neohic

It used to be all the time! Should be coming home to my new shop this year yet.

Unfortunately mine has been used for parts storage and for holding a Comanche shape to a car cover for four years now.

Friend of mine calls me up. "Hey! My dad wants to pull his Cherokee to Texas this week. Can you help putting on a tow bar?" "Sure!" Meanwhile I show up expecting to see a box kit with brackets and the whole bit. Nope... there's a pile of rusty $#!& with a trailer coupler at one end. "I figured you could just weld everything to the frame.” he says. “I measured it. It'll fit." I shook my head and told them, "No... you don't weld to these 'frames' unless you're plating the whole thing.” Figuring I was already there and while staring at a decent size scrap pile, I decided to make something work that I’d be comfortable using myself. I found an old hitch off a Chevy that I could harvest the mounts and some tabs from along with an old and busted hitch basket. Did you know that two of the three bolts for an early 2000s Chevrolet Silverado is the same spacing as the sway bar hardware on an XJ?... me neither. Four hours later into an "hour job" and the guys starts talking about adding a hitch to the back of his fifth wheel camper. "Oh yeah... that's really what I was hoping you could have a look at today. Shouldn't take long if you could come up with something for that today." “Naw... one rabbit out of a hat is enough for today.” I tied into the bumper mounts and sandwiched in with the sway bar. This was genuinely a fun MacGyver type project today but I had a tough time keeping my head in the game. Honestly I was ready to walk away once I heard the original plan only to find out towards the end of the day that my buddy’s dad is an electrician. We start talking about my shop build and volunteers to jump in when I’m ready to start wiring. Anyhow the moral of the story is to always help out and do favors for others when you can.

Thanks for the update. Will you be using the Explorer steering column?

Pretty sure this is the last “big” building I’ll ever do. Should we ever move again in the future a workable space is a must have. So much of the problem comes in to what’s considered my off time and then what I could be doing with it. I’m so much happier using a space rather than building one.

Hell yeah. In for more updates.

Time to start thinking about the condition of things before winter. I need to get my doors finished on the outside to satisfy my permit. Before that can happen I needed to finish the interior of the doors as I had more screws to put through from the outside. They’ll get jazzed up later on. I’ve been talking with a friend of mine who’s dad is an electrician. My house is running on 100 amp service and I need more to be able to put a sub panel in my shop. His dad needs some metal work done on his camper so we’re working on trading labor. Glacially slow, but we’re getting there.

More truck stuff. As much as I’m on the fence about having a hard top it sure is handy.

So clean! Excellent modification.

Agreed. Not seeing anything related to profile or messages anywhere.

Any modifications to the XJ pump?

Bitchin.

Thanks for checking in, Jeremy. Good to hear you’re on the up and up even if it’s slow going.

Rain comes in from the west. I was watching the rain drops yesterday afternoon and the direction of the carport is perfect.

My brother and I got the carport roof on. I’ll need to figure some trim for filling space between the carport and the shed. Otherwise I suppose it’s doing its job. He also surprised me with a long running joke between us. I’ve got a thing for “garage eagles” and he recently bought a house that was beautifully adorned with this creature but didn’t care for it. Perfect!

Oof! Bit of cutting happening there.

Thanks guys! I’ll be insulating and finishing the same as I’ve done with the past two shops. I really like white pole barn tin on my walls because it’s super bright and easy to hose off. Might break this one up with some wainscoting.

Bath day!

My brother is coming out this week for a visit and he needed a place to stay. The house can get a bit cozy with its massive 478 sq ft stance so today I prepped the “guest quarters” It really needed it anyhow. The exterior construction is coming to an end. Makes me start thinking about bringing home my Eliminator.

I doubt it. The air is really just hazy with smoke. Haven’t noticed even so much as any soot or dust. Months ago he started putting up the railing extensions on the deck. I got word from the city that they weren’t happy about anything I was doing with my property. Apparently my shed is “blocking their view”... of my house?

Didn’t put too much effort into pictures this time as there’s so much smoke in the air with all the wildfires lately. The sky is just a haze. Everything smells. The siding is complete minus finishing the doors. I’ll cut panels and I think I’m deciding on white to match the other door. Roof panels for the carport should arrive this week too. I like finding little things like this so it’s a habit of mine to leave notes and things on projects when I do them. Fingers crossed I won’t need a reason to open this corner in the future. ... a keen eye will notice the sweet fort my a$$hole of a neighbor has “constructed” so they don’t have to look at reminders as to why their property values are going up.

Bingo.

Uh... what?