Monte Carlo Gadgets

I finally got the "necessities" installed in my '98 Z34.

I bought the car a few weeks ago and quickly realized how much I miss things like bluetooth for my cellphone and music from my iPod. I had an old Dension iPod dock that once was installed in a previous vehicle. I also had a Parrot bluetooth kit that was in my Solstice before I put a Pioneer navigation system in it. All I needed were the right wire harnesses and mounting plate for the iPod dock.

(click pictures to view larger version)


Taking apart the dash was not hard. This car had see a lot of sunlight which made the plastic brittle. All the upper mount lugs broke off.



The center console worked well for hiding all the wires and modules.


While I had everything torn apart, I figured it was a good time to mount the ScanGauge as well. A couple of zip ties holds it firmly in tape/CD storage area. I split the storage and filed a notch to make it easier to run the wires.


Here is the final result. Everything worked like a champ!


Here is the list of parts used:

• Dension ice>Link iPod dock


• Pro.Fit Vehicle Specific Mounts-Standard VSM CV-50-94


• PIE GM9-AUX 1995-up GM 9-pin Auxiliary Input Converter


• Quick Connect Products ISO Wiring Harness Most 88-02 GM Vehicles


• Parrot Evolution CK3000 Bluetooth Kit


• ScanGauge II

All parts except the dock were purchased on amazon.com

Another Set of Wheels

I have been getting concerned with how fast the miles have been piling up on the Hummer. Ellen and started to look around at used cars, hoping to find something around $5000 that would be decent enough to use a daily commuter. Ellen hit the jackpot while surfing the web. We ended up purchasing a 1998 Monte Carlo Z34


I really could not believe how nice this car was! The internet price was $3995. Pretty cheap for a car with 116,000 miles.


The interior included leather seats with a few rips here and there but not bad.


I took it up to my fathers to perform some maintenance. We got all the fluids changed and fixed a few things here and there. It has a slight oil leak still but nothing I can't deal with.

It makes a nice addition to the family!

Wheeling in the Sierras

What a way to celebrate my birthday! We took and extended weekend and drove to Bishop for some offroad goodness! It took me a week and a half to gather the pics, edit the videos and write this summary!

Friday
We got a late start, but it all worked out. Little bit of traffic on the 405 heading out, but smooth sailing the rest of the way. We checked into the hotel and went for a traditional Bishop meal at Bar-B-Q Bills. The plate of meat was perfect!


We drove up to June Lake Loop after dinner to take in some more of nature. I was just beautiful up there.




Saturday
We stopped by Mahogany Farms and got some sandwiches for the trip up Wheeler Ridge. The view up that way was awesome!




We bumped in a few people from Ridgecrest on the way up and swapped a few stories. We made it about another mile up the trail when it became a little too much for Ellen to handle. We turned around and went back down to the meadow for a bite to eat.


The evening was wrapped up with a quick drive up Pine Creek Canyon where we found elderberries ready to be picked.


Sunday
We picked up a good friend, Chris, to go on a trip over the White Mountains. Ellen finally got to see the big horn sheep in Silver Canyon.


We got about halfway up the switchbacks when the transfer case in the Hummer started to make some loud popping noises. Yep, blew it again! Fortunately, I was able to make it to the top to White Mountain Road, designed for regular cars. Once I put the t-case in high, the popping disappeared. We stopped to eat lunch before heading back out.


On the way down, we stopped to see the bristlecone pine trees, oldest living things in the world.




Monday
We drove back home, taking our sweet time to enjoy the views. We got to see elk just south of Big Pine.


As usual, all the pics from the trip can be found here: LINKY

Here are the YouTube clips of the trip up Wheeler Ridge:
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV

Solstice Event

What a fun three days off! I had my 9/80 Friday added to the weekend.

Friday was spent mostly playing Bioshock. Since Ellen was a t work, I got to spend a good chink of time burring my attention into the XBox for some uninterrupted play.


Saturday led Ellen and I to Temecula for a Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky meet.




It was really fun meeting all the Kappa car enthusiasts that showed up. We even had a fun cruise through the local hills. Turned a few heads as we all went by!




The leader of the cruise was Tony Williams from the second season of TV reality show, Bullrun.


We had quite a group. Here is a panoramic of all of us at a regathering spot: LINKY

You can see all the pictures here: LINKY

Thanks goes out to all the wonderful people at Kappasphere for organizing a fun event!

More Hummer Audio Issues

I have been fighting some intermittent static issues the last few months in the Hummer. Every now and then, the front right speaker would have static, kinda like a loose wire. I finally decided to dig down and locate the source of the problem today. Fortunately, the static came back while I had it apart. I had everything disconnected except the Metra wire harness. That pretty much told me where the problem is since I had the stock head unit back in for a few weeks with no issues at all. I had a chat with a small stereo shop in town about the matter to make sure I wasn't just chasing my tail. He thought I might have too much of a load on the unit with both the radio and camera drawing from it. I went back home and rewired all the power, putting in a terminal strip and a relay. Now I have a separate power feed controlling everything.


