Baja update! (and some other stuff)

Jenn usually posts like crazy about the yurt building adventures, but I thought I'd leave an update here on how the baja is progressing. The plan is to take it in March over spring break to Utah and meet up with our friends Mark and Emma (M&E), who are driving from Michigan. M&E will be coming in an old Toyota pickup and we'll be meeting either Friday or Saturday of the first spring break weekend somewhere in Utah. I hesitate to say where since we keep changing our minds. It's either Bryce, Moab, or some other nice and scenic location.

As such, the baja needed/needs a bit of prep work. I had originally thought to lift it higher than it currently is to clear these massive tires we got for it, but that's not practical given the amount of time until we leave. I'll probably start that sometime after we return. But there are still many things that have to be done before we leave anyhow. One of them I got finished this weekend - the front bumper.

The baja had a front bumper when we bought it, but it was flimsy like a noodle, and probably would have done little in an accident. And it was really bent. And the previous owner instead of unbending it, just cut the fender to accommodate. Classy. Luckily, the same dude we got the big rompa-stompa tires from also had a front bumper he was getting rid of. We got it for pretty cheap, and I painted the bumper over this past week and put it on.

Something else I noticed while driving off-road was that the headlights somewhat followed the bumps. It was kind of like the baja having a lazy eye, they would sort of point straight but drift around when you hit a bump. Off-road, that's frequently. Fiberglass fenders aren't too stiff and the metal headlight buckets were too heavy so I put plastic ones in. It seems better, but I added two mega-huge-ass lights for insurance. And because they're cool. Plus, they'll help.

The baja with new lights and a sweet bumper!


You can see the yurt on the roof rack in the pic as well. I'm sure Jenn will post up a storm about this weekends yurt activities.

I also painted the nerf bars while I was at it. Nerf bars (don't know the source of the word 'nerf') are installed in front of the rear tire. Their purpose is to keep a tree/rock/bystander from ramming the rear tire. I didn't put them on yet and won't until the roll cage is in.

Oh, and a small update about the engine. When we got the baja, it had a 'performance' distributor in it (called a 009). But it's a stock engine. So that's retarded. The bug gets about 20mpg because of this thing. So I wanted to put the original type back in and luckily a friend of mine had one. It needed to be rebuilt, but whatever. I just have to put it in now.

The correct and original distributor for a 1970 VW Bug. Shiny.

But wait, there's more car stuff! This weekend we also got a data logging device that will record in real time the stoichiometry of the exhaust products! This may not excite you, but I think it's awesome! I can now tune the fuel injection on the bus to actually deliver the correct amount of fuel when it should. This should resolve some issues we've been having with the bus. And I can use it to tune the baja. And it reads from OBD2 ports (all cars made since 1996 have OBD2) all the sensor info as well as reset trouble codes. Sweet.

I also recently acquired a taco plate to put an oil temperature sensor on the bus. Yes, taco. It's apparently called a taco plate because it looks like a taco. I don't see it, do you?

Taco plate! Do you see a taco? I don't, but I'm not too mexican. No se puede.

That's about all for the car stuff update. Nicole was/is here and the three of us were yurt constructing. It was mainly a Jenn & Nicole production, but when needed, the team was formed, the power was had, and victory was ours. Yes, that's meant to be silly and refers to some crazy Russians we met in crazy Russia. When I wasn't in team formation, I was working on school stuff. I've been trying to find a bug in this code I'm working with, and although I know what the bug is, I can't seem to identify where the hell it's coming from. Really annoying. But I guess that's how programming goes.

Oh, I just realized that Jenn never put up pictures of the big rompa-stompa tires I referred to earlier. So...

From left to right: 30x10.5x15 ROMPA-STOMPA! ; Street tires 205/75/R15 ; Stock VW 165/R15

They rub because they're too big for the current ride height, hence why it needs to be lifted which will happen after the Utah trip.