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This weekend, we attended a church leadership retreat. It was held in Agoura Hills at the Renaissance hotel. There were lots of people there, and we learned a lot about Spiritual Leadership.

On Saturday morning a large group of us, 30 or so got up very early and went surfing at County Line in Malibu before we had our morning session. It was my second time out surfing this summer. I had a good time and actually got up once or twice. Apparently the surf wasn't that great. I had a good time though.

We all are preparing to be small group leaders or other positions in the church.

Pastor Chris taught us lots about spiritual leadership and our church history.

We had a great time!

This weekend Donna and I went to Camp Jeep. This is a gathering of Jeep vehicle owners in the Santa Ynez mountains for three days of 4x4 trail rides, events, exhibits, concerts and more. We had a fabulous time.

Here we are getting ready for our first trail ride (trail E) on Thursday morning. It was the "Scenic" trail. It wasn't actually that scenic due to the fog.
This Cherokee was in the aisle next to ours. He had 9 antennas on his jeep!
This is the whole group of jeeps that first morning at 7:00 AM.
Coming out of the fog.
Donna and Nanette from our L.O.S.T. KJ West club.
After the trail ride, we went back to the Camp Jeep compound, and looked at lots of the booths and things. Here Donna is in a brand new 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the 5.7L Hemi engine and stability control. We got to test drive them on an airport runway nearby. You could do a full stop from speed and slalom course through water to try to make it slide out. It didn't! Amazing stability control!
This is the Jeep 101 course. They have a small man-made off-road course that you drive their vehicles over. If you notice on the side of this picture all the air dams that have been removed from the Grand Cherokees! Whats up with that?
Donna in the Jeep Liberty on the Jeep 101 course. Over the course of the event we tried all the jeep models on Jeep 101.
Next stop was the Jeep Rubicon course. Here you can only drive Jeep Wrangler Rubicons over a bit more difficult course. I got a manual transmission model and Donna chose an automatic. The Wrangler is a much different vehicle than the Liberty that's for sure. Much harsher and not as easy to drive.
That evening we had dinner at Mother Hubbard's Restaurant with the rest of the LOST KJ West club that was there. Pretty good food.
Clint, the president of our club, had his birthday while at Camp Jeep. Many members of the club got together and purchased a navigation system for Clint's jeep for his birthday present. So, while we were at dinner someone installed it in his jeep. Here is Clint reading the card on the back of his Jeep that says to go and check channel 25 for a message.
He went into his jeep and after a little prodding, noticed with great surprise his new present!
He is a very happy birthday boy!
Here is our campsite at the Flying Flags RV Park.
Back at Camp Jeep on Friday. This is a very nice Jeep Liberty that they had at the front gate area. This morning we also went on an ocean kayaking trip that we didn't take the camera along on due to the water. We did have a fun time and I intentionally dumped one of the instructors in the water since she never got wet.
This is one of the concept cars that they had on display. It is called the Jeep Rescue. I really like this one and think it would be a real "Hummer Killer" if jeep ever put it out.
I liked this one too it is a jeepster style. The roof comes off.
This mountain rescue Liberty had really big tires (35") but you could tell that it was just for show. If they hit any bumps with those tires they would just hit the fenders.
They also had a motorcycle jumping show at camp jeep. Very fun!
Friday night, they had a concert for all the attendees. We brought out our chairs and had free dinner too. (They gave us a free $5 coupon for food and a free Sobe drink).
One of the artists was Tyler Hilton.
The headliners for the Friday night concert was Los Lobos. They were great!
On Saturday morning, we went on Trail Ride C. This was the intermediate trail. There were many more Jeeps on this trail than on the one on Thursday. Still foggy though.
On part of the trail is a section of switchbacks. They go through very fine talcum powder like sand. A lot of the guys ahead of us were just bombing through it fast like this guy. This causes the ruts to get even deeper.
This Cherokee was driven by a fairly inexperienced driver. She had the wheel cranked to the left and it was just pushing the tire along the rut, and when it finally caught hold, she drove up the uphill bank and rolled the cherokee on its side.
Fortunately no one was hurt. Just a little bruised ego. That's me standing on the drive shaft helping them out of the jeep.
The news went out on the radio first that it was a Liberty, but no, it was a Cherokee!
A trail guide came by in a wrangler with Clint's daughter, Shawna, to help with the roll-over. Alex came to help in his Liberty. Here he is attempting to climb a hill that eventually broke his jeep. They think he broke his front differential or the transfer case here. Anyway, his Liberty is just 2wd now.
They pulled the Cherokee back over by tying a strap around the rock-rails and then to another strap which was in turn hooked up to the wrangler.
The talcum powder-like sand prevented damage to the paint, but the side was dented pretty good. The blood-like stuff is transmission fluid. The passenger window broke, too.
The roll also pushed the tire off the rim. We put on the spare tire and then they backed it down the hill.
We turned around and bypassed the switchbacks and completed the rest of our trail ride. Here we went down this steep hill. You have to make sure your wheels are spinning so you don't skid and slide.
Back at Camp Jeep we visited the Warren Miller Experience. Warren Miller makes awesome ski films each year. We got to preview segments that are going to be in the 2004 film. This is Jessica Sobolowski and Jenn Berg, they were athletes in the film.
They also had a cool zip line at the main Camp Jeep compound. Here we are at the bottom. You have to climb up this net to get to the top.
Then you walk across this wire to get to the main platform.
And finally you zip on down!
The first band on Saturday was the Rosenbergs,
followed by the So and So's.
The audience on Saturday was bigger than the day before.
Mr North was an irish band from Dublin. They were pretty good.
The headliner was LIVE
Here we are at the Camp Jeep Globe at the end of the day.
These are all the goodies we were given at Camp Jeep. Click the picture for a full size version. Look at all that swag!
This is all the stuff we purchased while there. Our favorite is the new Sirius Satellite Radio! (Click for full size)
A fun weekend like that makes for a very dirty jeep!

