The Pelican 1430 Case

So I've come to a few realizations. Funny, I seem to realize stuff all the time, I guess it's the acting on it that seems so rare these days. And here's the latest; From time to time, I leave my gear in the Vanagon. Some of my gear is subject to wear and tear from several sources. One would be UV light, another heat, and a third the mis-dventures and misfortunes that befall an item just left out in the open. (cuts, scrapes, and stains come to mind) So in the process of parting with the old Dodge van that the Vanagon's replaced I was cleaning out gear and whatnot. While doing this I found that I'd left one of my Rose full body harness's piled in a dark corner (thankfully dark & protected as the van's under a car port) where it had been since the last kiting adventure months back. Well in the Vanagon, this isn't going to be the case. I had been thinking when Friday (the vanagon) came into the family that I was going to do a few things differently as to how she carried stuff. Just look at the Land Rover rack on top of her and you'll see that. Well, being the fan of Pelican Cases that I am, it seemes that they'd have what I need to protect this equipment and do it with style. I know, I know, you're saying, "It's just a harness Rob", and yes it is, but I've actually got two of them and if you look around like I did years ago when I got them, brand new full body harnesses can be pricey. At the time, the lowest prices I found were near $80 per harness. A great example of what I use them for can be seen HERE on the blog, and HERE on youtube with Rebecca kiting. Seeing that kiddo actually got airtime in her harness you can see the value of protecting them. In the case of life safety gear, the price is worth it. So I'm betting they haven't gone DOWN in price in the years since, I'd might as well protect them. In fact, I have more gear that I'm needing to do this with, including my wings, so I guess I'd better keep my eyes open for some good cases. And speaking of good cases and thus getting back onto the subject at hand, I present the deal of the day, the Pelican 1430 Top Loader Case. I picked this one up brand new in the box on eBay. Yes, my local retailer had them too, at TWICE the price, so I took the eBay one. The 1430's a neat case to say the least. It's a slim profiled (but tall) case that can fit nicely into the various floor spaces one creates when packing a Van for travel (or in this case, flight). Looking at it, it resembles a heavy duty version of a file folder I've had for years full of important personal paperwork, you know, those acordion type, latching file folder critters with a carrying handle on top...(note to self, check and see if that folder system will fit in this 1430 and get more 1430's as handy hurricane protection.) But I ramble, again. So in go the harnesses and what have we got? What we've got is some bang up protection for the harnesses. They fit beautifully and even have room at the bottom to add a fleece for those colder mornings or evenings on the LZ. And believe you me, in the five years I've been at this now, I've found a little cold here and there. Of course, all nestled up in this case I'm betting the harnesses have protection from the heat too. I'll just say they're better insulated now, another layer of protection for those hot summer days when outside it's 100 degrees and inside the vehicles it's far more. So off now to continue the search, tires and cases. That's what I'm on right now. Friday needs tires and the gear needs cases. I'll keep you updated when I add either.
-Rob 'protect me' D.

Beautiful Sunday Oil Change

So it's a beautiful Sunday, what to do, what to do? Oh, I know, let's change Zippy's oil. Been meaning to do that, today would be a perfect time to. Hunted around a little bit and found some great step-by-step instructions at Reluctant Mechanic. I was already pretty familiar with the simple process, but one thing I've learned over the years, it's never a bad idea to refresh your memory. So I gathered up the supplies I'd already bought a week ago for the task and away we went. Long story made short it all was all simple and straight forward. Zippy has a drain plug in his oil plate (don't laugh, VW omitted them in the early 70's so it being there was a good thing). Out with the old, in with the new. He's good for another 3K internally. Kiddo picked him up mid-afternoon and all is well in the world. Previously Pop's had something like slick-50 in every oil change, but this time we're all just oil. Took him around the block before and after, he sounds a little quieter. Now to look to the next job to do.
-Rob 'call me a vw enthusiast' D.

High Tech vs. Low Tech - Part 1

I think this one's awesome, it pretty much tells it's own story.

High Tech vs. Low Tech - Part 2

Black Eyed V's...

So after an hour or so last Friday putting new spark plugs and wires (REALLY needed the wires) in Zippy. Kiddo headed home happy at the better running sounds of her car and I felt good to be a Dad. I guess I wasn't the only one feeling good. Apparently someone happened upon Zippy on the street overnight and felt so good about being a low-lying scum sucking bottom dwelling piece of gunk that they decided to break one of his headlights out. Kiddo called and let me know Saturday morning. Neither of us were very happy about it and Zippy looked downright sad. I hunted a bulb off the parts rack and after work kiddo dropped by and we did the 5-minute surgery (a corneal transplant, of course) and all was well. Zippy's smile is back, black eye gone and in general, life is good. Here's to minor scrapes and bruises.
-Rob 'call me a doctor' D.

Time for some tires

Well the fun just keeps on coming. Sooner or later here I'm going to have to get some airtime. I'm overdue. Speaking of air & overdue, Friday needs a new set of rubber. Good news was that the previous owner that invested in the last set had bought good stuff. BF Goodrich Radial T/A's. They've put in a lot of good miles I think. Ends up the left rear has developed tread separation as well as they're all showing age and probably some dry rot. I've been reading up the last few days on who's liking what and I have a list of possible brands to look for. I think I'm going to do the smart thing this time and just go with the nearby Firestone store. They ended up being the first, last, and need I mention BEST call when we were getting a set for Kiddo's 181. I think they're pretty certain to be the right call this time. Heck, might as well head up there right now and see what they say.
-Rob 'back in a bit' D.

