Looking Back: The Antenna Install

I have made reference in a couple of recent posts about the antenna I installed on the Sky. This was back in January of last year, so it's been a while. It's a bit of a story, and here it is!!!

As I mentioned, the original style antenna is a tall solid mast, and it's on the rear fender, right where it's in the way when you are putting the top down or up. All that remained of the original was the plastic base, and around an inch of the original mast. I purchased a little rubber antenna of the style that had been popular during the mini truck craze of the 80's. I had figured I would just remove the original, and plug the replacement in wherever the original cable plugged in. Of course, the radio is a ways from the stereo head, so as a plan B I was thinking I could just splice the cable as needed.

Not previously mentioned, Zonker actually has two antennas, the standard over the air antenna mentioned, and a satellite radio (and probably OnStar as well) “Shark Fin” antenna on the middle back of the rear deck, and of course, both have cables that pass from the trunk area to the interior.

I removed the rear body panel and the center console cover, figuring they would pass through and probably run down the console. That's what you see here, there's a lot going on. The box in the middle of the picture is, I'm pretty sure, the satellite radio receiver. Towards the bottom of the picture, you can see the subwoofer of the Monsoon audio system (which I also previously mentioned that I had repaired by gluing the cone back to the surround) and towards the top is the Monsoon amp. I tried to trace the over the air antenna cable, but was only able to positively ID the satellite cable.

I took a step back, and reconsidered the approach I was going to take. The old antenna base was going to have to be removed to put the new one on. While I was antenna shopping, I saw that almost all of the antenna masts are internally threaded. I went ahead and worked the stub off, and unscrewed the large flat nut on the top of the base, which revealed the threaded rod base. The replacement antenna has a near opposite approach, with a threaded bolt extending down, which is captured and kept from turning with a couple of flats in the metal portion of the antenna base. OK, what can I do with this??? How about using a nut in place of the bolt, and screwing it down to the original threaded stud??? Yes, that could work, but it may end up needing to be shortened, or some sort of adapter made up. I found a flange nut with the correct thread, which of course was too wide for the slot in the metal base. I used a cut off wheel to slice two sides off, and shortened one end, to make a nut where everything lines up.

Next up, how to get everything to line up... The metal base to the antenna is too small to work with the original plastic base. The plastic base for the new antenna has a similar shape, a tapering cone, with the correct size recess for the metal base, and a little extra flange and height on the bottom. Since I already had the cut off wheel set up, I trimmed the flange and a little height off the base, and things were getting close to the right height to sandwich it with the original base, but of course the shape wasn't matching up. I ran a bolt through the newly trimmed down base, and chucked a couple of nuts in my drill, and attached it to the drill. I had the younger run the drill, while I used some coarse sandpaper to shape it down into more of a spherical shape. After the shape was good, I used fine sandpaper and a sanding pad to smooth it out, and it actually polished up beautifully!!!

It ended up looking something like a snowman, with a base cone of the original base (which actually follows the fender contour nicely), the new base turned spherical, and the metal base, which already has a round shape, being two halves that you can use to adjust the angle!!!

At the same time I had ordered the antenna, I also picked up a couple of phone holders. When I had started working from home, I picked up a wireless charger stand for my phone, since I was using my phone a lot for work (I've got a whole folder of work apps I need to uninstall), and the wireless charging was working great!!! I figured I'd look into a similar holder for the cars, and found a couple of these for not a lot. I still hadn't come up with a good holder for Kutcher, and since it tends to get a lot more use, I'd put one in it first. I'm usually not impressed by suction cup style bases, but these work great!!! It's a clear silicone cup with a release lever, and I was able to stick it to the middle of the console, and have the phone holder just back from the gear shift. Just recently, something went wrong with the indexing of the arm, and now it wants to rotate down, guess I'll be taking it back to the drawing board soon. Also, for some reason, it doesn't seem to charge nearly as well as the home unit did. Anyway, here's the one I put in the Sky, it sets it right between the instruments and the heater controls, and it's stuck to the smooth part of the dashboard right over the middle HVAC vents. Lights up a cool blue!!!

