Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT My Mini Garagemahal

[fouckhest]

Lots of progress on the gate the past two night, unfortunately, welding out frames like this are not super photogenic, but I did finish up the last frame last night.

Once I finished up, decided to have a cold beer and sit down in front of the white board and start making a plan for next steps. I think I am going to fit up the fence side since the location of the hinges on that side are restricted due to the "slats," once I determine those, then I will be able to get the our panels finished up and do a test hang on them....anyways, lots of progress, not a lot in the way of cool photos to share.

But here are a couple, starting with one of the roller hinges welded out, welds might be a touch on the cool side, but was worried about putting too much heat into the corners
by fouckhest, on Flickr

One nice thing is that laying them back on the garage floor, they don't have "much rock" in them, so I feel good that they will all work nicely together, plus they are the making of a chassis or a trailer, so the 1/16"-1/8" is of movement corner to corner on a floor that is questionably flat seems manageable
by fouckhest, on Flickr

This is 1/2 of the total gate mocked up, this is my "fence side" which I will start mocking up first, hopefully this Thursday night or this weekend.
by fouckhest, on Flickr

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

Gate frames are coming along nice. Do you normally park in the garage all the time, or do the dailies live in the driveway in front of the gate? The reason I ask is that it would be super cool to automate the opening of this.

 

[fouckhest]

Gate frames are coming along nice. Do you normally park in the garage all the time, or do the dailies live in the driveway in front of the gate? The reason I ask is that it would be super cool to automate the opening of this.

The dailies stay out front, mostly to stay away from the boy dogs and their tendencies

I certainly would LOVE to automate it, that was my plan with gate design 1.0, but then started to move away from that due to weight, there still could be an opportunity to do this one, but that would have to come as a later update.

If you remember the "mid-yard" fence we built last year, that was one of the aspects of that project, just lock the dogs back there and it makes it easy to come in/out. For the most part, only my nice(er) cars park in the back/in the garage, which will end up changing soon when the two silver cars go live at the new house so I can start to work on the project car and there is metal dust everywhere (kinda like now, but the GTi is in Winston-Salem at the upholstery shop).

 

[fouckhest]

Speaking of....these arrived from the UK today, so I will be going back up to the upholstery guy Friday to drop these off and pickup the OEM rear seats.

In normal seat mode
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In kid booster mode....no I dont have kids, dont plan on having kids nor do I plan on letting kids in my car, they are just such a cool OEM touch to add to the car LOL
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

The dailies stay out front, mostly to stay away from the boy dogs and their tendencies

I certainly would LOVE to automate it, that was my plan with gate design 1.0, but then started to move away from that due to weight, there still could be an opportunity to do this one, but that would have to come as a later update.

If you remember the "mid-yard" fence we built last year, that was one of the aspects of that project, just lock the dogs back there and it makes it easy to come in/out. For the most part, only my nice(er) cars park in the back/in the garage, which will end up changing soon when the two silver cars go live at the new house so I can start to work on the project car and there is metal dust everywhere (kinda like now, but the GTi is in Winston-Salem at the upholstery shop).

That makes sense. Automating would be cool someday but not sure the easiest and fastest way. Lots of options.

I get hiding things from those tendencies. We have lucked out with always having an older female around when we have gotten our males they have all ended up handling things the same, oddly enough.

 

[fouckhest]

That makes sense. Automating would be cool someday but not sure the easiest and fastest way. Lots of options.

I get hiding things from those tendencies. We have lucked out with always having an older female around when we have gotten our males they have all ended up handling things the same, oddly enough.

That is ideal for sure!

My wife had her two pound puppies when we met and they weren't the best, but weren't the worst either. Then enter the older black lab that showed up and we ended up adopting last year, which he is a great dog, but we think he is 8-9yrs old and even after having his manhood removed, its still "a competition" I swear

That is a big reason that my nice cars are going to the new house and I've been telling my wife, female dogs only going forward, unless its a situation like you've had at which time osmosis is great.

 

[MrPink]

Speaking of....these arrived from the UK today, so I will be going back up to the upholstery guy Friday to drop these off and pickup the OEM rear seats.

