92Shawman's 1992 3VZ-E SR5 Pickup

Yeah, no problem! I'm pretty sure I'll be going out, as long as I get all my school work done before-hand
I really need to clean the rust off of my sliders and repaint, but I'll wait to do that until after hollister, expecting more slider hits. Other than that I think my truck's pretty well set.

 

Any CB antenna suggestions? Im thinkin im going to order the uniden510 that you have and mount in the ash tray.

 

I'm diggin' the wilson 1000 mag mount on the cab roof. I usually hear much more than other people I wheel with. I'm not sure if there's a better alternative to the 510, I think there are other radios that are the same dimensions but that have more options if you're into that. The 510 is pretty basic and sometimes I wish I could have more options. I'd have to check the dimensions but I think I've seen people use the uniden pro520xl in that same ash-tray spot, and it has some more options.

Edit: Just checked the dimensions of the 520xl vs 510xl, same size.
User's manuals:
520 - http://www.uniden.com/content/ebiz/uniden/resources/ownersmanuals/PRO520XLom.pdf
510 - http://www.uniden.com/content/ebiz/uniden/resources/ownersmanuals/PRO510XLom.pdf

 

Nice truck. Its cool that its been in your family since the begining.

 

Went to Hollister Hills SVRA on Sunday...had a lot of fun driving around on the trails going up to the top lookout area. Coming down we accidentally got on a road that had a badly eroded steep hill. I made the turn to start going down but tried to avoid a rut by hugging a tree...and I hugged it too closely. The camper shell hit the trunk of the tree and broke one of the rack supports and bent in the rain catch above the sliding panel window, causing it to deform away from the shell and opening a bit of a hole After looking closer the inside frame for the window was bent up, you can kinda see it in the last picture. That sheered two of the bolts there...
I'm trying to find a picture of the place it happened, but no one was taking pictures there and I can't find it online. I'll search a little more, though.
Attached are the damage photos.

Since it's supposed to rain here for the next few days I did a quick silicon seal where that rain catch pulled away from the shell to reduce the amount of water leaked into the cab. After today's rain it looks like it worked pretty well, but there's still a new leak over there and I don't know where it's coming from...

I've also tried to find aluminum channeling to replace that upright, but couldn't find any in Davis. I might check Home Depot in Woodland, but even if I do find straight aluminum channeling I need a bend in it to match the angles of the original pieces. I don't think I'll be able to bend the channel because of the U-shape. If anyone has any other ideas, I'm open to them. I'm still searching for oem replacements

 

Fortune cookie tonight: "Something on four wheels will soon be a fun investment for you!"
Hmmm...I'll probably be investing in plane tickets sooner, but we'll see what the future holds in store

 

Its that rock crawler that I just decided you and I are going to build... thats what the cookie was talking about

 

After doing some research, I can't even find anyone with the same camper shell as me online and no one has just a replacement upright for my lumber rack. Looks like I need some aluminum!
The dimensions:
6061 aluminum
1.25" base width (measurement A in the figures below)
0.5" leg length (measurement B)
Roughly 0.135" thickness (measurement C)
22.5" piece length
roughly 5* bend outward towards the open part of the U-shape of the channel at approximately 19.5" from the bottom.
Three 1/4" diameter holes at 1", 13.75", and 20.25" from the bottom
Need 4 pieces

After some research online the only 6061 aluminum channeling is 3" base width or greater and the channeling that's less than 1.25" is 6063 aluminum.
Does anyone know where I can get something that matches my pieces?
I'm able to drill the holes and cut to length if I get just one long 8' piece but I'm not sure how well I'll be able to make the bends.

For reference:
6061 aluminum channel: Mine looks more like the American Standard type


6063 aluminum channel:

 

Picked up some similar aluminum channel at Cardo in Sac yesterday. Super nice guy. Took one look at the pieces and said that I'd only be able to get them from the manufacturer because they're specially made. So I went out and tried to look up any gemtop person on my phone but couldn't find anyone local so I ended up calling someone in Oregon who transferred me to someone in Texas who said that they'd call me back...well the whole 8 foot length of "similar but not quite the same" channel was only $14 so I went ahead and bought it. He was nice enough to cut the piece in half so it fit in the bed of my truck and he took off tax for me, too, so it was $14 even. Really great experience, I highly recommend them!

Sooo now I need to cut and bend four pieces of aluminum channeling...anyone wanna help for beer or moneys? I think bending it involves cutting a slot, bending it to the right degree, then welding it back in place.

