Puppy Love!

Keeping with the DIRTY theme was a little harder this time and many things came to mind. I didn't want to go overboard and be TOO DIRTY but it was hard not to, I'm talking about the dog's of which we now have 3. Many Jeepers own dogs and many of them take them wheelin so I decided it was time to introduce our animals (no, I'm not talking about the kids even though they have their moments).

If you're here to check out the seat install Click Here

We had promised the kids that they could have dogs when we got a house and 3 years or so ago we became proud homeowners. That of coarse meant that the kids instantly wanted dogs It's amazing that they can remember a promise made years ago about getting a puppy but can't seem to remember to clean their rooms or make their beds!. The moving boxes where not even unpacked when we adopted 2 tan mixed breed (yeah they're mutts) from our local Wal-Mart parking lot. The puppy's (Toes and Princess) came home and immediately decided that they needed to mark their territory and pee on half the unopened moving boxes as well as chewing any shoes they found laying around. Needless to say the puppy's became outdoor dogs and were set loose in the backyard to fend for themselves. They looked so cute romping around the backyard and no longer able attack my poor defenseless shoes.

We went about the business of opening the soggy boxes and making piles of "stuff" that needed to be distributed around our newly purchased home. We got most of the stuff out of the living room and got the furniture all set up so we could sit down and take a break. After a couple minutes we hear a thump at the side door near the garage. Thinking something fell over in the garage I grabbed my trusty bat (in case it was a critter) and headed out into the murky garage. I made it 3 steps and I was assaulted by 2 dirty, furry puppies jumping all over me. After disarming me of the bat they literally drown me in puppy slobber. My wife walks out and sees me on the ground rolling around with 2 bundles of joy.

One thing you need to know about me is that I'm a cat person. I don't dislike dogs I just enjoy the company of cats more. We had in fact already adopted 2 cats named "Zipper" and "Cally" and the addition of 2 new puppies had left them hiding under the couch for a day or so in terror for their lives. Anyway, the sight of me rolling around on the ground with the puppies was too much for my wife it seemed, and she was laffing so hard she was in tears. After getting back to my feet and looking for what was left of my dignity I took the dogs into the backyard and tried to figure out how they let themselves out.

Ten cement blocks later I thought I had figured out how they had got out and plugged the holes in the fence. I congratulated myself and went back inside to continue to unpack. I can't remember where we got all our stuff but when it comes to unpacking it always seems to me that it grew from when we packed it all. I swear the boxes where reproducing at a rapid rate in the garage. No sooner had we unpacked a box and put the stuff away when it was time to get another box from the garage. The pile in the garage didn't seem to be getting any smaller at all and the pile of empty boxes in the driveway was getting bigger. If I didn't know any better I would say that the empty boxes where filling themselves back up and making their way back into the garage.

After getting to the point where the pile in the driveway and the pile in the garage were about equal I hear another thump in the garage. I head back into the garage and low and behold there's 2 puppies looking at me. I've seen this look before on my children and it has that "aren't you happy to see me" edge to it mixed with a little bit of "we're proud and we have been up to no good" look (although my kids don't wag their tails at me when giving me the LOOK).

Well its now 3 years later and we almost have all the boxes unpacked and the "puppies" are now bigger. When I say bigger I mean that Toes weighs around 110 lbs and Princes around 80lbs. The small holes in the fence no longer let them escape and they are house broken (the boxes that are left are very happy about this). The dog's sleep in the house in the kids bedrooms at night and spend most of their time outside chasing birds and squirrels. It's funny watching Toes lumber across the yard after a bird only to stop about 10 feet later and sit down. He now often gets the LOOK that says the heck with it let the smaller more agile dog get the bird and bring it me. I know this look as I get it often myself.

The one thing about all this is that I now have the Jeep and the dogs are to big to take with us when we take off for the weekends to go off-roading. With that in mind I started looking around for a dog of my own (yes I'm hooked) that I could take with us when we go camping and off-roading. As you can tell I'm now a dog person and don't feel complete unless there is at least one dog around. I still have a fond place in my heart for cats (we now have 4) but taking a cat off-roading could be interesting and I'm sure my fellow Jeepers would never let me live it down. My favorite cat hangs out in the Jeep when she's let outside, either on the hood or in the passenger seat so if your allergic to cats stay out of my Jeep!