So, there you are!!! 80's antenna installed!!! Not going to snap off putting the top up or down, and it seriously improves reception!!! Cool 80's aesthetic vibe, as well!!!

And a happy 512 day to all!!!

The Happy Day After 512 Day Random Post

Yesterday, of course, was 512 day. In honor, here's my latest 512 shirt!!!

I've had the concept of Mystery 512 for a long, long time, with the idea to have it on a shirt. It was something of a time consuming process the last time I made up a 512 shirt. I recently heard of StickerMule, where they print stickers and T-shirts from your design. I took a little time in Paint Shop Pro and made up the design, pretty much freehand, so the proportions aren't exact, but it came out good enough. Of course, as with anything you are having made, the more you buy the cheaper the unit price, so I bought four!!! Gave one to the boy. I'm very pleased with the results!!!

Haven't posted about Sidney the Kidney in a while, maybe since we got him!!! He's awesome, a real people cat, and a welcome member to the family. His love language is licks, but don't be too flattered if he gives you licks, here he is being a weirdo licking my son's dumbbell!!!

The boy has been doing workouts regularly for several months now. During the stupid times, I packed on several pounds, and outgrew several of my T-shirts. I picked up a couple of Sky T-shirts, one that has a yellow Redline on a black background, the other has a basic profile drawing on a yellow shirt.

This type of thing probably doesn't help, but we went back to the Charley's Phillies I'd mentioned before, and actually got a picture of the cheesesteak this time!!!

At the beginning of April I took a week off and had a little vacation. We headed down to Carlsbad with no particular plan on what we would do once we got there. Stayed at a place that looked like nothing but a concrete block from the outside, but it had some really great rooms inside!!! Very spacious!!! We soaked in the hot tub and swam in the pool. They had outside barbecues and a fireplace that I would have liked to have enjoyed a little, but that didn't happen.

Ended up going to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and it was pretty excellent. As we were leaving we were looking around for somewhere to have dinner. Came across Seoul Cord Dog & Fried Chicken, and I've gotta try that!!! We got corn dogs with crunchy sweet rice puffs all over the outside, and sausage and cheese stick on the inside. Wow!!!

There was a boba place on the other side (it was in a pretty decent mall) and I got myself a honeydew drink that was really good as well. Afterwards, my son wanted the same thing, so I got another, and of course my credit card company questioned the double charge for the same amount!!!

Last week was my in office week. Had two real nice weather days where I was able to drive the Sky with the top down. Third day I had to take the Matrix to do the “Will It Fit: Matrix Edition” featuring several pieces of 8-foot 2 x 4's!!! I feel like I could have gone up to 9 feet, or even 10 feet if it was up to the corner of the windshield.

One of the posts I've been meaning to do, but haven't (naturally), is an overview of the work I've done on the cars of late. Sometime at the end of last year I took the Sky to my tint shop and had the limo tint removed from the front windows, and replaced with a barely there tint. Came out great and makes it much better driving with the top up, especially at night. I'd had my wife following to give me a ride back while it was being worked on, but by the time she arrived they were pretty close to having the job done. I asked if they could get the Matrix done as well (it came with limo tint on the front windows as well, and I've been wanting to get it taken care of since we got it). Ended up waiting until the Sky was done, and left the Matrix there to get the same level of tint. I like it much better as well.

Well, for a 512 day wrap up, we were driving in the Matrix in the Fast Track lanes, moving right along, and here come the fuzz!!! Pulled me over for speeding, but after checking my license and registration, came back and just tagged me for an equipment violation for the front windows having tint on them!!! Thanks, officer!!! Now I've got to get the tint removed and signed off on, then more than likely put back on. I'm fine with that!!!

Here's your one picture of a giraffe from the Safari Park, looking a little derpy.

I had to go take a look at this, also at the corn dog mall!!! They put you in a harness and you get to grab your prize. We didn't do it. According to the sign, we all exceed the weight limit.

The Sound of Jade

Finally did this yesterday.