In normal seat mode
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

In kid booster mode....no I dont have kids, dont plan on having kids nor do I plan on letting kids in my car, they are just such a cool OEM touch to add to the car LOL
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Dude I'm jealous

 

[fouckhest]

Dude I'm jealous

If you knew what I paid for them, just to have them be torn down and recovered, you'd have a different reaction

But thank you, I've wanted a set for YEARS

 

[MrPink]

Oh I can imagine.

 

[zanyad]

kid booster mode

Dude I'm jealous

Neat! I'd love something like that for my car, it'd be nice to be able to leave the seat/booster at home!

 

[fouckhest]

Neat! I'd love something like that for my car, it'd be nice to be able to leave the seat/booster at home!

Thanks, I think they will be a fun touch for the car

 

[trytochaseme]

I remember trying to find a set of those rear seats 10 years ago. When they did pop up even back then they went for some good money.

My holy grail mk4 rear seats I always wanted were the MK1 Cupra R seats. I don't think I was ever able to find a set for sale even on euro ebays.

 

[fouckhest]

I remember trying to find a set of those rear seats 10 years ago. When they did pop up even back then they went for some good money.

My holy grail mk4 rear seats I always wanted were the MK1 Cupra R seats. I don't think I was ever able to find a set for sale even on euro ebays.

Those are pretty cool, remind me of the anniversary edition seats that come from the UK, they have the "Recaro / GTi" embordering on the rear seat backs, when I have the rears done, the uppers will have that to match the front, just wont larger bolsters like those do, but they are too pricey to ship here, just to have to have them recovered anyway.

 

[fouckhest]

Hope everyone had a good weekend, lots of work on the gate project, to say I am sore and exhausted is an understatement, BUT its nice to finish a weekend knowing that lots of progress was made....I'll try and recap

Saturday morning I set out to clean up all the welds on the frames, my MIG skills are no good enough to share with the world and as previously mentioned, I didn't want to dedicate the extra time to TIG them

Before
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After
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Then rinse and repeat many times....Next was to start making the hinges that would attach to the fence side. I started there because I need a trim board to space out on the house side and was waiting on my neighbor/builder friend to dig some out of his scrap

Mocked up, ready to be welded
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...and welded
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Welded up and loosely installed on the fence
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Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr


Next up was to get that gate panel up, spaced/leveled, etc., then dragged the MIG up to the gate and tacked the hinge on
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Did the same for the hinges connecting the two panels, and all the sudden, it almost looks like a gate lol. The offset height was not planned, but as I was trying to get everything into position, it became apparent that the "V" I put in the driveway to help with water was going to cause a big enough gap at the bottom in the middle that I didnt want dogs getting in/out. So decided to leave the center panel where it was and raise the one closest to the fence. I think it matches the style of the fence well, it will help breakup an obvious differences in height and trying to make them perfect, so I rolled with it!
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Design even works as planned'ish, if you look closely at the bottom left of this photo, of course I happened to find the original drive way border buried in the grass at the edge of the current driveway, but by this time on Saturday, I was tired, sweaty, covered in metal shavings, I didn't have the energy to get a sledge hammer out....it was time for the back porch and a cold beer

Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr


Sunday morning started a little slower, ran some errands with the wife, then came back home and got back to work...first project was to build the house side hinges....I've fallen in love with this drill press, might actually motivate me to buy a nice drill index
by fouckhest, on Flickr

Glamor shot of them all welded up, TIG and mild steel makes you feel like a super hero LOL
by fouckhest, on Flickr

I took down the fence side panels at the end of the day Saturday, so I could easily measure and duplicate hinge placement on the other side
by fouckhest, on Flickr

Measured up to make sure they are the same
by fouckhest, on Flickr

Tacked up
by fouckhest, on Flickr

Tested and it works as advertised
by fouckhest, on Flickr
by fouckhest, on Flickr


Next steps will be to get the trim board for the house side and get that mounted up, then start planning how I am doing to attach the boards. I am thinking of some simple flat bar tabs that will bet two holes to allow a little wood screw to go through, trying to keep it simple, but also not intrusive to the look from the inside/looking from our deck.

Will likely try and chip away a little this week in the evenings, but need to get the house side mocked up/installed and get that concrete busted up on the fence side. Hope everyone has a good week!

 

[nicholam77]

In kid booster mode....no I dont have kids, dont plan on having kids nor do I plan on letting kids in my car, they are just such a cool OEM touch to add to the car LOL

Ok, that is really neat. Never seen that before.

