Door Card Refurbishing (Post #605) 3/21/2023

Door cards

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness. – Oscar Wilde.

I’ve put together a video of me assembling the refurbished door cards for the Range Rover Classic. I didn’t record an intro nor did I record an outro. It’s just me assembling the cards. If you watch the Working Axle YouTube channel [YouTube.com] you will see some of the prettiest videos. If you aren’t watching him, you are missing out. His videos are simple, cinematic, and yet informative, and he doesn’t say a lot. So this is my homage to his brilliant work. Unfortunately for you, my videos aren’t as pretty or well shot, suck to be you, never-the-less I appreciate you visiting me and sincerely hope this content assists you.

So there’s no pithy commentary. I had to stop at one point and run to the hardware store to get more nuts and bolts. Just some assembling of door cards.

Brown is back!!! I think these door cards look great now with a new coat of paint. The dark brown is very similar to some of the interiors of modern cars today. I seriously looked at getting dark brown seat covers. But in the end I went with the Knightsbridge seat covers so they ain’t going to be brown.

You can support me on Patreon.

Thanks for visiting and Happy Rovering.

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.

D Pillar – Painting? (Post #602) 10/3/2022

D Pillar Work, Interior trim painting…allergies

I got out into the shop and was working on some peripheral projects over the weekend. Peripheral because they don’t directly get the Big White Bus back on the road for driving. These are the cosmetic fixes, plain and simple. The primary project line is getting the motor back to 100% and making it reliable. I completed the repair of the heater fan blower motor. That disabled the motor due to the coolant hoses being removed.

I did start the motor about a month ago. Surprisingly she fired right up. I was really happy about that. I have not addressed the original issue with the reliability of the motor which is the ignition system. I’m 94.67% sure I’m going to replace the distributor with a Davis Unified Ignition (DUI). Its an all in one unit built in Memphis, Tennessee. Seeing the price today makes me wish I’d have bought it a year ago. The price has gone up about 50$(US). Although waiting has allowed me to start the one year warranty when I’m actually driving her.

All other projects from the list….linked here [Okierover.com Blog] not counting the replacement alternator, which I believe is where my vampire batter drain is coming from, are not keeping me from driving her.

I’ve ordered Knightsbridge seat covers. I finally talked myself out of putting leather back in. The estimates I got from local car upholstery companies were more expensive than ordering new leather…..customized with embroidered family crests on the headrests and my face digitally embroidered on the seat backs. Just kidding, but seriously, super expensive. So I ordered seat covers I’m not afraid to get muddy and dirty.

My new radio and speakers have arrived. I’ll need to watch the install video, call tech support 16 times, and finally give up and have the Evil German Dude or JagGuy help me install it. I’ll post something about that when I get closer to installing.

Still a couple of interior trim pieces that need painting. I am not going to remove them, I’m going to paint them in place, its just not worth the effort to remove them. The door cards came out without much effort and I need to wash them down, tape them off, and paint them. Perhaps next weekend.

I know this post was about the D Pillar so let me close with that. I have the welding repair still yet to do. As mentioned in the video, I used a palm sander and 100grit sandpaper to remove the glue from the beauty cover. It formerly had vinyl wrapped on it.

I’ve cut out some closed cell neoprene foam to replace the rust inducing open cell crap they delivered the Range Rover with from the factory. I’ve decided to start with painting the beauty panels. Rattle can style…can’t get much more redneck than that. I’ll show the finished product when I get it done.

Thanks for reading, watching, and Happy Rovering.

Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Roof Rack (Post #601) 9/25/2022

While visiting my buddy JagGuy at his awesome shop, I saw something in his metal trash trailer. It was a mesh like material. I went over to check it out and it was a door off a server rack. You’ve seen these before or maybe you haven’t been in a server room where physical access the servers is secured by a keyed door of some kind or other.

I asked him if I could save it from the recyclers. He said, “Sure.” I told him I was going to see if it would work as a floor for my roof rack. We ate barbeque, chatted for a while, and I tossed the door in the truck and drove home.

The door was about 74 inches in length and 23.5 inches in width. My roof rack is 4 foot by 4 foot. So this door, cut in half, fit perfectly across and left about a foot of space uncovered along the length.

I think that will work.