I finally found a puppy that seemed to fit the bill for me from a club member. Nice and small and kinda cute in a manly sort of way. I brought him home and gave him a bath and put a collar on him (black leather with metal studs) with his tags. We were at a loss as to what to call him though. We feel that a dogs name should match the dog (kinda like kids names) and have an impact when you yell it out the front door. I just couldn't see myself yelling "muffin" out loud in public. We had a friend of ours over and he said he looks like a "Roscoe" to me and the name stuck - Zilla Rocks).

Roscoe stands about a foot tall and looks like he is on caffeine all the time.. He jumps at least 3 feet in the air and when he jumps off the couch he looks like super dog (Yes I'm looking for a small cape as we speak) I have fallen in love with this small yippee dog (something I said I would never own) and there is no doubt that he has taken me as his. He loves to ride in the Jeep (well OK maybe not loves but he has no choice as he's so small I just pick him up and put him in) and can be seen hanging on for dear life in the backseat. He gets along great with the other 2 BIG dogs and will keep up with them (not to hard to do with Toes). He also chases squirrels but I'm not sure what he will do if he ever catches one as they look bigger than him. Since we redid the living room we decided (OK, I decided) it was time for a fish tank (it's not big enough to be called an aquarium) and we got a Beta fish. He's RED to match the Jeep just in case I ever take him wheelin, OK the walls are RED and Bethany picked him so it has nothing to do with Jeeping. Back to Roscoe, he sleeps on the bed with us (Roscoe not the fish), between me and Annette and looks so darned cute (in a manly way) that he gets a lot of attention everywhere we take him. Look for Roscoe on the trails and stop by and "ooh and ahh" over him!

A short slide show

My Seat is Nice and Firm!

Well 2 huge boxes arrived yesterday and I helped the lady unload them from the FedEx truck while I did my best not to jump up and down and scare the poor lady half to death. The boxes were not in too bad of shape compared to what I hear from a lot of the club members. Once I opened the boxes 2 new seats confronted me, they were so clean and bright red it brought tears to my eyes (it could of been dirt as it was very windy). I put all the nuts, bolts and other assorted implements of destruction to the side and immediately set one of the seats up in the driveway to see how it felt. As I sat there in the sun in my new seat I couldn't resist the urge to act like I was driving and make Jeep noises as I bounced up and down. People driving by started honking and waving and of coarse Annette drives up and just shakes her head, as someone on our forum said "every neighborhood should have at least one crazy person". I'm guessing many of my neighbors think its me. As I was alone no pictures were taken (I hid the camera from Annette) but here's Bethany imitating her Father.

I now started to dive into the installation. Opening all the packages of nuts and bolts I decided that the best way to go about this was to remove the passenger side seat first so I could see what needed to be done to mount these beautiful works of art. After fighting the 4 bolts (3 - 13 mm and one torx - no idea why Jeep did this) loose the seat proceeded to slide forward and smoosh my fingers. After throwing the tool closest to me I finally got the seat out and after searching for 10 minutes for the tool I threw, I was ready to remove the mounting hardware from the old seat.

The 4 mounting nuts that hold the bracket to the old seat are under the frame and after years of dust, dirt, water, spilled *coffee* and who knows what else they were kind of rusted and hard to get off.
The 13mm ratcheting wrench that I threw earlier was needed to remove these and I have to say I'm so very happy that I had purchased the wrenches last year. They made the job of removing the nuts a lot easier than using a standard wrench.


When I finally got the mounting frame off the old seat I sat down, nursed my smooshed fingers and drank a well deserved cup of *coffee* (OK I mean a beer).... I took a little bit of time to finish the *coffee* and examine the old seat and the new seat and the mounting frame. I immediately noticed that the old seat mounting holes are nowhere near the same dimensions as the new seat. Pondering this predicament I decided that I would have to go get some flat metal to create plates to compensate for the off-set holes. At this point I congratulated myself for starting on the passenger seat as I had to drive the Jeep to get the metal! After moving the seat from behind the Jeep (yes I did get in it one more time and make Jeep noises) I jumped in the Jeep and made for the store.

When I returned from the store with a piece of flat metal 1/4 thick, 1 1/2 wide and 48 inches long I started with what I thought was the best plan of attack. I drilled a hole in the end of my metal bar and then measured over the correct distance for the off-set and drilled another hole. I then cut the metal bar and low and behold I had my first custom fabbed mounting bracket. I did this process 3 more times and then sat down in the new seat, drank another cup of *coffee* and made more Jeep sounds.