Corey, Scott, Bradley, and Jeffrey

Today we celebrated Scott's Birthday. He is one of my nephews. He just turned 19! Here is Corey and Scott, with their younger brothers, Bradley and Jeffrey helping Scott blow out his candles. Happy Birthday Scott!

(I'm actually writing this on August 31, I have been behind in my blogging, can you say OLYMPICS!, but here goes)

Pastor Todd preaching

The congregation after the service

Today we attended Church on the Beach. It was great! Our church has services on the beach every year from Memorial Day to Labor Day. We had great worship and singing and Pastor Todd gave the sermon. I'm glad we got to go to at least one of these this year!

Today we went to the a luau and baptism held by our church each year. The food was potluck and fabulous! We really had a great time.
They had a very nice polynesian dance troop there that entertained us. Very nice costumes!
We also had a loudest shirt contest. Who do you think won? (hint, not the guy on the right)
Finally we had a baptism in the lagoon. It was wonderful!

Today I flew model airplanes with my friend Bill at lunch again. This time when we got there they were watering the lawn. So we went down to the one area that was dry and sat down to eat. Then they turned off the sprinklers in a better section, so we moved there. Finally soccer players came and started to set up their field, so we moved yet again to the spot where we normally fly. :-) I had done some major surgery on my plane, so I had a bit more taping to do before flying, but I did get some flight time in. It was fun! No broken parts, and I have ideas for modifying the plane more to make it better. A great lunch!

Today I installed a Reese Front-Mounted receiver Hitch on our Jeep Liberty. Here is where I got the hitch.We are using this Jeep for offroading, and it is a good idea to have some sort of attachment point in the front of the vehicle in case you get stuck so someone can help tow you out. Many people use tow hooks in the front, but we decided to go with a receiver hitch. This gives you the equivalent of a tow hook, and the added ability to be able to mount a winch on the front if needed in the future, let alone put a trailer out front for putting a boat in the water, etc.

To install this hitch you have to first remove the grill and fascia over the bumper.

Then you put on the one piece hitch. It goes on pretty easy, the hard part is holding the nuts in place inside the frame tubes while you screw in the bolts. The Reese hitch is a single piece unit. It mounts via 6 bolts to the unibody subframe tubes. This hitch has a 9000 lb winch pull capacity. Much more that the Liberty weighs. Another common front mount hitch is a Hidden Hitch. That model only has a 5000 lb rating, about the same as the weight of the Liberty.