Comcast Rocks!

Let's see, two or three days ago I called Comcast with my internet access problem. They scheduled a service call for the next day. The tech showed up in the appropriate time frame and tested my line. I was losing a LOT of signal strength thru lord knows what wiring in the house. The Tech scheduled a contractor to come the next day and run a dedicated line from the first wire to the house. The Contractor showed up, did a fantastic job in the apropriate time window and the problem is solved. Both Tech & Contractor were very professional, friendly and knowledgeable. Both were able to discuss with me various problems with the service or work in layman's terms and were a pleasure to deal with. My internet service is functioning beautifully just a few days after the call after I put up with weeks of spotty connection. It's a shame I didn't call sooner. Comcast is a first class company to deal with. I think they've really got the handling of customer issues to an art form. They're number one in my book and make AT&T look like a bunch of clowns by comparison. (AT&T wouldn't come fix our phones so we decided they didn't need our $80 - $90 a month we were paying for probelmatic when it rained phone service) Comcast fixed the problem at no cost. They must value their customers, I really feel that they do. Good Job Comcast, I wish everyone was as good as you.

-Rob 'I have internet again' D.

The CV's went great !

Sorry for the delay in getting back on this but my Comcast Internet Access has been (to be charitable) spotty lately. The CV story went something like this:
After work last Friday I took off the old CV joints and boots and installed the new ones. Time, about two hours. Saturday I realized I had the CV's on the axles backwards and had to turn them around. Time, forty-five minutes. Sunday I enlisted Kiddo's help and put the Axles and CV's back into Friday. The first took somewhere near an hour and the second something like thirty minutes. Being in an awkward position to move the tools under the back of the Vanagon, we developed a system where I would turn a bolt and then kiddo would turn the rear wheel of the VW bringing the next bolt to the wrench. She'd put a wheel chock in place while I tightened and remove it to turn the wheel again bringing the next bolt to turn to my socket. This system worked very nicely and sped the job considerably. I am certain I would have been hours more if I had been doing it alone. So we cleaned up and put away the gear and took Friday for a short drive. The results are in; the job has done away with the CV noise and Friday's much quieter now (and no vibration). Down side, a clicking that sounds like wheel bearings are next. Of course the clicking could be one of the new CV's, so well see if it gets worse or better in the next few hundred miles. My call on the work including the trade off of the new sound: 95% improvement in Friday from the effort. I'll take that and be very happy.

Oh, post game analysis: Three of the four CV joints had wear and galling to the point of pits in the workings with gold tinted highlights. They were the original bearings dating back to April of 1982. They'd run a good race, but it was certainly time to retire them. The best of them (still worn out though) is now a paperweight at work.

-Rob 'hand me the 6mm socket' D.

CV Joints

Well, if it's not one Volkswagen, it's another. Last week while making sure Zippy was up to par, Friday's constant CV noise became a vibration. So I knew what it meant, time to park her and order some CV (constant velocity) joints. Neat side story, ordered them from a fellow Thursday Morning, they were here with the mailman trying to deliver them Friday. I wasn't here so it was the following week (this week) before I got 'em, but man were they shipped fast.I've been going over the procedure time and time again to make sure I get it right. Funny how nice it is under an older VW turning wrenches. Tonight I pulled the driveshafts with the CV's & dust boots attached. I'll swap 'em out tomorrow on lunch (if I'm lucky) or after work and then put them back during the PM hours. One of the boots seems to have failed and that CV is pretty rough. I am guessing I have the vibration culprit.
Of course I'll know for sure after the work's all done. At the very least there's no doubt she needed it. The affected joint looks like it's got grit in it and is rough to say the least. Of course I'm not complaining, I got Friday for such a wonderful price, spending a little extra money and time is well worth it.
So far the score on day one of this job, fun. Minor aches from laying under the back end for a half our or two, but nothing major. I've read the next part can either be easy or pretty hard, never a certainty which. Well I guess we'll just see what tomorrow brings tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck.
-Rob "Vanagon CV's are fun" D.

Catching up...

Well it's been a week for sure. Last weekend Zippy had fuel issues and after a laundry list of little replacements, he ended up staying the week here. Empty the fuel tank and get crud out of it, put in new (clean) fuel, replace some fuel line, change the old fuel filter to a new fuel filter, oh, and put in a new fuel pump. Total cost, somewhere less than $40 including the gas. I love the older cars having reasonbly priced parts. I really love that they're simple enough to work on myself. Now to see what this week brings. If nothing else kiddo has gotten really good at dealing with the hickups as they came along. Pretty soon there won't be too much left to change, we'll be fresh out of old stuff to break. I'm most assuredly going to be keeping my eyes out for a new top. I stitched a little on the old one today and it's a real effort getting everything just right. I need a good leather worker to get thru all the layers that went into sewing that top together. I'm not so hot sewing by hand, but I improved a lot in the hour or two I spent with it today. Time will tell.