When we bought Jade, I quickly discovered she had the same trash can type of center muffler that Baby and 3 came with, and just like both of those, it was leaking from the crimped on end of the front. It was getting worse, to the point it would billow exhaust up around the front of the car if you were stopped for a while. I still had the first one I'd gotten for Baby, with the front and rear flanges for bolt-on interchangeability. Of course, 3 still has the glass pack, and whenever I get around to yanking the drivetrain out of her, I'll take the whole back end of the exhaust system. Yesterday I took her to the same muffler shop that had made up the original 512 Labs exhaust, and had them put in the middle muffler.

My wife had always liked how quiet Jade was, after having driven Scruffy around with her voice. I had the thought that if I removed the rear muffler, but kept the extra twists and turns over the rear axle and had it exit at the rear, it should have less volume but still have better flow. I had given them instructions to do so, but there were two customers ahead of me. That gave me time to do a little sifting through their pile of old tips, and I found this nice looking double tip. I'd wanted a double tip, if I had my choice of style, I would have something similar to the Gale Banks F-body power pack system I had on my Camaro, with the last couple feet chrome, a slight bend towards the end, and maybe a 20° slant to the very end. This isn't anything like that, but still looks good, and fills up the bumper clearance nicely. Also, the outside tip is slightly shorter that the inside one, matching the curve.

I asked how much to put it on, and it was an extra $20. I'll take it!!! The whole job ended up being $120, plus $10 tax. The price keeps going up!!! They used the strap that had held the original muffler to hang the pipe. It looked like it was a good fit where they had it positioned.

But when I got a look at it later, I realized it wasn't lined up with the body of the car. It comes out at a slant. They have a 90 day warranty, I wonder if they'll honor it to straighten it out, or if it will cost extra to have that done.

Well, it sounds good, but not significantly quieter for having it exit the back. I'll see how it is after I get the glass pack off 3 swapped in. For the first time, it actually seems like it's added some power!!!

An Exhausting Undertaking

Here's a project I've been working on for quite a while!!!

Back in the beginning of May is when I started in on it. The idea has been in my head for longer than that, but here's the culmination.

I've been displeased with the terrible job that was done attempting to duplicate the original 512 Labs tailpipe for Scruffy. As I've been working on this, I've discovered that the system had been doing quite a bit of making contact with the tunnel. Additionally, I wanted to attempt to pick up a bit more ground clearance and improve the look of the outlet.

I started off by getting some 1 3/8" tubing and steel flat stock. I used some chipboard to fabricate a template, then used a sawzall to split the tube and cut out the flat stock.

I also got some of the old system parts and tubing, and came up with a much better output pipe, which tucks up into the tunnel much more cleanly. After getting the tip into shape, I ground the welds down quite a bit.

You can see, the end result is quite a bit cleaner on the pipe shape. What doesn't show as well in the pictures is the end section, where it does a dip down, then back up, which nicely clears the end of the tunnel area and goes under the emergency brake cable. I'm not sure if that dip makes the clearance situation no better than it was.

Laying the one pipe over the other shows it to be much cleaner.

A shot of the tip in place, prior to the addition of some black high-temp paint, the same as the original.

Here's a marked improvement over the one it's replacing, a pair of rubberized mounts on either end of the tip, for a solid but not too solid mount!!!

Took quite a while for several reasons. I was using my dad's MIG welder, and first it ran out of shield gas. Had a spool of flux core wire, and I switched to it. Took me a while to dial in the settings, but it came out pretty good. Then, at the tail end of the project, the wire kept getting jammed, and it turns out the wire feed cable was screwed up. I had a friend finish off the final welds.

And, if you hadn't noticed in the earlier shots, I've seen to it that this one has a legitimate 512 Labs inscription!!!

Shirt-Art Imitates Photo-Art

One of those things I do most every day is check what they've got for sale on Woot. Got my last two phones, a few TV's, and dozens of shirts from there. This week they had another that I had to get.

One of my favorite shots from when we were in Texas was the bat bridge in Austin.

