I made it across the mountains on Monday, now that the snow and ice has let up temporarily. And, that reminds me. We traded in Henry, our red 2012 Laredo Grand Cherokee, for a slightly used blue 2016 Limited Grand Cherokee a few weeks ago.
Henry was incredibly dependable over the course of 100,000 miles, but he was due some maintenance and new tires. Once we considered those costs along with the equity, we decided to get something newer that had the upgrades Ann wanted (such as heated seats). Best of all, our payments stayed the same. We still don’t have a name for him yet: 
And now for a ramond photo. When Ann and I were last in Ellensburg, Washington, eating lunch, I ran across these urinals in the men’s room. I hadn’t seen kegs used that way, but maybe I don’t get out enough ??…
Yesterday (Tuesday), I spent the afternoon working on Rusty, triaging next steps (what needs what work done and fix-or-buy assessments). I’m also choosing some projects to bring back to Pasco. One thing I did was remove the bumpers and clean them up (not perfect, but good enough for the moment).
Then, I tackled the hood. I removed the centerpiece the previous owners added.
As I examined the hood, I discovered cracks in multiple places. I did practice straightening a small area it using my heat-shrink wheel and made some progress, but I think I would be better off getting a different hood. I’m concerned with metal fatigue in the center, since it’s been beaten up and repaired once already:
I will be sandblasting of parts today.
Glad to see you back in the saddle. I missed you yesterday! Your new ride looks awesome. 2016 debuts a revised and much improved pentastar v6. Lots of little changes that end up with nice results. Wondering if you notice a “seat of your pants improvement”? Can’t remember if it gets a 8 or 9 speed automatic either…but hey, I love all Jeeps! Love the color, too. Those urinals are cool. One of my customers here owns the 219, a local bar so named because of its address, did a total renovation and had a local metal guy make simular ones out of kegs too. I remember a video you posted about a fella working metal. I think his name was Brian and he was working on a high hood…neat video and he did a great job. Hopefully, you can save your hood, if not, there is this one great website I know of that is nothing but jeeps…now if I just knew of a guy that sold parts too…
Can i suggest the name Hank?
I like that bumperette work, Dave 🙂
As for the name:
Karl? for Karl Probst, “inventor” of the first jeep.
Roy? for Roy Evans, president of Bantam in 1940.
not John… for John Willys: too plain… and not “Joe”.
OR
Scout? Trooper? Nellie? Trigger?
Midnight?
Drew: We welcome any name suggestions. Hank is a good riff off of Henry.
Joe: Karl is too much a family name and my sister lives in Roy, but keep those other suggestions coming.
Todd: Yes, if only we knew someone who dealt in jeep parts …. lol. One reason I hadn’t introduced the new jeep yet was because I wanted to do a longer story on the jeep’s Uconnect info system, how it’s an always on monitoring system, how the information gathered is emailed to fiat/chrysler/jeep (the car is a mobile hot spot … if you sync your phones to the system, guess who gathers that info …), then resold to 3rd parties, like insurance companies. That research led me to investigate other entities, like oil change companies, dealership auto shops, and others that are also selling your information on you and your car to 3rd parties. Based on what I’ve read, I should be able undo the Sprint’s hot spot broadcast so it won’t broadcast. More importantly, so no one else can piggy back into the jeep’s system (do I trust Fiat/Chrysler/Jeep’s wireless security? … nope). Much to be said on this topic.
Oh yeah, and let me add to that. I was just informed that the new talk to home device (I think it’s through Amazon or google) corporate owners are being subpoenaed for the recording because a murder that took place in a home that had one of these devices in the house…scary if this is true and it records everything we are saying.
Yes, that is true. Here’s one of the more complete looks at that case: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/12/police-ask-alexa-did-you-witness-a-murder/ Amazon did comply to some degree.
Regarding what Alexa records, there’s some debate on what it is recording, but it is always recording. As I understand it, the claim is that Amazon buffers about 30 seconds of recording at a time and saves it to Amazon servers. Eventually it overwrites those recordings, or so Amazon says, but what’s not clear is how often the buffers are overwritten or how many short snippets are saved for how long.
Congrats on the new ride. Looks sweet.
May I suggest NAME WISE, Give your new vehicle a sense of IDENTITY, with a creative name. My Jeeps have the name BATMO JEEP, RAT PATROL, & the PAPPY PETE WAGON. PONY CAR, PINK PANTHER CONVERTIBLE, Reliable Reliant, Radical Dude, WOLF PATROL, & the list goes on & on. What I.m saying is, do you really want to be just another Jeep in the traffic jam? STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD!!! My opinion for what it’s worth.
As much travelling as you guys do, like a Gypsy! Gypsy the Jeep??? Good looking ride! The heated seats are great. My wife loves them in her Yukon. Do they also cool in the summer. The ones in the Yukon do. Heated steering wheel as well?
The beer kegs are a cool idea! You only rent beer anyway, so it goes right back where it came from!
Your work on Rusty looks good. Those hoods are notoriously flimsy and will leak water down through the center seam right on top of the plugs. Wonder if that is why they came up with those waterproof boots??
At a swap meet a couple of weeks ago, Jim Sullivan and I bought a pair of Jeep bumperettes in chrome, thinking they would look good on his Dispatcher hardtop. Got them home and they are wider than the ones on his Dispatcher. They looked OK at the swap meet, but not going on his DJ. Only out $10, so not a big deal.
Colin Im looking for a set of Willys bumperettes/ guards. If your’s are now surplus do you intend to keep them?
Thx,
Lew
Lew- I will check with Jim to see what he plans to do with them and let you know. He is out of town for a couple of days.
Actually, they were $10 apiece. Caught Jim before he left and he would be interested in parting with them. He would sell them for $20 plus shipping to you, Lew. If you want to wait till he gets back, we can get back in touch with both of you.
Thx Colin. Let me know at your convenience.
Lew
(Flybeck@eartlink.net)