I cut the door in half with my angle grinder and a cutoff wheel. I dry fitted the halves on the roof rack and was happy with the results. I went to the hardware store (twice, or was it three times, maybe twice to one store and once to another) to get stainless steel bolts, washers, and nyloc nuts.

I wiped the door with some grease and dust remover. I then painted it with some black spray paint I had left over from another project. I removed the roof rack from the roof and drilled my holes (lots of holes some in the wrong places) and got the hardware installed and tightened up. Several of the bolts failed catastrophically when I was tightening them up. Each one that failed, failed about the same as the others about midway up the bolt. My dad used to complain about the cheap Japanese products that began flooding the country in the 1970s. Today we complain about the cheap CHINESE parts that flood our country. I didn’t check the country of origin on these bolts, but let’s go with China for arguments sake. Bring back American made hardware. I promise not to complain too much when they fail. At least if they fail, an American had a job making them and we aren’t sending money to a country determined to destroy us. (stepping off soap box)

I recorded several videos of my cutting and narrative about what I was going to do only to have my phone camera fail in the heat of my shop.

“Blazing Saddles” (1974) Pure genius.

The temperature in the shoppe was 110F that day. I would have this trouble again later when recording video for several other projects. I really need to upgrade my camera equipment to a GoPro or something. Maybe my wife will buy me one for my birthday in two weeks….hint, hint. (who are we kidding, she doesn’t read my blog, she’ll never see this)

So I have the upgraded roof rack installed and I’m pretty happy with it. I feel pretty good about myself too. I recycled and reused something that would have just been thrown away, eventually bought by a Chinese scrapper, and made into some cheap crap and sent back to America for someone to buy and then either throw away, or be stacked in a garage packed full of crap.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

Fender Rust (Post #597) 4/5/2022

Big shocker!

I found some rust under the left rear fender wheel well. I know! you are probably as surprised as I am!! (/sarcasm).

There were some signs of rust under the wheel well. I pointed them out in another video. So I decided to investigate. I found a lot of rust.

I’ve watched a bunch of videos where guys fix the rusted body panels and sub-structures. I guess it is my turn. I took a welding class a few months back and this was exactly why I took the class. However, I don’t have the tools I need to do most of these repairs. Not yet, anyway.

I will need:

  • A welder ($400 to How much do you want to spend amount of dollars)
    • Welding hood (already own it)
    • Welding gloves (already own it)
    • Fancy pliers (already own it)
    • Training (already done did it)
  • Metal break ($50 to I’ll probably borrow JagGuy’s)
  • A bunch of wire wheels to remove rust ($6 to $15+ for the fancy name brand ones)

I’m going to take a couple week break. I need to do some remodeling on the house’s master bathroom (Mrs. Okierover will be happy when I get this done.) I’m going to the Midwest Overlanding and Off-Road Expo (aka MOORE EXPO).

If you are thinking, “when will you get the Big White Bus back out on the backroads?” Well, I don’t know. At this pace…probably in the Fall. Trust me when I say…I really want to get her fixed and reliable again. Funding does matter, so hopefully that won’t be too big a constraint.

There will be more on this rust issue as I get back in the shoppe and start to sort out this mess.

Thanks for reading/watching and Happy Rovering.

Footpad Repair (Post #595) 2/24/2022

https://youtube.com/watch?v=YuB75PMaZA0%3Frel%3D0

Some time ago I noticed the footpad on my inner fender well would droop when I rested my foot on it. In the beginning I would just put my foot under it and lift it back up. But one day when doing that the footpad broke away from the fender well.

The bolts holding the footpad in place had rust welded to the fender well. So when I was lifting it back into place I was actually bending the fender well pieces, much like you wiggle a wire rapidly to break it. As I’ve said before I really have become accustom to resting my foot on the pad and I wanted it fixed.

So I took some time and investigated and repaired it. I used a Dremel tool with a 60 grit grinding wheel and got as much rust off the inner and outer fender well. While I was behind the quarter panel I also ground off some surface rust.

Once I had it all ground down, I applied some acid etching primer to the metal surfaces. I know it won’t last forever, but maybe it will slow down the rust.

Thanks for reading and watching the video. It’s low quality but hopefully entertaining.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.