This shirt had a black and white (well, gray. Well, you know, gray is my favorite color) rendering of almost exactly that image, draped with plaid octopus. Another nice tie-in, the contest the shirt was coming from is about the South by Southwest festival, in affiliation with Do512. OK, I'll take one!!! Once again, I've got too many shirts.

Something I'd made mention of on that post, but never expanded on, was the fact that there IS a basement in the Alamo!!! Within the grounds of the Alamo, there's a gift shop. I'm pretty sure it was one of the original buildings. As I was perusing the shirts, a lady next to me asks one of the workers there if they have a shirt in a medium. The worker replies that she'll go look in the stock room, and proceeds to this elevator, that, as you can see, only has a down button!!! I say to the lady, "There IS a basement in the Alamo!!!"

Portrait Gone RONG!!!

It's been a while since I've done a self-portrait. Way back I'd done one and two, and I've probably done something in between, but here's the third!!!

For the back story, a while ago I came across the tale of 9-year old Alice, who came up with some great captions for the New Yorker cartoon caption contest. Apparently they do the art for some cartoons, then you can submit your caption. Of all of them, this is the one that stuck with me!!! One day at work all the label printers and the wireless had all gone out, and no one could get anything to work. I checked on Slack, and a bunch of people were informing via that of the problems. One of my old time friends who's been there about as long as me was across the conveyor, and he posted something to the effect of "Everything is broken!!!" I seriously LOL'ed. When I got a free moment, I found this and showed it to him.

Eventually I made up a new card for my tray, and did my best to copy the artwork, and change it just a bit to make it a self-portrait!!! Changed the text to make it more palatable to myself, and the guy to be me, complete with 'skinned head, glasses, changed the smoke to a pen, and, of course, my 512 shirt!!! Not long after I finished it, I realized that, with the exception of the shirt, there's about a half dozen of us fillers that it could be!!!

Scruffy Finds Her Voice (Then Gets Radical Rhinoplasty)

Something I've wanted to do for the longest time, and finally managed to get taken care of a month or so ago. I got a 512 Labs exhaust system like I have on Sat3 made up for Scruffy!!! Quite a while ago I had got myself an actual glasspack muffler for my car (at the time it was on Baby) and welded it up with flanges in the same position as the original (actually it was a junkyard replacement for a can-type factory muffler, but you know what I mean) and saved that original for Scruffy.

When I put the glasspack on Baby, I don't remember the sound changing that much. After I'd gone through the time and effort, I remember thinking that it was kind of a waste since it didn't seem to quiet it down much at all (not that I'm complaining, it sounds pretty sweet, but was doing it out of consideration for the neighbors) but having my old muffler on Scruffy, there's a decided increase in volume. Has a bit more of a harsh bark to it. Yeah, it sounds good!!! It cost me $20 more than when I had the original made up, and I don't think I got a better job done for my money. You can see instead of being a piece bent to shape, he used a bunch of pre-bent lengths, and welded 'em at compound angles. The outside mount, instead of being to an actual rubber insulator, he welded directly to the suspension mount!!! Discovered that after we'd left, or I sure would have made him fix that!!! I've been thinking of how to remedy this... and to be sure, it's the last time I'm going to this place!!!

The only thing I really like is the tip they made up for it, it appears to be stainless. Needs a little deburring.

Took a shot of the original muffler and intermediate silencer. If you look, you can see the black marks that all Saturn rear mufflers seem to have, from scraping a hole in them. The silencer muffler is shorter from Scruffy, something I'd never noticed before. Saved it to (probably, eventually) add flanges to it and see how it sounds. Mileage seems a bit better, but not so good as I've seen before.

Then, just this week, my wife does THIS to her!!!

Good news, no one was hurt, and it didn't set off the airbags. Probably because the sensors for 'em are in the bumper!!!

She was on the freeway, and traffic stopped and she went under the back of a full size pickup truck. Of course, not her fault. Also amazing, besides a couple scratches on the front bumper, the hood was the only panel affected!!!