 

[fouckhest]

Ok, that is really neat. Never seen that before.

Thanks, definitely one of those dorky/quirky VW things

 

[zmotorsports]

The gates are turning out great Mike. Well done.

 

[fouckhest]

The gates are turning out great Mike. Well done.

Thanks, Mike!

Excited to seemingly be getting glimpses of this project being complete, however, I say that as tomorrow at this time I'll be on a flight to Dallas for an overnight trip, then getting home and we are moving my step daughter into the new house this weekend....sooo, likely not much progress in the next week, unfortunately.

I did manage to make a little headway last night, got the approval of the general concept from the boss on the board layout, this will be the basic design, note, this is looking at the back of the gate, so from the front you'll see more of the full face boards. Once I had my rough concept, I also did some quick math in excel, I think I'm going to need 28x 12ft deck boards to cover all 4 panels, this thing might get heavy quick!

I think I am going to go get some 4" x 1/8" steel plate that I will cut down to ~3/4" strips that I can drill a couple small holes and then tack to the frame to secure the boards that will be visible from the front, the rear boards, I plan to use brad nails to secure

General idea of the concept
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

We may leave some "windows" of the back boards, something like below, but only at the top, we want to avoid the dogs having windows to see people walking, biking, riding golf carts, etc., they have deemed this all unacceptable in the neighborhood LOL

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[SilverJimmy]

Do yourself a favor and buy some 3/4” x 1/8“ strap for those pieces you want to have, so much easier to cut and get it done! And it’ll be the same price since most steel suppliers sell it by the pound.

 

[fouckhest]

Do yourself a favor and buy some 3/4” x 1/8“ strap for those pieces you want to have, so much easier to cut and get it done! And it’ll be the same price since most steel suppliers sell it by the pound.

Sterling, thanks for the advise! Make a ton of sense, appreciate it!

 

[fouckhest]

Hope everyone had a nice weekend, definitely a busy one in my world. A large chunk of Saturday was spent helping my step-daughter move into the new house, I filled my duties as the truck/trailer operator and fridge, washer/drier installer (well hookup only), actually funny story, the new fridge got delivered on Friday, as the two guys were wrapping up, I asked if they wanted to make a couple extra bucks to move the new washer and dryer in for, they happily accepted! Best $40 I've spent in a LONG TIME! LOL

Anyway, after the moving project was complete, we headed home to get on with our day, unfortunately my gate project is still on hold due to needing that trim board that will go behind my hinge....womp womp

In lieu of my newly found couple hours of time, I decided that I would take on the task of mocking up my "look pretty tool kit" for the silver GTi since its still at the upholstery shop. I've always like the nicely restored Porsches that have the nice interior matched tool kits, this is/was one of my inspirations, or this thought in general


With my inspiration found, I went through the standard mk4 VW bare bones tools that will get you through 80% of an oh $hit moments, set out to a few of our favorite shopping sites and came up with some goodies
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Figured the Ram Board I bought a while ago would be a good template for proof of concept
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Started with some intial layout ideas.....
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I thought I had my layout finalized, on this...
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Then I realized I forgot to account for my telescoping breaker bar and 17mm socket....so back to the drawing board, but I think I like this better for the time being, I am still waiting on my 17mm combination wrench to arrive to complete that set, but I think this will be much better for keeping the heavy stuff on the bottom/middle fold...once the last wrench shows up I'll get it mocked back up with tape and ready to take the the upholstery shop
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That was was my Saturday afternoon while relaxing after the move, then tinkered with it some more Sunday afternoon after this project.....

Little back story, I took the new back seats to the upholstery shop two weeks ago, on the way home, I started to hear a small exhaust leak, I was driving the wives VW CC, 4cyl turbo. Figured it was the downpipe gasket or maybe a flex/bellows cracked, so had my buddy that runs a small shop pull the DP for me (too much stuff in the garage to mess with it myself), brought it home to do a pressure test figuring I'd have to get creative and either patch some holes/cracks or replace a bellows, but there wasnt a visible crack or any tell tell sign, so off to troubleshooting we go.

