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Took a break to go on a 3-week honeymoon in Australia. Rented/borrowed a Y62 Patrol and did 5 days in the Victorian High Country with a group of 10 other rigs. Not hard wheeling, but totally gorgeous and fun. Stunning country out there. Highly recommend! Feeling thankful!

Yeah, clear. Even just seasonal changes can make a big difference anywhere that gets real weather. A day on the trail is always a day well spent though, glad you enjoyed it anyway.

Good updates. Love the variety in this thread. Was the issue at Black Mountain that the trails were either too easy or too hard? No Goldilocks zone for you and your convoy?

You're not the only one - I bought gas for MIG welding stainless at my local supply store and the guy was like "here, this is what you need" and sold me plain Argon. I had done a little bit of Googling and didn't think that was what I needed, but he was the expert so I just bought it. That...

With the holes filled and the rods shaped, time to cut the fender lips to shape. Here's how the rod will sit on the backside of the fender: There are a few other things to check, so for the first time ever, I pulled the fender off. No big surprises underneath! California cars . . ...

The fenders on the car were rolled with a fender roller, but because they had those square holes, there were always kinks in the A-surface. Now that I'm doing new fenders, I want to get this right. My strategy is to fill those holes, trim the lip, and weld in a 1/4" steel rod both to...

So . . years back, a friend backed into my Golf and bungled the fender and some other parts. I eventually tracked down new fenders, but haven't done anything about it until recently. Here's my poor baby with its bruise: Time to begin! I'll explain the steel rod in the next post. First...

Surprising! No input on the ol' belt grinder topic! I'll probably just get the Hercules one from Harbor Freight.

Let's talk belt grinders. Ultimately, what I want is something that'll eat some steel when I'm doing basic fabrication work. Every so often, it's nice to be able to put wood on it, but this mostly a metalworking tool for me. I'm not in a rush and would be curious for input. The rough...

I've made a mistake. I bought another belt and disc sander that I hate. I've once again violated "buy once, cry once." I've had a cheapo Harbor Freight unit for a year or two, which I got from a friend. It works, but it stalls if you look at it too hard. The form factor is ok, and I like that...

A friend with a 2017 Jetta told me she was having trouble with the media unit in her car and that she'd gotten a super expensive quote to fix it. I did some googling and found threads and part numbers. You can swap the touch sensor for under $20, so I ordered one. She came over after work and we...

Thank you! It's a 1995 GMC Sierra, 305, 5-speed. As I recall, when I looked up the RPO (option) codes, it came up as the lightest GVW of that year, which I think makes it even more of a "street truck." It's come a ways . . but always more to do :) Look how high it was when I bought it...

I didn't take many photos of the fitting/cutting process, but the bend kit had everything I needed to make this system fit really well under the truck. Not a super difficult system to make, probably one of the easiest, but it's still my first time making an exhaust system. Mocked: All...

Now - torquing the headers . . . it's never fun, you can never get a socket on the nuts, etc. I wanted to make a separate post for this, because I think it's worth calling out separately. I used a crow's foot wrench for this, but it kept slipping off. I used every combination of extensions to...

To get fitment right, I had to install the headers and cat. First, ARP studs went in. I had to chase a few of these, but had no issues. Modified the alternator support bracket per header instructions. One factory stud is retained for this, with a spacer to simulate the thickness of the cast...

Next was the first section of tubing for the cat-back. Add the flange, weld the muffler (Borla ProXS). Again, a bit ugly and oversized on the ol' weld bead . . Had to dress the welds back to get the nut/bolt to sit flat, so this is how it ended up: Continued with the muffler: Started...

I've been wanting to do exhaust on the pickup for a while. The existing system was a single Magnaflow after the cat, then a straight pipe and a turndown in front of the axle. It sounded ok, not great, and was pretty loud in the cab. I was never thrilled with it, and the smog shop always...

Good to know, thank you! Space is at a premium at the moment but that does look like a handy setup, and it's nice that it can be powered with 110 V as well. I have a small flat LED utility light panel which gets some use in situations like this, but it is not battery-powered. Looks like this...

Obviously I wasn't going to use sticky conduit again, so I used wire clips and screws everywhere once the lights were back in place. Tedious but I'm happy with the result. Now, to make sure it doesn't happen again. I don't know much about surge protection, and people online seem to get...

I was hoping to roll paint over the new patched areas so I thought I bought the correct rollers at Home Depot. Clearly not. Tried brushing after that. Not good. The whole garage was professionally (spray) painted, so that's what I got to do to match the finish! Surprise - time to mask...