 

the picture of you as a baby with your truck is priceless! Don't EVER SELL YOUR TRUCK! you are it's godson

 

Oops, missed this until now!
Haha, thanks! That's definitely the plan. Even was offered "a looot of money" in the middle of stop-and-go traffic in central California. The guy understood when I said, "too much sentimental value"

In other news, just finished removing my account with photobucket and transferred all my photos over to flickr so now I've gotta go back through here and replace all of them with links to flickr. A bit of a pain, but I was getting popups on photobucket and that made me want to have nothing to do with the site.

 

Did some camper shell fixing today. Finally finished with the lumber rack struts! Turned out pretty good, but the holes I think are slightly in the wrong spot. I had to squeeze the bar in because the struts stick up too high and with the angle of the sides of the shell that puts the tops closer together. But when I took the back one off, the one that wasn't wrecked, the bar was basically squeezed in as well, and that was stock, so I'm not too concerned. I just don't want to end up pulling apart the shell by putting too much force between the lumber rack struts.
Pictures:
Old vs. new:

IMG_20140904_124023_070_small by 92shawman, on Flickr


IMG_20140904_124031_596_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

On the truck:

IMG_20140904_135823_351_small by 92shawman, on Flickr


IMG_20140904_135839_928_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

I also drilled a hole in the last two corners of the shell so that water can drain out. There's a pretty bad leak on the driver's side after my tree hit and water collects in the little shelf under the windows. The passenger side was leaking first, and still does, so I drilled those holes a while back and it's kept a lot of water out of the bed itself (and all my stuff).

And this happened a few months ago on my drive down from Davis to SoCal:

IMG_20140618_155420_624_small by 92shawman, on Flickr

 

Nice! I'm going camping tomorrow through Monday but left the shell back in SD . . . lame.

What's next on the short term to do list?


I'm almost to 100,000 btw haha

 

Nice, sounds like a fun trip! Where you headed?

Let's see...mainly I just need to get out! I was planning on a camping/climbing trip this weekend but my buddy has a short-notice job interview up in San Francisco so we're callin' it off. Might go out next weekend, though, heat permitting.
After that, I'm thinking of going for a ham setup, so I think that would be next. I do want to try to seal all the windows on the campershell so that it doesn't leak anymore, but I'm not sure if that's even possible.
Everything else is more of a long-term list. Not sure if the next thing will be a snorkel, locker, tires, or armor...where's that money tree?

How about you, what's happenin' with your truck, other than not even having 100k yet

 

I do need to investigate if I need to extend my bump stops, though...shoulda done that sooner I suppose, just didn't even think about it with simple OME stuff.

 

Haha, probably a good idea.
Yeah, I'm here until the end of November. Let me know when you want to head out and we'll take a weekend or three days or something out there! I'm headed out there this weekend, I'll let you know how the heat is. Hopefully it's not too bad.

 

Haha, I did miss that. No worries, three days out there is a great trip. Do you mean October 11th? I'll be free then, I'm pretty sure. November 11th is iffy, but that's not a friday, anyways
Sounds like a plan!

 

Finally going on a trip camping tomorrow!
Just a little trip to climb and camp with a buddy, but I'm excited to get out!

 

Great little 24 hour camping trip! It was sooo nice to get out there in the quiet away from city noises.
Didn't take too many pictures but I'll upload some of the scenery tomorrow. The Elliot Mine area got a fair bit of rain a week ago and it looks like there was a fair amount of flooding. The wash that we've always taken to get to our campsite is usually sandy with obvious ruts from years of vehicle use, yet this time it was packed with sand that had eroded down. No tracks in the wash after a week, though, which is kinda cool! Shows you how relatively few people know about some roads in there.
Other than the filled in wash, some other bits had more ruts from water damage, so it was a little more challenging, but in general not too bad. The climbing, as always, was a blast! I haven't climbed in waaay too long...used to be able to do some of the 5.10's out there no problem and this weekend I was having trouble with some of the 5.9's...
As per tradition, though, we did do a new route in a different area! We've been going to Valley of the moon for probably 12 weekend camping trips and each time we've done different routes with only a few repeaters. Pretty massive area!
On the way out we explored around on some of the trails that go up to the ridge that borders the valley to the west and got to the overlook and quartz outcropping that my parents, logcabin, and I had been to before. Awesome views there!

Oh and I discovered the next thing that needs doing...struts for the side door on the camper shell. They've been too weak to hold it up for the past 5 years or so and I just haven't replaced them. Been using the ol' stick method to hold the door up

 

Mix of both. There's a lot of good sport but some of the highest rated crack climbs are out there and they are trad only. I'm limited with just my three cams and two nuts, and I lost my nut tool...so I can basically only do the sport climbs.