I did what any self respecting GJ tinkerer would do, build a pressure tester....found this coupler that fit the exhaust side, quick trip to lowes for a PVC cap at air chuck
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With the help of my new found love of a drill press, we were off to the races
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Tapped to 1/4" NPT
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All of the openings plugged
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Now for the very anticlimactic finish....no leak, took the DP back to him today, he was planning to reinstall and do a smoke test, but while I was there discussing, I suggested maybe that the hot side has loosened from the center section on the turbo, or maybe exhaust manifold gasket? Just throwing ideas, about an hour later, I get a text from him, the v-band clamp that holds the center section to the hot side (turbine housing) had broken and that was my leak.....NOW, I am admittedly going to just put a clamp on it and go and hope that there hasnt been any contact between the turbine wheel/housing...fingers crossed, should know more on Thursday.

...till then, hope everyone has a good week

 

[fouckhest]

Caught up on some yard work last night, been a weird late summer here, went from cold/wet in August to back to pretty warm and little bits of on/off rain that have made it tough to decide to water or not b/c it hasnt always been hot hot....that being said, its late year, so I've kinda back off watering, missed last weeks cut and you could barely tell, only got two bags worth of clippings

...I do feel a little bad about the area on the left of the photo that isn't as green, but the majority of the lawn is hanging in there.
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Neighbor dropped of some trim board for me last night, so hopefully getting back on the gate project ASAP!

 

[zmotorsports]

Your lawn is looking pretty damn good too Mike. Well done.

 

[fouckhest]

Hope everyone had a good weekend, was rather action packed in my little world, mostly due to lots of people in town for a good buddies 40th birthday festivities.

Saturday kicked off with a trip to Cars & Coffee at the Michelin corp. HQ, that used to be the monthly spot, but unfortunately that has now become a 3-4x a year event and the other months it lands at another spot that is further and not as well setup for easy in/out and viewing of cars, so unfortunately that time honored car guy Saturday morning get together has waned in the past year or so...Either way, it was a good time, got to see some folks I haven't chatted with in a while.

Didn't take many photos, but took the trusty TDi Golf out for a spin, unfortunately dirty but it rained all night and forecast was calling for spotty showers all day, so no bath. Found a good parking spot right behind my buddies mk5 Jetta TDi Cup Edition
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This thing was cool to see, guy up in TN took delivery a couple months'ish ago, Mustang GTD, definitely has a presence! Very large vehicle, there was a GT3 RS parked opposite it and even made that car look small and the new GT3 RS is a BIG 911 compared to previous models
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Home from C&C, got to work on the gate, no more than go all my tools and the panels loaded in the truck, got the old driveway edging dug out and it was then time to head over to the 40th bday shindig. So limited progress on Saturday, but there was some progress made, not a total loss. Sunday started a little slow, but got back at, did some adjusting of the house side panel hinges, buddy stopped by thats been in construction most of his life, so he was helping me investigate my "binding" issues, which I think I've got a good working theory, but need to get back out there and dig in some more....then the bday group was going to watch a foozeball game, so we all packed up and went to meet that crew.

All-in-all, the gate is coming together, functionality is 90%, so now to fix a couple issues and get this one wrapped up.

Definitely liking the way it is coming together, I am leaning towards letting the frame rust/patina, not 100% sure, but it certainly looks cool
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

 

[zmotorsports]

Looks like a fun weekend Mike and the gates are coming along nicely.

I have to kick myself because the small coffee shop local to us, about 2-miles from our home, had Cars & Coffee for the past several years. We only attended a couple of times, but had wanted to much more than that, just didn't make it a priority.

Well, the coffee shop sold last fall and although the new owners continued the Cars & Coffee events on Saturday and Sunday mornings, participation seemed to drop off. I think the original owners were much more personable than the new owners. Fast forward to summer 2025 and it was up for sale again. It just sold about a month ago and they have now replaced it with a taco place, so I don't think Cars & Tacos quite roll off the tongue. Even though they do sound good.

 

[fouckhest]

Thanks, Mike, it was a good overall weekend, hard to complain with all the fun!

Thats a bummer on your local C&C, they are certainly a fun reason to get up and out of the house on a weekend morning to be able to enjoy our play toys....seems like you could incorporate a ride in the Jeep or Camaro with your son and grandson for your boys breakfast trips!

