater. When I get more cash I'll replace the stereo in my toolbox. I installed the same model stereo that's in my Toolbox in my wife's 4-Runner a few years ago and we love it. The problem is that it is a single DIN stereo and the opening in the BugEater is for a 2 DIN stereo.


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So I had to fabricate a plate for the opening. Below are some pictures of the process. After all was installed and complete, I was very impressed with the sound quality of the stereo. I can watch DVD's on my laptop and there's still an extra Aux connection if I need it. The Ipod works flawlessly with this stereo too. Sometimes more money isn't the best option. Now I just need to give the BugEater a long over due cleaning. An additional bonus is that the blank area above the stereo affords the opportunity for more switches.
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A friend of mine "funjunkie" gave me a complex with his comment below and I had to make a change.

without hearing the difference I gotta say I am not a fan. I admire the lengths you went to to make it ok, but man, kinda feel its on the far side of good. Just constructive criticism bro. not tryin to get down on ya. Kinda like the friend who has the balls to tell ya your breath stinks or ya got spinich on your tooth.
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So I went out today and moved my ScanGauge into the blank spot to improve the appearance. I actually like the location of the ScanGauge better now and does fill the void.

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A roof rack it is... :D I was combing through the web and I found a fairly unique rack. There are a few around but I have yet to see any in person. It's a Utility rack by Baja Rack. Of course it won't stay stock looking but it is fairly stock for now. I have yet to see one with lighting on it has for front tabs for lights. I have all the lights mounted on the front and sides but i am doing something different than the way I had my stock rack set up.

A had a time set up to meet up with the salesman this morning and had to have my stock rack off and change some stuff on the way my wires were routed through the roof to accommodate the new rack. Since my old rack was a large diameter tubing rack, I wanted to make it look clean and I pulled all the wiring through the tubes of the rack. The holes through the roof was under the driver's side front rack mount pad so I didn't need to use a bulkhead fitting on the roof. I was able to seal the foot of the rack and no water got in. Well, with the new rack there was no such luck. I had to lift the rack, mark all the wires, cut the wires and pull the out of the roof so I could open up the existing hole and install a bulkhead fitting. I was able to also verify that the wires were clear of the airbags. Here are some pics of that mess...

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Then today I went to Ramona to get my new rack and of course I couldn't leave the shop until I at least had some of the lights mounted on it. :D It's a stout rack. I can walk around on it and set up there. What enticed me was the lack of the side rails and how low profile it is. The wind noise has reduced considerably and we'll see if it helps with MPG. I doubt it but I can hope. :D I'll post up more as I get the fabs done to the rack that I want to accomplish.

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Since all the structure on the new rack is round, I didn't have a place to mount my lip-mount Diamond K9000 motorized antenna mount up by the front PIAA's.

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To remedy this issue I modified the light-bar I fabricated for my old stock rack and made a bar for my lip mount. Now all is well in radio land again. Now that that's taken care of it's time to start wiring my lights.
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Antenna Lowered
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Antenna Raised
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