How (not) to make a DIY seat for a motorcycle/ATV

Submitted by Danny on Tue, 04/19/2016 - 14:59

For my This Old Three-Wheeler project, a 1973 Honda ATC90, I needed to make a seat. I didn't care much about looks, I just needed something function and inexpensive. That's why I decided to try and make it myself. For my 1974 Honda CL200, I had a hot-rod upholstery shop make the seat and they did a terrific job and the seat is gorgous. This seat, however, is not.

homemade motorcycle atv dirtbike seat diy honda atc90

Chevy GMC Squarebody Trucks Service Manual Free Download

Submitted by Danny on Mon, 01/11/2016 - 12:22

Download it here, for free. I found a copy of the 1984 GMC Light Duty Truck Service Manual. It will of course work for Chevrolet trucks, not just GMC, and for years 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987. It will also mostly work for years 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1980, though a few things will be differest such as windshield wippers, front sheet metal, interior, etc.

$50 paint job! or: How to paint your truck/car with Rustoleum and a Roller (part 2)

Submitted by Danny on Mon, 10/19/2015 - 15:30

There was no way I could afford a pro paint job. I gave myself an allowance of $1500 to restore this truck which included much much more than just a fresh paint job. So an expensive paint job just wasn't in the budget. Then I started looking at alternative methods, like plasti-dip. But when I did the math, a plasti-dip paint job would have cost $400 at least and would not be a real investment into this truck. Of course I could have gotten a dozen spray cans and bombed it, but I wasn't interested in something with basically no quality at all. Then I came across a youtube video of someone painting a small red car with rustoleum and a roller. And it looked great! I started watching and reading more and more. The rolled on version was much harder, shinier, and more durable than with spray cans. I was sold.

The (in)famous $50 paint job! or: How to paint your truck/car with Rustoleum and a Roller (part 1)

Submitted by Danny on Thu, 09/03/2015 - 13:28

The idea is that oil-based enamel paints from your hardware store can be ROLLED onto the vehicle if you thin heavily with mineral spirits and use a high-quality foam roller. The mineral spirits help it level out while it's drying and its supposed to make the paint cure faster so you can wet sand the next day. A glossy, flat, durable (relative to, say, a rattle can paint job) finish can be achieved with a very small amount of money. However, it's very labor intensive. 

Chevy K10 truck restoration Phase 5: Suspension and Wheels

Submitted by Danny on Fri, 08/21/2015 - 13:54

What I'm about to do is not going to be incredibly popular with the chevy squarebody community, especially the off-road bunch. I'm going to remove the 4" suspension lift and drop it down to stock height. This was the plan all along with this truck. I'm not into mudding. Since buying this truck I tried a few times and it was just alright but the most fun I had off-road I could just as easily achieve with 33" tires and no suspension lift. In addition, the gear ratio in my GM 10 bolt rear end was only 3.42, much too small for 35" tires even with a SBC 350 engine. I live in a hilly area and on several occasions I got in a jam while going up hill in top gear at 30mph, and the truck did not like that. Smaller tires will make it muuuuch easier to drive around town with the Muncie SM465 transmission, although it will lower my highway speed. 

chevy k10 squarebody front suspension

The Reviews are In: Functional Programming in JavaScript "is AWESOME"

Submitted by Danny on Thu, 08/06/2015 - 12:57

From the very beginning, the goal with Functional Programming in JavaScript was to strip the veneer off the language to expose its inner beauty and functional roots, a necessary step in helping the reader to fully understand both the language and the functional programming paradigm. And now that some reviews are coming in, it appears that the goal has been met.

How To Restore a Guitar

Submitted by Danny on Mon, 07/27/2015 - 14:23

While it was one of my most admired possessions in middle school, the first guitar I ever owned had seen better days. It originally came in a satan black finish, but over the years it became shiny in all the normal wear spots which made it look terrible. And it's all around just a lame guitar to me now. So.. time to reinvent it! Here's how I did it...

painted guitar body

How To Build A Supercomputer

Submitted by Danny on Mon, 07/27/2015 - 12:30

On this day, July 27, 2016, my artile on WikiHow - How To Build a Supercomputer - has reached 200,000 views. In honor of the achievement, I will reproduce the article here on my website so that future generations may read and enjoy this masterfully crafted tail of human ingenuity and technical triumph. 

Creating Podcast XML from Drupal content

Submitted by Danny on Thu, 07/09/2015 - 13:11

I needed to create some podcasts for Kansas Public Radio, which uses the Drupal Content Management System (CMS). I couldn't find a satisfactory Drupal module that could create the RSS data that iTunes needs, so I had to come up with my own solution. IIRC, Drupal Feeds would have worked great but iTunes needs specific XML tags (i.e. <itunes:description>, <itunes:category>, etc) that Drupal Feeds couldn't provide. I also dried Drupal Views PHP but it was too buggy and I also couldn't get the code to output outside of the template.

Yosemite Trip Report, Cathedrial Peaks tailhead to the valley, June 2015

Submitted by Danny on Thu, 07/02/2015 - 13:00

In June 2015, my girlfriend and I and 3 other friends went on a 5 day backpacking trip in the Yosemite National Park. It was an absolutely amazing experience. It was as much of a challengae as I hoped it would be, and we made a lot of mistakes but I don't regret a single thing. Our route completely turned on a dime on top of Cloud's Rest, and we missed the backpacker's shuttle back to our cars. But we survided to tell our story...

 

Chevy K10 truck restoration Phase 3: Front Clip Swap

Submitted by Danny on Thu, 05/07/2015 - 10:06

I'm swapping front clips. Going from the square headlights to the round headlights. Why? Because I like it better, that's why. This is my project, I have a design goal in mind, and this is what I must do to achieve it. I want to turn my 80's truck into a 70's truck, make it more of a classic, more retro. Cooler. Honestly, it's about more than the round headlights. Mainly I want the older style fenders that allow for the really cool chrom trim.

There are no photo-documented tutorials for how to do this swap. None online that I could find. Therefore, I hope this information can be added to the collective knowledge of the squarebody community.