 

[fouckhest]

Rainy afternoon/evening meant no yard work, no gate work....so decided to keep myself busy I'd work on finalizing the tool kit for the Silver GTi. I think this is my final version, until its not LOL, but I think this is going to work well, it folds together pretty well.

Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Need to find something to do tonight b/c it looks like this intermittent rain is here for the day

 

[zmotorsports]

Nice job nestling the tools Mike. That should make a nice compact tool kit.

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

Tool kit layout is coming along good. Only thing I see is would the little Icon meme kit going to block the larger wrench from coming out? What if you put it in the same place on the far left panel so it lays in that location when closed but isn't there when open to block anything?

 

[fouckhest]

Nice job nestling the tools Mike. That should make a nice compact tool kit.

Thanks, Mike. I am excited to get this up to the upholstery guy and see what we can come up with for a final design.

Tool kit layout is coming along good. Only thing I see is would the little Icon meme kit going to block the larger wrench from coming out? What if you put it in the same place on the far left panel so it lays in that location when closed but isn't there when open to block anything?

Thanks, I would say, yeah maybe it could be an issue, but in all honesty, I hope to never need to open this tool kit. I think my brain just went to the way that combo wrenches naturally next and going the other direction seems opposite in my brain. Regardless, it's intent is for show, something cool to put on the floor board while at cars shows. I will play around with it some more and then when I take it to the upholstery guy, there may be other things that don't work, so we will adjust as needed at that time.

 

[Just Puttering]

That’s a great way to template the kit.

 

[gearhead1960]

The tools look great. What is your jack arrangement? Reason I ask is when I bought my Mini, I stupidly listened to the salesman and did not opt for the spare tire kit. That meant, not only did I not have a spare, no tools or a jack! I looked at getting the factory jack, but did not like the cantilever style that the Germans love. I ended up with a beefy (4,000lb rating) vintage Craftsman scissor style jack that I had found at an estate sale. It has a 1" hex head on the business end that can be used with a air gun or a ratchet.....

 

[fouckhest]

The tools look great. What is your jack arrangement? Reason I ask is when I bought my Mini, I stupidly listened to the salesman and did not opt for the spare tire kit. That meant, not only did I not have a spare, no tools or a jack! I looked at getting the factory jack, but did not like the cantilever style that the Germans love. I ended up with a beefy (4,000lb rating) vintage Craftsman scissor style jack that I had found at an estate sale. It has a 1" hex head on the business end that can be used with a air gun or a ratchet.....

Thanks, Mark.

Funny you bring up the jack topic, this car started life as an R32, those cars were AWD from the factor, which meant the "spare tire well" was compromised by the fuel tank and other evap components. They came with a bottle of VW "fix a flat" and a little portable pump. Plus, I also have a full audio setup in the hatch of the car, so there is no room for anything in the hatch anymore.

All those things considered, it is a sacrifice that I have to live with, but the car is primarily only driven around town, the biggest trip I do annually is only about 2hrs away. Unfortunately at this point, it becomes a roll the dice and/or a risk I have to live with, womp womp.

Thinking and typing, I suppose if there was an instance where I was going to go on a long trip I could put a spare tire and small jack in the back seat on some moving blankets, but I really haven't done any "road trips" per say in any of my cars in a while. I do have a spare that will fit on this car, probably needs a new tire, but the wheel fits this PCD, so if a road trip comes up, I'd probably go to HF and get one of the little aluminum jacks and take it with.

 

[gearhead1960]

Yeah, not your everyday driver. AAA is your friend. Might be cheap insurance.

As far as checking the box for the spare when I bought my Mini Clubman, it was only $100! Cost me double that to recreate the spare and tools to go with it. Space is not an issue on the Mini in this regard. Worst decision I made when buying that car. Otherwise it's been a blast.....glanced at 120 mph today leaving behind an Audi S5 on the highway....he/she probably would ultimately have pulled away from me, but didn't have the balls to go for it.... BTW, this was on my Armageddon stretch of highway that cops don't have a chance in H*ll of catching you....

 

[fouckhest]

AAA is probably a good idea in general given the overall age of most of my fleet.

I've always heard the Mini is a fun car, I can remember chasing one out Hellbender (road before Tail of the Dragon), that car was quick and the driver knew that road, so we ran that damn near flat out from start to finish!

