Bulletpoint mounting system (Post #603) 1/7/2023

I decided that my existing cell phone and tablet mount in the Range Rover Classic needed to be replaced. Mr. Fisher and I went to the MOORE Expo [Moore Expo] in 2022. We saw lots of products and gear. One of the cool pieces of gear was the Bulletpoint Mounting System.

Mr. Fisher bought a system for his new Chevy Silverado. Once we got home, I decided I needed a system for my F150. My existing cell phone mount was disappointing and needed to be replaced. I got to thinking that I should upgrade the mounts in the Range Rover Classic. I took some measurements and emailed the company to ask which of their existing system would fit best for the measurements. I chose not to cut up my coin tray. I did have a thought that I would mount the system over the tray. But it would have had to be cut and would have been useless if I wanted to remove the system and do something else.

They got back to me and told me that for these measurements the Ford Ranger Phone Mount & Multi-Device Dash Platform – 4th Gen T6 2019+ [Bulletpoint] would likely be the best fit. I needed to make a plate to mount the system on to. I’ve put the graphic of the measurements on my Patreon page [Patreon].

As you can see in the video, not everything goes according to plan when you are “fabricating” stuff. I had to make a makeshift painting “booth” in the sunroom in the house. The temps in the shoppe were too cold to be painting, but it was a toasty 76F in the sunroom.

Mrs. Okierover didn’t fuss too much this time about the fumes.

Overall I spent four or so hours putting that together. The assembly was a lot of trial and error. I think it looks good and is very sturdy and will be perfect for holding my cell phone and a new tablet once I decide what that might be.

There are lots of accessories for this mounting system. I’m thinking of the handheld radio and or the microphone mount. Of course I have to decide on a radio before buying.

I’ve add a Patreon account. The costs of maintaining the website add up each year and if you like the content I provide chip in. Contributions are appreciated.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

SCARR – Day Three (Post #479) 4/6/2014

Day Three came with the sun shining and the air a bit on the chilly side. As soon as the sun came up it warmed up nicely. Our plan for the morning was to run some trails.

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I got dressed in my Rover Cannibal shirt and cooked up some breakfast. We knocked down breakfast and went up to the main pavilion to meet the other drivers.

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I found the other drivers very ready and after learning Jacob Dearborn drew the beginner group. Jake as he was called was very nice young man and had a course sorted out. We fell in behind a great couple named Max and Diane and their Series. They had owned it for twenty years if I remembered that correctly. We got the CBs set and off went. Continue reading “SCARR – Day Three (Post #479) 4/6/2014”

SCARR – Day Two (Post #478) 4/3/2014

Day Two began with the sun coming up. It was chilly but not crazy cold. I got up and started breakfast for Mr. Fisher and I. Eggs and turkey sausage (fat old guys have to watch their weight), and biscuits. I forgot all about the hash browns. The stove worked great after I got it up to pressure. I heated the biscuits right on the second burner. The honey-butter we bought was delicious.

The first day’s events had a Bill Burke lecture and trail rides. I really wanted to hear Bill Burke so we went straight for the main pavilion and sat in on his class. I could listen to him for days and probably not learn everything I would like to know.

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It was really cool that he knew who I was through my posts on Okierover.com and on his Facebook page.

If you don’t know who Bill Burke is check him out. In short he is the foremost expert on vehicle recovery in the United States. I don’t think I understated that. He started in the Army as a vehicle recovery specialist, went on to participate in the legendary Camel Trophy Series in 1991. Continue reading “SCARR – Day Two (Post #478) 4/3/2014”

July 8th, 2005 (Post #61)

July 8th, 2005

There is a huge update in the works. I have started on it now twice, once yesterday, and again today, having deleted several days work. Very frustrating.

Engine
JagGuy and I have the engine in. We started on it April and finished it after three long weekends. JagGuy has all the skill necessary for a successful transplant. And it showed. He had the heads off and the engine built before I could get in the shop each weekend. He has the luxury of Fridays being fun days and he used his “fun” day for my engine. What a great friend.

With the engine swap we found several other problems. I will start listing them and I will probably forget some as there were many.

Radiator
It was indeed a head gasket problem but with that there was also a problem with the radiator. It was clogged again. We noticed that when we revved the engine the hoses would flex. Meaning there was a lot of pressure in the system. Frustrated I replaced the radiator with a new one from Atlantic British. Cooling problems vanished.

Heater Core
One of the final things to be blown by the old engine was the heater core. I have heard horror stories about getting the dash off to replace this part. I will wait for a weekend in September or October when it gets cooler to replace this. I bought the replacement core when it came up on British Pacific’s Steve’s Deal of the Day.

The wife
While I’m sure some of you were expecting me to say I was replacing my wife, I have not. She has been harrassing me lately about the costs of the BWB. Keeping a 12 year old car on the road in good working order is hard. It is harder when it was designed in a British Pub by 12 drunk engineers. But for my piece of mind and to reassure her that I was not spending the milk money for frivolous toys I pulled a report out of Quicken of all the auto repair expenses. I was surprised by the amount, surprised in a good way. She was surprised in a bad way. 2800 dollars (US) was the tally for the period since I made the final payment back in November 2004.

Not bad for all the things I’ve bought for the engine and including oil changes for both cars. She still believes with all her heart that a $450 a month car payment would be cheaper than putting parts on the paid off Rover. I have now classified the Rover as a restoration project. So the costs are easier to stomach as I am restoring a car, just like on TV!!!!

Steering seal
The morning after I got the BWB home with all the overheating problems we planned to return her to the shop in Edmond, it was a cool April morning so I figured the heating problems would be less if I went in the morning. After I pulled into the gas station to fill up I got out and noticed the long red stream of fluid leading from the street to underneath the Rover. Transmission fluid, but from where?

