What did you do to your SMB today?

[deminimis]

Not sure about the $ yet. They quoted a lot when I was considering having the whole lower side panels, doors, etc., coated. By limiting to only the rear quarters, will be saving considerably. Added a couple of pics to my gallery.

[cellularSTEVE]

Thanks for posting. It looks real good. I wouldn't mind doing it down the line.

steve

[Ed in Montana]

Had the first warm, windless afternoon since I returned from Death Valley National Park two weeks ago, so I washed the desert dust off and waxed the Sporty.

Also, drilled two holes in the front Aluminess bumper to provide four screw downs for the front license plate, which fell off and was nearly lost in Death Valley.

[deminimis]

Today, just touched up a couple of nicks in the paint and got after the rims with some Mother's. However, if we were talking "What work did you do with your SMB today," it would be this:

[deminimis]

Finally bought a good welder with a spoolgun for alumn. After some practice, I was thinking I was all that when it came to welding alumn. So...decided to weld on my replacement latch for my Aluminess swingarm (orig one as broken off). Turns out I've got the rear bumper that was built on a Monday following the Super Bowl. The catch was way off (crooked, too high and too close to the center for the latch to reach it witout being cranked pretty far sideways). Removed the catch to find they had made two attempts at placing it right based upon the number of bolt holes underneath the catch. Reinstalled the catch with new holes in the proper location making sure it was plumb/level. Welded up the latch and presto, perfect. Ok, not perfect. Turns out I'm not so good at welding alumn from underneath. Ground off the first beads (if you could call them that) and tried again. Improved, but not super pretty. Should have removed the swingarm and worked on it that way, but oh well. Its welded solid and you can't really tell the weld is ugly because of the location and the black paint hides it well. Certainly latches nicely. I need to replace the latch guts on the other latch so it works as well as this new latch system.

Early, someone asked how much $ the Rhino lining cost me. Only $375 (about the same as buying two filled 80# welding tanks (one argon and one 75/25 Argon/C02), so I'd call that money well spent.

[lowracer]

I added a hitch mount bike rack. Discovered a "Performance Bike" shop just down the street from my house. They had a sale on hitch mount racks. Hard to find one for my off-road Cannondale Recumbent bike:



but they had one that worked:



and here's a link to the product page:
http://tinyurl.com/6onk4j

This unit holds the bike securely and I don't have to worry about it banging around or messing with lots of straps. Just clamp it in and off you go.

Added benefit to driving around with this contraption on the back is that to the layman, it appears to be some kind of disabled person's cart, and people give me a wide berth.

[jage]

Well the garage lost all power due to a wire pack that was spliced 4 ways in the attic and held with electrical tape. There weren't even wire nuts and some of the wires just lost contact enough to kill the power (and start a fire, we were lucky that didn't happen!)

So I begged and pleaded with the electrician to replace the 20ft run of the only 2 wire electrical in the house to the junction box that replaced the other end, which was wire nutted and outside between the house and the garage.

But lo, there was still no ground in the garage. Through previous "what the heck is going on?" inspection we had a pretty good idea of where the next splice from hell was, but as it's a rental and he was tasked only with restoring power he was (ahem) powerless to do any more.

I was just thankful that A) we didn't have a fire and B) I knew there was a good ground going all the way INTO the garage, I just couldn't figure out how it got in, or where it turned into multiple ungrounded wires.

After prying apart 3 walls and some moulding outside, I was convinced it was behind a wooden section which I cut out and found this little rats nest:


"Gee, think this might be your problem mister?"

Another junction box and an outlet later (can't have to many outlets) I had GROUND in the garage! Now I can shore power my SMB without leaving the kitchen window open and going under the garage door!

[jeff@work]

lowracer:

I have that same bike rack and used it for a couple years, finally just replaced it. It does work pretty well but a few things to be aware of:

* where that padded area secures to the bike frame it will wear the paint off the bike eventually.

* overtime it became harder and harder for me to get that frame clamp tight...it would be very hard to turn the knob but i would still be able to slide the mounting hook up and down the rack

* i once had the front tire of my bike pop out of the rack and the bike was close to falling off, it was only being held up by a cable lock i had wrapped around it. After that I just used velcro straps around the tires and rack and never had that problem again.

Other than that it worked great and it sure was nice not having to remove the front wheel!

[CJ]

Batteries two starting batteries ............. ........removed and replaced.

then well and fed the whinnies and woofs all 4

CJ

[deminimis]

One of the easiest, cheapest, most effective mods yet. Had some rubber drawer liner from Wal-Hell. Cut it to fit my stove to keep the racks from clattering against the stove top when going dow the road. Racks punch right through the holes in the drawer liner. Perfectly quiet now. Took some left over and lined the PH garage door springs' pockets to try and quiet that noise down as well. Doubt that will work as well.