After bolting the new brackets to the seat and the mounting frame I was extremely pleased with myself and what I had accomplished. The seat slid backward and forward easily (I took some time to clean and lube the old seat rails before mounting) and still folded forward like the old seat did. At this point in time it was in my best interest to test fit the new seat into the Jeep. I managed to get the new seat into the Jeep without getting it dirty or smashing my fingers anymore and I noticed that something was wrong. While I was congratulating myself on how ingenious I was for figuring out how to mount the old slider bracket I didn't notice that old seat is mounted off to one side and I had mounted the new seat in the center....

The new seat was hitting the roll bar and would not slide all the way back! After taking a look at the bottom of the old seat I now noticed that the old seat was off-set. After de-congratulating myself, I wrestled the new seat out of the Jeep. I undid the mounting nuts and bolts and set my newly fabbed mounting plates off to the side. Once more into the breach I yelled (well not really but it sounds kinda cool in a Shakespeareian kind of way) and took a closer look at what I was going to do to get the darned seats mounted (no longer a work of art but now more of a pain in the.....well whatever).

I figured out that I would have to drill out the existing rails on the inside, side of the seat to get the mounting bracket as close to the edge of the new seat as possible.

Front of Seat - Click image to enlarge
After I measured twice (yes I'm learning) I started to drill the new holes. With the new holes drilled I mounted the new seat back up and found that I would only need to make one mounting plate for the front outside bolt. This was much easier to do than making the 4 prior plates!

Back of Seat - Click image to enlarge
With the seat mounted once again I figured I better sit down and have another cup of *coffee* before testing the fit.

Back to wrestling the seat back into the Jeep and yes it did smoosh my hand one more time (probably because of all the *coffee* I drank). The fit was a lot closer to what I was looking for but the outside adjuster knob still rubs against the roll bar. I decided at this point that I could live with it for now until I could get to a welder to move the seat bracket over another inch or so. After 5 hours of fighting the stupid seats (we are way past works of art now) this was an easy choice. If you ram the seat back hard it will go past the roll bar so its all good for now. The seat looked really nice in the Jeep and sat at the same height as the old seat other than the sides which are higher. Very nice fit to the tooshie and good support for the back and shoulders, not as soft as the old seats but not to firm either.

After relaxing in the seat for a while I picked Calvin up from school and had him remove the last old seat from the drivers side (It was his turn to be the worker while I supervised). This seat went much smoother due to my prior experience and didn't take that long to do. We managed to get the seats in without getting them too dirty (wash your hands often before handling the new seats). I have to say even though the seats don't go all the way back without rubbing the roll bar they are very comfortable and look really nice.
They still "tumble" forward if you reach under and push the lever but they do not tilt.

I have driven around 100 miles and they provide much better support than the old seats. It's harder to get in and out of the Jeep because the sides of the seats are higher but not to bad. I'm pleased with the seats and the install but sometime in the future I need to get to a welder and see about welding brackets about 1 inch farther to the inside of the seats so they don't rub the roll bar.

A short slide show of the Seats installed

Going TOPLESS!

Well I'm still called Simon so no change there, but the BLOG look and feel did change a little! Still trying to figure out all the CSS tags so I can make the layout do what I want it to. I was thinking of updating the BLOG once or twice a week depending on what happens during the week so don't be disappointed if you check back and it hasn't been updated!

Here's a small slideshow of the Jeep in action:

So now with that out of the way lets talk dirty (that means Jeep talk). Washed the Jeep because it was very muddy after the last weekend and it's getting warm enough to take the top (hence the title) and doors off. So the Jeep is all clean and shiny and has no top or doors. This of coarse means that it got cold again and then rained. Taking the kids to school in the morning when its 30 degrees out challenges even the most hardy Jeeper but I did pass the challenge and finally got the frost off my nose. This weekend is looking to be warm again so it looks like I'm gonna have to take Bethany out cruising around town doing my best not to run the First Monday people off the road!

I ordered the new seats for the Jeep this last week (as did many club members) due to the incredible deal JC Whitney had going on and I'm anticipating their arrival on Monday. I think they should look pretty good and as they are RED they should match the Jeep fairly well. I have my fingers crossed that they will bolt right up the original seat brackets without to much modification. I can handle drilling new holes but having to fab up a mounting bracket is a whole other ball game. I guess i'll update the BLOG once the seats come in and I know for sure what needs to happen.





I also put the shock bar pin eliminators (gets rid of that silly thin metal tube that the shocks mount with which cracks and breaks like the picture on the left shows) on and the new shock bushings. "Man alive!" (as my Father says) what a difference. The ride is much smoother and the Jeep doesn't feel bouncy anymore, one of the best $20 I have spent on the Jeep!