Last hood shot is of the insulation pad from underneath, where you can see the print of the twin cam cover, and I've added in a couple of strange pink arrows pointing out the print of the canister for the AIR injection in the front, and the oil fill cap in the rear. I took a hammer to the hood and put some clearance back into it.

As soon as she started talking about insurance, they bailed, so more good news!!!

I'm known to make comments about people locking up their wheels and "flat spotting" their tires. After I took the hood shots, I noticed that it appeared to have an example (somewhat) of just that, except it made a pattern of perfect stripes!!! Wonder if it was grooves on the roadway.

Final shot is of one of the motor mounts from the Falcon, since I'm always putting motor mount pics here!!! In the interim the starter in Scruffy had given up, and I moved the Falcon out to make room to change it. I'd bought the new mounts months ago, and just yesterday finally got them in. When I was moving it out, I drove it over and bought $20 of gas since it's been a LONG time since I have, and the tank was way low and gas was way cheap. I'd goosed it a few times, and floated the back tire for 50 feet or so while I was driving it about, and when I got home it was leaking gas again!!! That had been my last Falcon project, rebuilding the carburetor because it had been leaking from the accelerator pump. This time, turned out to be from the motor flopping over and ripping the line from the body to the fuel pump!!! During the course of changing the mounts, managed to lift the engine enough that it ripped the upper radiator hose!!! Always something...

Getting ALL My Saturns in a Triangle

Ever notice that if you have three of anything, unless they are in a perfectly straight line, they always form a perfect triangle???

So, here we are, almost three months after I picked up Saturn 3. Before the first week was out, I'd made a couple of lists, the first of parts I was going to remove from Baby before bidding her a fond adieu, the second of things to fix on Saturn 3. Up to this past weekend, still hadn't gotten to everything. Over the weekend, finally put Baby back together, with the primary intent of just getting her out of the driveway to do an oil change, secondary intent to send her off to her final resting place. Registration is due next month. All that was required was to put the accessory drive belt back on, and the upper motor mount I'd removed to make that easier. Of course, I'd forgotten that it gave me a hard time and I'd loosened up the A/C compressor to make it easier, and after putting the belt and mount on, that was sitting cocked. While I was at it, I pulled off the driving lights I'd replaced the factory units with around six months ago, as well as the mounts I'd fabbed up. Both of them had cracked lenses already, which I didn't notice until I had them off!!! Also pulled out the radio, it's a pretty good one, the only one I've ever had with HD radio.

I think it was the first or second weekend I had her that I swapped the rims from Baby to 3, and got two of the tires on Scruffy (the name that actually kind of has stuck for the Family Truckster wagon) changed to the alloys that had been on 3. It was at least a month before I got the other two done, but that's done. Around a month after I'd got her, I also swapped the front rotors between Baby and 3, the ones on 3 were warped and it would shimmy like crazy under moderate to hard braking. Took the ceramic pads with about a year of wear on them, too. Around a month and a half in, I swapped the 512 Labs tailpipe onto 3, and WOW, it's a game changer in the mileage department!!! I'd been getting under 27 MPG, and the conversion has bumped it up to SOLID 30.5 MPG at least!!! I'd been wanting to fabricate a whole new one with a cool tip I'd made up years ago, and was doing the swap at my parent's house, but I couldn't get it to come together. Want to put one of 'em on Scruffy, it gets similar lackluster mileage. I'm fairly convinced it's the exhaust ports, which have been undersized in the last few years of production. I would love to find someone with the earlier engine and manual tranny who tracks their mileage and have them do one of these pipes and see how it does!!! That same day I was helping my dad put a disc brake conversion on his Studebaker. Took several weeks to get that done, too, but the results were similarly stellar.

