Project Scrambler: DONE....(for now)

After 4 weeks of busting my ass and knuckles on this Scrambler, I am to a stopping point. This weekend I finished prep work and painted the jeep Chrysler Light Metallic Khaki. It's a really light metallic flake, barely noticeable, just gives it a little sparkle. I am very pleased with it.

I finished sanding and taping on Saturday morning, then painted the primer and top coat on. Sunday after church I painted the clear coat on and installed the new fenders and various other things. I'm at the point now where everything else I want and plan to do to the jeep can be done at my leisure. I'm satisfied with her, everything else now is fluff that will just make her look and perform better. I'm so very happy. Let me know what you think.

Friday Foto: Firenze

Another blast from the past today. This photo is almost exactly 4 years old. I took this when I lived in Florence, Italy. One of our favorite places to go was Piazza Michelangelo, a little park at the top of Florence. It was a nice walk up there and always had a great view of the city. Plus they had a killer gelato spot up there (italian ice cream, if you didn't know). I was watching a show on Florence on the travel channel earlier this week and it got me thinking about my photos from my time in Italy. I have some good ones, but I was just then getting heavy into photography and I see a lot of immaturity in my shots. I like this one though, a nice juxtaposition of simplicity and complexity. I can't wait to go back. Kelly and I are a planning on going at the end of Summer 2008.

So it's official, I'm scheduled to get laser eye surgery April 11. I am so excited. It's going to be great.

Guess what I am doing this weekend? You got it, working on Margaret. All the body work is done and I'll start taping it off this afternoon and begin painting Saturday morning. I can't wait. New paint is going to make this Jeep look amazing. Yes, I am painting it myself. It's all in the prep work. Painting will be the easy part, given that you have the proper tools (which I do). I'll post pictures after I'm done, you won't believe it, it's going to look awesome. I'm going with Light Metallic Khaki (it's a current Jeep color found on '02s and later).

So that's it. Oh, did you hear that Chick-Fil-A bought the El Potro's on the island for a cool 1.3 million? Yeah... isn't that crazy. Traffic is going to be great with Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A right next to each other. Have a great weekend.

Friday Foto: Tree moving

Yesterday I shot a crew of people moving an oak tree. It was quite impressive. This is the same company that moved all the trees for the Sea Island Company's new development out towards the north end of St. Simons Island. They moved close to 200 trees, and some as far as two miles. Dang.

Hopefully, it was easier for them then as it was yesterday. It took awhile to move that 100+ year-old oak tree in a new condo development across from the King and Prince Hotel. They started by digging a four-foot-deep trench around the entire tree, about 10 feet from the trunk. They then take a cable and drag it under the tree with a back-hoe and sever all the roots. They bind the bottom with a burlap-type material, hydraulically pound steel poles and plates under the tree until it is now sitting on this platform of sorts. It took two 1,000 lbs back-hoes about 3 hours to move this tree 100 yards.

I have some experience pulling things that are stuck, being some what of an "adventurous" driver, but this was nothing like that. These back-hoes are amazing. They actually would lift themselves into the air and then allow the whole back-hoe to drop to create the force needed to jerk this tree one foot. The whole ground would shake. At one point a shard of metal roughly the size of a football broke off and flew through the air. It could have easily killed someone, but luckily it landed no where near the crowd of people that had gathered to watch this event. The foreman assured us that this doesn't happen often. Anyway, I though it was interesting. Here's another interesting thought, do you think this tree moving company guarantees their work? I mean, can you guarantee that the tree lives after all this? I highly doubt they guarantee their work, as far as the tree living is concerned. What a job. We move your tree, you pay us around 15 G's, and if your tree dies, sorry! (Notice the tree's relationship to the white house in the first and last photo... see, it moved!)

So, this weekend I am, you guessed it, working on Margaret. I'm skipping down to Jacksonville early in the morning tomorrow to pick up some new seats out of a wrecked Wrangler to put in my Jeep. I'm pretty excited. I hate the seats in it now. I should finish body work this weekend and maybe get a coat or two of primer on! Can hardly wait. Hope you guys have a great weekend, I know I will.

Project Scrambler: New Interior!

Talk about getting a lot accomplished this weekend. I have a lot to show for it, including black-stained hands that I CAN'T clean.

Friday night I finished prepping the interior of Margaret. I took everything out. I vacuumed, brushed and wiped the whole thing down with Acetone. This cuts any residue that may be there to inhibit the proper adhesion of the Herculiner. Included in this photo stream you'll also see the body work I did. The major rust areas I cut out and replaced with new steel plates.

I then rolled her into the garage and began applying the herculiner. I love that stuff. It's messy though. You have to first cut it in in the corners with a brush, it's much more accurate. Then you can roll in the larger places. I applied one thin coat and took a break for dinner around 7:30 p.m. After dinner I applied another coat, this time laying it on real thick. Those two coats were about 7/8s of a gallon. Saturday morning I applied the last coat (a whole quart) and rolled it out into the yard to let the sun speed up the drying process. Saturday afternoon it was rock-hard dry and amazing. I am so pleased with the outcome of it. I bolted back in the seats, installed new seat belts and went for a cruise. It's definitely a little quieter with that rubberized layer. I love it.