After a long look it was the steering box. Since ATF will burn and considering the blow back to the exhaust I drove her home defeated and disappointed. We put a seal on the next weekend.

Steering Shaft
Once again on sale at British Pacific. If you look at the steering shaft you will notice a rubber grommet there. Mine is hard as a rock and cracked. Obviously failed. Now the question begs why can’t we just replace the rubber bits. Well I bought a new shaft and will investigate if the old can be repaired when I get it off of there. Hammerin’ Dan observes that the heat from the headers is probably to blame in the rubber failing. Possibly some asbestos wrap might be in order.

Brake Switch
The ABS lights came on and with some investigation and a clever way to short the diagnostic plug I learned my brake light switch had failed. I got a replacement on sale from British Pacific’s Deal of the day. The installation was not any fun due to the location and the contortionist position you have to get in. Also my eyes don’t work that well up close and so most of the install was done while guessing on a blurry image.

Radio
The steam that escaped from the blown heater core filled the cab with nasty antifreeze steam. The radio immediately from that day forward would act like it lost power often loosing the code. Occassionaly it would not work at all. I thought sure the steam killed it. I was wrong. The ignition switch is failing. You may say, “what the hell?” Well it would be a good question.

The accessory function of the switch that powers many things like the windows and other stuff is apparently shorting out or not making connection. So among the other things the ignition switch is failing and needs some help.

Carpets
Had to clean the carpets again due to the antifreeze leak inside the cab. Due to my previous planning I did not have to remove the center console. Sweet!

Exhaust
Having spent a good three hours under the BWB during the engine project I noticed that none of the hangers were replaced the last time I had the exhaust worked on at University Muffler. That is disappointing cause I like those guys their work is just not very good. I had it in there again recently to have a torn exhaust pipe fixed. Due to the hangers being unhooked the only place the exhaust was attached had stressed the pipe to the point that the silencer at the rear was about to break off. I had them cut it off and weld on a pipe. It changed the sound some but not too bad. Well the weld for that section broke. So I took it to Discount Muffler just up the road from the office and had them put a good weld on it. It cost me 25 bucks but it’s now welded. I will come back to them to have the new cats welded in as soon as I buy them.

Archive

I broke up the archive in to sections based on the year. I’ve been doing this
Rover Log for 3 years now. Wow.

So be patient with me as I get the new pages up. Thanks for reading and happy
rovering. Tell your friends about the site.

August 30th, 2004 (Post #50)

August 30th, 2004
Wet carpet, wet pad, and I didn’t even get in the river
I noticed that my Rover doesn’t leave a little puddle underneath like most cars in the semi-arid desert that is Oklahoma when the air conditioning is running. Guess where all that water is? Come you can do it…YES! right in the floor board of the passenger side. Evil German Dude offered the advice that my drain tubes were clogged. I knew that but I’m thinking it may not be. But I’ll try to find the drain tube and try to clear it first. Thank heaven for compressed air.

Carpet cleaning
As I stated on the OkieRover home page I have pulled the carpet out of the front of the Rover.
It required the complete removal of the console and was quite a mess. There are only 5 million
wires, two air vents (for the back foot area), 4 relays and 18,000 connectors, and some petrified cheese from a taco or some other mexican fast food. The nickel and four pennies I found are offsetting the repair costs too! I also found an old note reminding me of some awfully important information. I couldn’t decypher my codes on the paper, but I think it was a part number for something on the air conditioning. But who knows. I took some pics and will share in a tech tip on carpet cleaning which was the purpose for removing the carpet. I can tell you my good friends that I will not be putting it back in one piece. I will cut it in half and install it as two pieces. I don’t
think you should remove the center console to clean the carpet. That’s just silly.

Center console
My center console has seen better days. I have repaired the flip top door a couple of times. The switch panels don’t fit well and a couple of the braces are broke. The kids when they were younger were disposed to sit on it when they were switching places in the back or just to chat with one of the front passengers when the other one of us ran into a store or such while they waited. That and the occasional climb into the back seat from the front seat using the console as a step on the way over have taken their toll.

The console is basically two parts fitted together with a couple of flimzy plastic pieces. The first part holds the ashtray and the shifting levers protrude from there. The rear part is the box and houses two cup holders.

All this console talk is due to the fact that I have need for a Citizen’s Band radio when we off-road. I would have liked to mount it on the back of the present console. The Infamous Perrone Ford installed his this way as did Chad Manz but Chad doesn’t like it there and describes some problems with that location on his website, AzArmadillo.

I thought about building a new center console box to conceal the CB radio. I haven’t ruled that out yet. I use the box to hold quite a managery of items that would, if I had one, fit in the glove box. Most modern American cars have a glove box. The glove box must have in the early days contained, well gloves. In the early days of driving with out full enclosed coaches the need for gloves in the colder months must have necessitated a place to store them. This and the popularity of gloves at the transition of the 19th to the 20th century made a glove box an absolute necessity.

In my Rover the absence of a glove box and the center console box have caused me to use this space to store everything but gloves. In it you will find a dizzying collection of items including: a cup full of spare change, a calculator, several ink pens, a tape of my favorite Pow Wow music, a bottle of Visine, a US military issue pocket knife, an eyeglass repair kit, dental floss,
finger nail clippers, and my window punch for blasting out the windows if I ever turn the Rover into a submarine and go submerged. So as you can see I use the box to it’s utmost so shrinking the size of the box to mount the CB radio inside is mostly out of the question.

I could get a new CB radio. One with the spiffy controls on the mic. There are several available. Cobra makes the 75 WX ST it has weather band too, but so does my stock Land Rover radio. But I inherited this one from my departed father and if it still works it may have a few more years left in it. And it was free. I got some cool power meters with it too. So the radio location is still pending.