 

[Xti04]

I loved my Mini from a performance standpoint. It was point and shoot and handled like a go kart. From a maintenance and longevity standpoint even though it had a ton of preventative work done to it by the PO and myself, it still was a ticking time bomb. Drank oil like a drunk sailor and smoked like a freight train. Would be a fun car to Kswap, or to gut it out and add a cage and make a track car out of it. No spare in mine either and I luckily never needed one.

 

[gearhead1960]

I loved my Mini from a performance standpoint. It was point and shoot and handled like a go kart. From a maintenance and longevity standpoint even though it had a ton of preventative work done to it by the PO and myself, it still was a ticking time bomb. Drank oil like a drunk sailor and smoked like a freight train. Would be a fun car to Kswap, or to gut it out and add a cage and make a track car out of it. No spare in mine either and I luckily never needed one.

Yeah, I was coming from a '99 Civic Si that was 17 years old that was super reliable. The Mini has been very reliable, surprisingly. This is a Gen 3 car that has resolved all of the reliability bugs the 1st 2 generations of Minis were known for. I definitely had some trepidation about the Mini in regard to reliability. The redeeming factor on the Clubman is it's actually built on the x1/x2 chassis and has the 2.0l B46/b48 motor which is now becoming the SBC of the BMW family. I've had the ECM flashed to over 300hp/300ft/lb tq so it can get out of it's own way. Lastly, it's got 3 pedals....

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

AAA is probably a good idea in general given the overall age of most of my fleet.

I've always heard the Mini is a fun car, I can remember chasing one out Hellbender (road before Tail of the Dragon), that car was quick and the driver knew that road, so we ran that damn near flat out from start to finish!

AAA saved my *** a couple of years back when I had a breakdown at the Tail of the Dragon. Used my one long distance tow on my Platinum account to get me to Asheville and then used my girlfriend's card on my account to get it the rest of the way home a couple of weeks later. There are some rules in there to try and prevent you from towing it twice but you can kind of get around it if you scheme to create a longer free tow. I do 15-20k miles of driving a year so it has proved to be worth it for the piece of mind.

 

[fouckhest]

AAA saved my *** a couple of years back when I had a breakdown at the Tail of the Dragon. Used my one long distance tow on my Platinum account to get me to Asheville and then used my girlfriend's card on my account to get it the rest of the way home a couple of weeks later. There are some rules in there to try and prevent you from towing it twice but you can kind of get around it if you scheme to create a longer free tow. I do 15-20k miles of driving a year so it has proved to be worth it for the piece of mind.

Good feedback, definitely something I need to look into

 

[fouckhest]

Hope everyone had a good weekend, I certainly did! Enjoyed a nice weekend away with the wife for our "anniversary getaway" weekend up in Asheville, NC for a beer/music festival at our favorite brewery.

Managed to be somewhat productive once we got back, nice thing about doing a "getaway" when its only an hour away! Upon getting home and settle, I went and grabbed my step-daughters car and swapped a drivers side door handle out, I was expecting it to fight me and be a PITA, so I wasnt in photo mode, but it went much smoother than planned and it is all back together and functioning, after that, I we took her car back and knocked out a couple chores at her house and then headed home to see what we could do with the rest of our day!

That being said, I've been trying to solve my gate doors opening all the way issue, so last week a buddy of mine stopped by and we took a look and after trying a couple things, we came up with a working theory that due to the offset needed for the doors to close and be perfectly flat, I've inadvertently created a new offset that stops the doors opening fully. The theory was that if the roller wheel could shift while being opened that it would allow for the door to open....so last week I ordered some longer bolts, 12", found some springs that I had laying around, when we arrived home the new bolts had already showed up, so figured it was as good of time as any to test the theory.

Reminder of the limitations previously of the doors...this allowed for ~9.5ft opening, which would likely suffice, but it bothered me.
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Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Some expensive bolts! 5/8-11 x 12"
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Random springs that I wish I could remember what they came from, I think two more would make this a little more elegant of a solution
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Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Now we have fully opening doors!
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

You can see here how the bolt allows the gate to pivot away from the wheel/support bar
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Here is the offset once opened, still need to refine this some, may end up cutting down the bolt so its not excessively long, but not sure on that yet, for now, it works and that was the big win! Now to continue working and work to refine/fine tune the design
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Have a good week all!