Here it is all buttoned up. I did cut a hole in the front license plate mount so the hitch is exposed. I installed a fold up license plate holder, for the front license plate.

The only difficulty with the installation was reinstalling the plastic rivets. I don't have a plastic rivet tool, so I'll either have to get one or install them without a special tool (Bottom of page).

Labels: 4x4, Hitch, Jeep, Liberty, Offroad

Before

After

Height before and after the lift. It is more than 2.5 inches after because I haven't had a chance to drive it and get it to settle.

Today I went to a L.O.S.T. KJ West Lift Party at Clint's house out near Wrightwood, CA. Donna and I had previously been given a lift kit from the Lost KJ West club when we went on our first run with them in June. Today we installed the lift. The kit is a Daystar 2.5" puck lift. This type of lift uses the original spring with a puck underneath it to give added lift. New front struts and rear shocks are required due to the gain in height. I bought Rancho RSX 17004 shocks for the rear, and the kit came with new struts.

Comparing the two struts

Strut Installed

We first did the front end. It is the more difficult of the two. We had no major problems except that it takes a while to compress the springs even with an air powered wrench! You have to compress the springs in order to replace the strut.

Jeff getting ready to install the rear puck

Rear end after the install. Notice the broken wheel stud. Oops!

The back end was much easier. It is lifted by placing another puck under the back spring and replacing the shock. Unfortunately while we removed one of the wheels one of the wheel studs broke. Jim gave me a ride to the local auto parts store to search for a replacement while Jeff and Clint continued working. Unfortunately they didn't have one. I'll have to replace that myself later.

The total height gained was a bit more than 2.5" but this will probably settle down after a bit of driving. The height gain is noticeable when stepping in to the car. The key though is that now we will be higher than a lot of those rocks! The ride seems the same to me, higher, but it drives the same.

We also looked at Jim's Liberty. It turns out his front locking differential is broken. They decided to just leave it in until a replacement can be obtained and then swap the diff in one shot.

Jeff Clint exchanging Jeff's strut springs.

Comparison of the original spring with Daystar Puck vs OME Spring & Puck

On Jeff's Liberty we swapped out his front springs and Daystar pucks for an OME spring and puck setup. As you can see in the pictures, the OME spring is longer and the puck correspondingly shorter. This should give the same lift, but will give him more travel since his spring is longer. The ride will be different too due to a different spring rate.

I had a great time and really appreciate the help! Thanks Clint, Jeff and Jim!

Today after church, I worked on our cars. I put a new transfer case skidplate on our Jeep Liberty. This protects the transfer case from rocks when we go four wheeling. The funny thing about it is that once I installed it, only three of the four bolts lined up. I looked it up online, and apparently this is normal. I left it installed with the three bolts; when I install the All J Products Super Skid to protect the transmission, they will tie together at this point and both be bolted up to the crossmember.

The seats before the work

The seat bottoms were pretty rusty

Seat Bottoms after de-rusting and painting

The seats after cleaning, recoloring and scotch gaurd

The Miata seats in their new home

I also finally installed my Miata seats in my Spitfire. I had been working on these for a long time. I actually bought them on eBay last year. At first it took a while to get the seat rails since the guy didn't ship them with the seats. He had to go find them and then ship them to me. Miata seats have speakers in the head rests. This is really good for a convertible car! Last Christmas my lovely wife bought me new speakers for the seats, so they should sound great! After that they sat in the garage for a while until other projects got out of the way. Finally this last month I have had time to work on them. I started by removing most of the rust from the bottom of the seat pans. Then I coated the remaining rust with a chemical that turns it from Iron Oxide to Iron Phosphate. This makes it black and it won't rust anymore. I then painted the bottoms of the seats. Lots of the hog rings had rusted away as well, so I replaced those too, and then cleaned the seats. Once they had dryed for a few days, I recolored the fabric with a fabric spray paint. This covered up a lot of the fading. Finally a coat of Scotch Guard should help protect from stains. I had to cut off a pin and bend the seat rails a bit to make them flat so they could bolt to the floor of the spitfire. The seats are a tight fit. But they are a much better and more comfortable seat than the old ones I had.