I got a Tuffy Overhead console that's only made to fit Jeeps with the common 2.5 inch rollbar. The Scrambler has a beefed up 3 inch rollbar. I've always liked the overhead consoles, and decided to attempt a fabricated bracket to install it. I got 3.5 inch u-bolts from the hardware store and made a bracket out of 3/4 inch plywood. I bolted this to the back of the tuffy box and then, with new holes drilled for the new u-bolts, I bolted the tuffy box to the rollbar. It worked like a charm! I love it. Now I'll have a secure place to store my electronics and be able to lock them.

Next task is body work. I'll spend the next several hours grinding all body rust, replacing where necessary and bondoing a lot. I hope to be painting in 2 weeks max!

Friday Foto: Reflection

There are certain times in which one can step out of your life just for a second and take a look back in. I've had one of those experiences this week.

In the midst of being so excited about my new jeep (see last post), it's odd that I actually can find a moment to reflect. Not having a radio (yet) has given me the time to think (and sing loudly to myself) as I travel from point A to B. I think it's in these times that I find reflection.

I am truly blessed (or 'bleesed' as one of Kelly's student's tattoos reads, no lie). I like this picture because, in some way, it reminds me of that. It's friendship that I am must thankful. It's the love. It's the opportunities I have. It's my wife, who is so caring and has been oh so patient in my Jeep project. It's my friends that gather for poker on a "school" night and drink gallons of amazing margaritas. It's my folks who have planned laser eye surgery for me. It's the fact that I now own my dream car.

I often wonder why I have these opportunities. Do I work hard for them? Do I deserve them? I know one thing, regardless, I can be thankful for them. And I am.

This picture was taken about a month and a half ago on my buddy's bachelor party weekend. We built a huge fire, smoked cigars and drank beer (just one, hehehe). It's times like that though, looking back on this picture, that I am thankful for.

My Scrambler is coming along nicely. I feel like I have been working real hard on it for two weeks now and have nothing to show for it. Well that will change this weekend. I've been spending all my free time prepping the inside of the jeep for the paint-on bedliner. I am using a product called Herculiner. It's a rubberized paint-on bed liner much like Rhino Liner and Line-X. It's all ready to go and I will be putting it on this afternoon/evening. It will instantly make Margaret look a million times better. After that I'll start on the body rust and prepping her for a new paint job. I'll put up before and after pics here after the weekend.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Friday Foto/Project Scrambler: Margaret

I want to address something real quick. I don't plan to double-up on Fridays and cop-out on y'all, combining the Friday Foto entry with a Project Scrambler. It's just that this week has been hellacious. Poor Kelly has been bed-ridden since Sunday night with the flu. She has gotten out of bed maybe once or twice, and probably eating about as much as I would eat for lunch when I'm NOT hungry. Poor thing. I've been leaving work from time to time to check on her and bring her things. I think she is beginning to feel better; slowly coming out of it. Problem is, my throat's a feeling a little dry now. But I'm gonna beat it.

So, if you didn't know, I got the Jeep. Let's back up and tell the whole story. Two of my buddies and I drove down on last Friday afternoon, heading to Daytona to check out this Scrambler. Traffic was bad, as it always is, going through Jacksonville, and as I slammed on my brakes to avoid running up on a recently-stopped semi-truck in front of me, I was rear-ended. I saw it coming a split second before it happened in my rear view mirror. This is a good time to point out the amazing quality of a 3/16 inch box steel bumper. I have a custom fabricated rear bumper on my Cherokee, and when that Corolla hit me doing close to 35 mph, not a scratch could be found on my car. Not a scratch. Her car? Ummm, well see for yourself.

Problem was though, the girl was so scared. Here she is, driving to Orlando from Missouri, on her way to take her first job after college at Disney World. She's all by her self, has made it all the way so far safe, and now, 90 miles from her destination, this happens. Oh, by the way, she was cute. Lucky for Margaret, she couldn't have run into three nicer guys. We calmed her down, determined that her car was drivable still, decided against calling the cops and sent the only single guy amongst us in the car with her to drive to the nearest gas station to make sure everything was OK. It was. We said our goodbyes and she called us when she safely arrived in Orlando.

Buying the Scrambler was nerve-racking. I did have buyer's remorse, which I usually don't. However, now? Now I am in love. I see the Jeep not as it is now- rusty and paint chipped- but as it is going to be. Beautiful paint, restored interior, freshly lined interior and shiny. The Scrambler runs like a dream. Shifts smooth, rides solid, handles great at highway speeds and is pretty damn nice offroad. Boy, do I have plans though... I won't list them all here. I am starting restoration this weekend, so I will post progress as comes. The pictures below are of Margaret (I named the Scrambler) as she stands now. I have ripped out the carpet and the back seat to begin work this weekend. Take a look now, because it won't be this way for long.