Ellen cooked a wonderful steak dinner. What a way to wrap-up the day. Even the cat was exhausted! What a goof.

Learning to Drive a Manual Shift Vehicle

I just bumped into a really cool article on the web for learning how to drive a manual shift vehicle:
LINKY

This is much better than how I learned. I got a job as a truck driver! Well, I had some previous experience, but I was by no means an expert. I can drive anything manual shift with all the different vehicles I have been exposed to.

Genius!

I feel like an off road genius after viewing this clip: LINKY

LINKED MEDIA

Super Weekend

I finally got Ellen's car finished. I spent Friday morning ripping apart the interior yet again to replace the GPS antenna I damaged last weekend.


To my surprise, the actual unit run on Windows CE. I found a hack to get it to boot into the regular Windows desktop so I could fix her address book. The info didn't come across properly and needed some intervention.


More pics can be viewed here: LINKY

After getting it all back together, I figured it would be best to take it on a test drive. A quick cruise along the beach with the top down is just what I needed!


Saturday ended up being kick-back day, only to get ready for Sunday's big game. We were invited to a Super Bowl party in Canyon country with some really good friends!

Navigation System Install (Almost)

Man, what a hectic weekend. Seems like I spent the majority of it working on Ellen's car. After the mishap last weekend with trying to use the wrong wire harness, I was finally ready to give the radio install another whack.

I had to take apart more than the dash this time. I needed access to the parking brake for a sensor there and the rear deck to mount the GPS antenna.


It was not fun popping all the clips, not to mention keeping track of how it all came apart. Even my work table was full.


Once the dash and console were taken out, I had great access to route all the wires, except behind the radio. There was barely enough room to squeeze all the wires back in there.


It took me two days to get it all back together and looking nice.


I had a few glitches as the sun was setting on Sunday. First, I apparently had the unit turned on too long and drained the battery. Took me a few minutes to even locate the battery to put my jump pack on it. I eventually found it buried in the lower passenger fender. The entire inner fender has to be removed to replace the battery. GM really didn't want people to be working on this car! The second glitch was found when I took it out for a test drive and realized the GPS wasn't tracking. I apparently kinked the antenna wire somewhere during the install and shorted it out. I have another one on order and hopefully will be installing it this next weekend. Yep, that means all the interior needs to be ripped open again . . .

Monday was my father-in-law's birthday. We had a casual meal at our place followed by some ice cream cake.

Getting in Shape

I can't believe how nice the weather was this last weekend (well, at least in the South Bay area). The temperature rose to just above 80 degrees, forcing me to cruise around with the sunroof open and the windows down!


I spent Friday out in the garage assembling the wire harness to install the navigation system in Ellen's car. The nice weather made it pleasant. It also gave me some time to clean out the mess that had been slowly accruing the last few months. I got everything organized, tools put away and even swept out the dirt.

Saturday, I opened the dash on the Solstice, only to find out I had the wrong harness. Grrrrrr. I had to special order the correct one. It takes a bit to open the dash on that little car, so I was a little frustrated, needless to say.


Sunday was a day of reality. I had been thinking about getting back in shape for a while. I looked into gym membership, even thought about a trainer. I am really not the type to go to a gym. I never liked P.E. classes in school. I used to work out with some buddies back in my tweens, so I decided to get a home gym. Ellen and I went down to Sport Authority and picked out the Bowflex PR1000. I know several people that had done some serious building on a Bowflex, not to mention the price was right too!


I got my routine, so all I need to do is start exercising.

Weekend Activities

Another packed weekend has blasted by. Lot of good and bad happened.

I picked up my Hummer from the dealership Friday after getting a routine oil change and tire rotation. I had an annoying rattle coming from the right fender. Well, it turns out that part of the new air intake I recently installed fell off into the fender. Yeah, that one little screw that I thought I wouldn't need actually turned out to be important. I spent some time Saturday fishing it out and putting on the screw that was needed. I also took some time to finally clean the K&N filter. While working on the Hummer, I noticed that I have a CV joint leaking. Looks like it is going back to the shop. At least it will be warranty work.


Friday still had more bad news. It seems my iritis came back. My eye doctor only took five minutes to confirm my fears and wrote me a script for Pred Forte. I am wearing sunglasses everywhere again do to the excruciating pain i go through with bright lights.

Saturday evening was spent installing Eeebuntu (Ubuntu Linux made for the Asus EEE PC) on my netbook. This really did the trick to turn the EEE PC into a functional laptop. it had all the drivers needed and work perfectly after installation. Much better then the default OS that came installed.

Sunday started off well. We went out for breakfast and then grocery shopping for the week. Ellen decided to make beef stew to have ready for dinner Monday. Well, in the process of cleaning up, Ellen managed to slice her thumb rather deep. I didn't want to take chances, so I took her to the emergency room where the doctor put in four stitches.

