Hermione's Makeover

[nxski]

I headed to Jay's for the day, a 12 hours day to be exact and the man worked his magic. I don't have enough good things to say about the electrical work and would like to thank you again Jay for all the work you put into this.

What was done...
1. Transmission cooler fan
2. Fog lights
3. Reverse lights
4. Capacitor for the amp
5. Battery Isolator / Solenoid with a self destruct switch
6. Resistors for LED lights
7. Switch wires for the LED side light's

To be done next time...
1. Plug for block heater/ in-van power
2. 4 more resistors for LED's
3. Foot step light switch

[nxski]

more pics...

[nxski]

New mud flaps / fender flares, a shovel to be mounted to my basket, new rear LED light's that are super bright and will hopefully not catch water like the last ones. I've also ordered some more LED's for the front corner lights (wedge ones which aren't too long like the last ones and signal light's which I didn't order enough of last time). Those should arrive once Autolismo is back from their break.

[nxski]

I just have my injectors cleaned and my valve cover gasket replaced at CVI. Interesting results...
- More power
- Lower EGT's
- Quieter at idle
- Idles rough now (any ideas on this?)

I'm going to test my cold start tomorrow to see if it's made a difference in that.

Also, here is the outlet I will use to power things inside the van when the van is plugged in at night.

EDIT: only a small puff of white smoke at start-up! that's the last problem solved!

[nxski]

Today I bought some shovel and axe mounts (pics to come), and some more LED's. I installed said LED's, a hitch cover, determined where the shovel and axe will fit on the side of the basket, re-installed the lower rear driver side curtain rail covering the wiring for the rear lights, and did a rough fit of my fender flares / mud flaps.

I've also included a cool interior shot of my van that I just stumbled across, taken by my friend Katie who will be accompanying me for the first 5 weeks of my trip. In the centre of the picture is my friend Ashleigh who as of now plans to accompany me from New York to Halifax.

[thelazygreenfox]

nxski (is over for the year) Ha Ha
Looks great, hope you're around for the April 28th meet, love to have a good look at your light work.
Wayne
TLGF

[nxski]

I'll be there! I did some more work on it today...pics to come!

[nxski]

As promised, more pictures...

I ended up using oar locks and muffler brackets along with a pile of stainless steel hardware I had lying around and some zap straps for back-up to create my axe and shovel mounts.

[pajerry]

I`ve used zap straps only to tie a shovel to the front bullbar.. The vibration and heat on the Hurley FSR caused them to snap and I ran over the shovel lol. I like those DIY clamps. If you have a grinder, you could notch out one of the holes where the wingnut is, so when you loosen it off a bit, you can just open it without having to remove the whole nut, which is easy to lose in the heat of the digging. Please don`t make the mistake a friend made and leave the axe on in the city, someone used it to smash his windows, hood, doors etc while parked overnight. Probably some stupid kids as it was the burbs and nothing was stolen. And another time I`m pretty sure my shovel was used to break into another car in my parkade once too.. damn thieves.

[jessef]

x2 that axe up there secured with wingnuts is begging for someone with bad thoughts to yank it off.

otherwise good use of fasteners

[nxski]

Don't let the wingnuts fool you, you need pliers and a screw driver to remove them. Chances of someone climbing way up there to take one of them is slim too and if the purpose was to break the windows why not grab a rock!? I guess the stupidity of criminals is what I'll have to worry about at the end of the day.

[pajerry]

Because a rock does not advertise itself as an opportunity. Good to hear they`re solid.

Googled this, neat idea. http://gcradone.blogspot.ca/2012/03/axe ... -rack.html.

[nxski]

Another evening spent at the tardisdeli motel and it seems that all the electrical work is finished. There was some problems getting the resistors to work properly so I've settled on having somewhat quick flashing signals. We also added a block heater plug which is connected to an outlet inside the van as well (the plug may look like it's in an awkward position, but this is to accommodate a snorkel in the future). A new switch for the light in the footwell to replace the broken one that was there before. A boost control switch for the amp. An extendable leg for the coffee table (made from an old ski pole).

I also put up a picture of the spot gps which will be tracking my progress as I move around North America.

[nxski]

STICKERS!!!!!

[nxski]

So today I had my van detailed at EMD Garage and it wasn't perfect but for the price it was well worth it and the van looks amazing now. When I got it home I took some "Back-to-black" to every plastic component that was turning slightly white. I used a turtle wax chrome polish and rust remover to the bull bars and radiator guards. Then I cleaned a few places which had been missed, fitted my coffee table leg, stuck on a lot of stickers, removed some more prominent marks from the side of my van using a mr. clean magic eraser, then cut wax, then polishing wax, took a ton of pictures and here I am...

WARNING: I got excited when I saw how sparkly and clean the van looked and got a bit carried away with the camera (I barely ever use a proper camera for photographing Hermione but today she deserved it)