Baby needed new shoes.

The Continental 275/70-18 had 45K on them. The still looked pretty good, but one had a rock cut in the tread, and 3 had cracking under the tread (on the sidewalls). With that mileage, I probably got my money's worth out of them.

5 Michelin LTX AT2 tires - $1500.

Then a little wash and wax for the show this weekend.

Mike

__________________
Alaska to Key West, Labrador and more
Prostate cancer survivor. See Thread Prostate cancer and Sportsmobiles
2015 VW GTI 2020 Fiat 124 Spider
2012 E250 Hitop camper

I need to build a couple of cabinet parts. Could not find the the right size double sided MDF locally, so went with single sided 1/4" and 1/8 dry erase board/shower board.. Of course, before I can do any fabbing, I have to make the 1/2" double sided MDF plus the dry erase board for a total thickness of 5/8". A whole bunch of Titebond II and I'm on my way. Tomorrow I hope to start shaping.

I used more than twice this amount of glue and coated the entire surface using a foam brush.




Good thing I have some clamps.

__________________
It takes a village to raise an idiot.

I guess this is more of a work I'm going to do on my SMB post, but I'm giddy, so here goes. On the way to Baja in Dec, noticed some leaking water on the floor underneath the sink. Not much, but some. The Everpure water filter froze and the filter housing cracked. The Replacement filter is around $40 +/-. I scored a completely new complete Everpure system (including the ADC Full Timer filter and the winter bypass that I really needed) for all of $25 off Ebay!! Heck yea!

__________________
It takes a village to raise an idiot.

Finally got to start doing things for Moab and with de-winterizing the system I discovered that the shower wand no longer sealed. It was on and then more on with the button so I tore it down, cleaned it in Potato Vodka and, wah-la, like new!



There is a black rubber ring that the brass tube seals against and in retrospect it may not have been seated all the way back (meaning not covering the tube) but the inside of the head was pretty foul looking, so cleaning it was a good idea anyway.

It's an easy fix, the button comes off by pushing out the pin and the head comes off with a screw. The black rubber ring just slides off from around the white tabs.

The only reason to take the button off is you can depress the rod further to clean. I didn't want to pull the bottom, it looks like it might be glued or something.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
it was good to be back

Pulled my fridge and did some reflectex insulation on it.( Thanks Jage for the tutorial) When pulling the fridge I found 2 odd items. The fridge has never been plugged in to 110v since new as I found the chord neatly coiled on top of the unit. And # 2 was the fact that the drain tube for the fridge was not routed through the floor. It ws just draining on the floor back there. Fixed now.
Also Ford replaced my turbo yesterday under warranty.

__________________
Desert Solitaire
2003 7.3L EB 4x4
Timberline 4x4 conversion

My drain tube was like that too, but I figured I'd pulled it out when removing the fridge and not noticed.

__________________
it was good to be back

I shaped the rear facing cabinet side for the cabinet that houses the fridge. The orig MDF panel was swollen 3x+ its orig thickness at the bottom from water (mostly leaking ice from the fridge and, possibly, the fridge drain line that was not it the drain hole). I've got to post a pic of it. Its impressive. Its really some low rent MDF in the SMB. A van like ours, that will likely have wet wetsuits and the like, really should be made with water resistant materials. Anyway, the panel I made is approx 1/16" thicker than the orig panel and that's as close as I could make it without going completely crazy. Hopefully tonight I'll have some time to tackle the wall that is lacking insulation or any paneling (the rear of the fridge cabinet). Once installed, if the white MDF is noticeably out of place in comparison to the orig super light gray MDF, then I'll just cut the bottom few inches off the orig panel (the swollen area), and replace that section (biscuit joints) with my creation. The surgery would be hidden by gray rubber baseboard (which is a good idea regardless).

__________________
It takes a village to raise an idiot.

I thought all MDF was low rent.

I am with you if I could have my van built again I would have SMB build the cabinets from marine grade finish plywood. It would be lighter, more tolerant of moisture, and screws would not strip out of it as easily. I can't imagine that it would add more than $250 to the cost of the build.

John

__________________
'08 SMB 4X4 6.0PSD EB 50 (96K)

The new 3-piece panel



I hear ya John. They do make a water resistant MDF. It would have been a better choice IMHO. Frankly, I've considered a complete re-do in maple (in the timeless shaker style). However, Mrs. Deminimis would kill me if I built new maple cabinets for the SMB when our house could use modern maple cabinets (actually, I'd build the cases and buy the fronts). I've seen Earthroamers with extremely nice cabinetry and those aren't half as cool as our rigs.

__________________
It takes a village to raise an idiot.

Been too busy, but to catch up all in one shot, Here are some things I've done lately:


New Exhaust and Tip from Cat Back: (whoever said not to get a Flowmaster or MagnaFlow, I thank you since my fabricator said the same thing, I went for new quieter pipes and custom exhaust tip)

I have an older Ford E-350 so the original stock exhaust was the funny looking thin two exhaust pipes for a 460 v8 that was replaced.. looks alot better.


Portable Air Condition Duct Re-Route through back floor versus using the windows for the heat exhaust and water outlet:

Underneath Shot of where the hot air and water exits


Carbon Look:

__________________
96 RB E-350 460v8 4x4 Custom RestoMod
Warn12kWinch,FFloater,LSlip,Pwtrx Locker 4.10 305x70x16 ToyoMTs,Eagle Alloys,Stove,4CF Ppane Fridge, Air CompTank,Supersprings, Bilstein Shocks,Deavers,CastIron Diff Case, Bullet Proof ReBuilt Transmission, Tubulator DeRale Trans Pan Cover, SSExhaust, KyoceraSolar, Tripplite UPS, 8D AGM, TivoHD, 24in HDLED
95 FJ80 ARB/Kaymar/Emu
2005 AMG CL65 691hp 875tq