Don't know if I've ever mentioned, but I got myself a dashcam with reverse camera with some birthday money around the end of last year, and had to pull that out, along with a halogen back up light I'd installed. The longer I drive it, the more I want that rig in 3. A few weeks back, I also swapped the rear drums from Baby to Scruffy, as she had one that was cut pretty deep. Let me see, what else??? Pretty early on, I swapped all the speakers out, and it sounds much better!!! The lock switch was another thing fixed early on. I had a K&N air filter element in Baby that I swapped over, but I've never been that impressed with it. Only two things I haven't gotten are the seat covers (which are pretty old, but I really like the style) and the sunroof. The sunroof on Baby works, but it's not smooth. There's a company that does a rebuild with aluminum glides on an exchange basis, not especially cheap, but I think it's money well spent, and will keep me from taking the roof apart twice. Got the keys changed to all on one, for a reasonable sum of $50. I replaced a burnt out driving light bulb, and swapped the map lights from Baby to 3, as well as the windshield wipers. I attempted to de-haze the headlights, but they're pretty bad. One of these days I'll try again, but I'm considering getting some reflective window tint and seeing how that looks on them. Window tint is another on the to-do list, still, but it doesn't bother me from inside, just looks bad from the outside. 3 has a rock chip right at the edge of the field of vision, and that's more of a bother. Not something that was on my original list, but it's there now. Scruffy and the Falcon both have rock chips, too, and I'm hoping I could get a multi discount.

Oh yeah, that oil change... went pretty smoothly, but while I was down there I discovered a brake fluid leak. Might be just a sealing washer where the hose connects to the caliper (that's kind of how it looked, so I replaced it to see how it does) but if it's not, I've got another... or, it's not that pricey to buy a rebuild.

We were driving Scruffy around last Friday, and she started shifting really hard, like a slam shift. Ugggggh, here we go again!!! Well, at least I've got my own parts car!!! A little looking around on the webs, and I discover that there is a solenoid in the valve body that wears out and causes this symptom. Well, Baby's trans has never had a hiccup (except the time the tensioner went out and the charging system wasn't getting enough juice) so I'm assuming it's good in her. On Sunday I yanked the whole valve body out of her, a not especially difficult task.

I wasn't aware that, of all those bolts, only 11 of them actually hold the valve body in!!! So, unfortunately, I ended up splitting the thing in two, and I though I lost one of the little balls between the bottom half and the plate in the middle. I'm pretty sure it just rolled to the wrong spot, and I think I got it back where it goes. There were two springs, and I think the balls go on top of these.

I hope.

Of course, had to work on Monday, but it occurred to me that I've got a bunch of unscheduled vacation days and the year is near half over. Being as it's not a huge vacation season right now, I should be able to get a day off this week to finish this off. My first choice was for today, and they came through with it, so that's what I did today. Pulled Scruffy apart and then put her back together, and then put Baby back together. Success!!!

A Clue???

Some time back I made mention of the 512 address at Disney's California Adventure. I had no idea how it came to be, but today I may have stumbled on a clue...

I happen to know the address of a nuts & bolts location of Disney's Imaganeering operations. Today I checked out the street view (hence the low quality graininess), and the opposite end of that address happens to have the address 512!!! Sounds like just the sort of inside inspiration those guys would use!!!

So much more to blog about, one of these days...

Self Portrait

I've got a chipboard card that I use on my tray at work, makes for a good writing surface, and a place to stash stuff behind it. Some time ago, I was working with this one guy, and he writes "Great job" on one of the cover sheets left for me. When I got back, I handed him my sharpie and indicated the chipboard sheet, asked him if he could make it more permanent. He did, then underneath it he added the word, "Management". Everyone who saw it was greatly amused.

After a while, it was getting pretty worn, so I made up a new one, and stashed it in the back of my locker. A couple months back, I found it and broke it out again, for the sake of the new fillers. Not long after I had it out, I came across a sticker on the side of a box that said, "Mixed Skid". I thought that random, and put it over the bottom part of my chipboard. Not long after that, another filler put a line tag over the "D" and modified it into a "P", making it into my nickname. I thought that was pretty good, and came back with my cutter knife & modified the "Mixed" into my stage persona & the legend from my bowling shirt, Mix-Master!!! Everyone liked it.

It was pretty worn out when I'd first retired it, and it didn't get better. I decided to make a new one up, and do a visual representation!!!

I've only had it a day, and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive!!! I tell people that it's a self portrait, and that my head isn't that big or lumpy in real life!!!