Surviving the Holidays

Well, it looks like I managed to survive yet another year. Even though 2008 was a tough year, Ellen and I managed to get through it quite well.

We started off the holiday season by attending an evening barbecue put on by the gentlemen Ellen works with at Monogram Systems. These are some of the best people I have had the pleasure to meet. All of them are hard workers and good people.


Christmas day was awesome! Santa was good to the both of us. Ellen got a navigation radio for her car, like the one I have in my truck and an Elmo Live. I found a set of shop manuals for the Hummer and AirDoc performance air intake.


Ellen's folks came over for Christmas dinner. We enjoyed a one of the best rib roasts we have ever had.


We also made a trip to Modesto to see my brother and his family for the weekend after Christmas.

More Christmas pics here: LINKY

New years was just as awesome. I was invited to a party by Mario, a coworker at Raytheon. It was a small group of great people. It also gave Ellen a chance to meet a few more people I work with. The kids were busy playing Rock Band (well, some adults joined in too!). Later in the evening, a mini jam session started which even Ellen joined in on.

More New Years pics here: LINKY
YouTube clips here: LINKY

To wrap-up my holiday vacation, I spent today at my dad's house to do a little male bonding and install the performance air intake kit on the Hummer.

More Hummer intake pics here: LINKY

I am sure looking forward to the rest of 2009! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Normallity has been Restored

Well, I think things are just about back to normal in my life. I am almost feeling my usual self after being sick for most of the week. I count my blessings that it has been a year and a half since I last called in sick at work. Worse part about it was the fact that it was all in my sinuses and throat. I was feeling fine otherwise. On a good note, I managed to raise my XBox gamerscore 605 points in the last week!

I also got the Hummer fixed (finally). I broke the output gear for the low range in the transfer case. I don't know what I did to cause that, but I am relived the broken part was located and replaced.


At least I was feeling good enough to attend a house warming party for kickcows and drkjstr333 . We had a lot of fun playing MarioWare as a group!


I also finally got to meet GodOBiscuits in person.

At work, we blew the main transformer on my building, so the place was without power until about 3:45 this morning. I am running around getting all the computers back on line. I have a feeling that many problems are not going to show up until this afternoon, once everybody gets back up to speed.

That about wraps-up my week.

Someone Finally Got it Right

I have finally found a press release that accurately describes the Hummer H3:

Hummer H3

The trouble with the H3 is that people, especially cyclists and pedestrians, think it's the real thing. The fact is it's much, much smaller than the H1 and H2 models made famous by the Gulf War and rap artists' shoot-outs. Its five-cylinder engine makes it no more profligate than Japanese petrol SUVs, and when compared to most of them it's actually better in the dirt and more refined and nimble on the road. For just over $60,000, the Hummer H3 has a reputation it doesn't deserve, but unfortunately, it also has the looks to ensure that you can never persuade anyone otherwise.

The price is a little off, but that is because it originated from New Zealand.
SOURCE

A Long Moment of Silence

It has been a while since I posted anything meaningful on my blog. Here is a modest attempt to catch everyone up . . .

Ellen and I got a sudden itch to go look for a house to buy. We have been dumping a good chunk of our earnings into rent and want something to show for out hard work. While walking to dinner one night, we passed by a townhouse hat was perfect. It was about 1600 square foot townhouse with a two car garage and a large storage room not included in the square footage. we got to the point where we were starting to sign all the disclosures when we realized it was too much for us to afford. Well, we could afford it, but not with the life style he have accustomed ourselves to. Luckily, we were able to get out of the deal with a minimal loss.

During the house ordeal, we analyzed ourselves and saw some area we could work on to help save money. For starters, we are selling the pickup. It is hard for me to let go, but it sits parked most of the time. We only use it as a backup vehicle. Since both of our every-day vehicles are both under warranty, it seems pointless to keep paying registration and insurance on a car we only drive maybe once every two months. We have a lot of good memories with the S-10. It was the main trip vehicle for years, not to mention all the work trips I took it on. Looks like it will be going to a good home though. A fellow co-worker want to buy it for his son who needs it at college. I think it would be a good vehicle for him.

I also put a bluetooth kit in the Hummer. I was using the OnStar with the Verizon package, which brought it to about $45.00/month. now I just use my cell phone.

Well, it is getting late and close to my bedtime. Y'all take care.

Hungry Valley Clips

I finally got the video clips posted from my last trip to Hungry Valley.

First, we went down Sterling Canyon:


Next, we spent some time at the 4x4 practice area:


We worked our way to the east through Homestead Trail:


A lot of time was spent on Freeman Trail (not filmed) to get us Flat Fannie and then on to Quail Pass:


The trip was concluded with Pronghorn Trail:


Enjoy!

Hungry Valley Revisited

I took a fellow coworker, David, off roading in Hungry Valley last Wednesday. Fortunately, he a pretty good photographer, so many good pictures were taken on this trip.


We mounted his camcorder on the windshield and should have the videos online this week sometime.



You can see the pictures here: LINKY