My J-4500

[Crankyolman]

With the chair fixed my wife and I set about converting Granny to a leprechaun for the next week or so.



I bought a cheap plastic pot at Party City, some spray foam and gold paint at ace hardware and 3 bags of plastic coins at Dollar tree. I then cut a piece of wood to fit the bottom of the pot to help secure it to the chair, then I filled the pot with the spray foam, placed the coins into it while it was wet and when it was dry I painted everything gold. I think it turned out pretty well.



Then we set about dressing the dummy in the leprechaun costume my wife bought. We reused Granny's head but attached a cheap fake beard and hat and the transformation is complete.

[chubbinius]

Too funny, that's awesome!

[Crankyolman]

Too funny, that's awesome!

Thank you, this has been a lot of fun

[Crankyolman]

I need to figure out how to better secure my gas tank from gas thieves


I get gas every 2 weeks and check my gas mileage. The past 3 fill ups I have gotten 11 MPG which isn't too bad in my book. I noticed my gas mileage went up at the same time someone at one of my neighbors houses moved out.



Last week, the morning after I got gas I noticed a significant overnight drop on the gas gauge with no puddle or gas smell. A couple of days later it happened again. I told my wife about it and said that I thought my gas thief was back. Usually he seems to steal about one gallon a week, it's more annoying than anything else but it plays hell on my gas mileage estimates.



Anyway, ever since I installed the the electric fuel pump the gas gauge doesn't drop below a quarter of a tank, above that it is accurate but the last 5 gallons is an estimate. I figured even with the normal thievery I was good for 160 miles and my wife hasn't been wanting to meet me for gas but agreed to do it tomorrow.


The reason she meets me for gas is that we almost always have a dollar off per gallon at Safeway but we can only get 25 gallons and I hate to waste a dollar off gas. The truck has a 20 gallon tank, if I fill up too early after hitting a quarter tank even with topping up the escape we fall short so I try to get it where the truck needs 15-16 gallons and the Escape gets the rest.


Well today on my way home from work I ran out of gas at 141 miles. I was ready for it with a 5 gallon can full of gas but it was still way early. I did the math and that's somewhere around 7 MPG and means my gas thief stole at least 5 to 6 gallons.


So now I'm going to figure out how to cut him off, maybe box in the tank and filler neck so he will have no access to it any more. I think I can do that fairly easily with what I have on hand if I can get a nice warm dry day.

[Mikel]

Game camera

[chubbinius]

Put a motion activated sprinkler set under the truck and Mikel's game camera to film the surprised gas-grabber when it sprays him.

[Crankyolman]

Game camera

Put a motion activated sprinkler set under the truck and Mikel's game camera to film the surprised gas-grabber when it sprays him.

That's funny right there


I like that idea but I happen to have an HD mini camera sitting on my desk that I bought for another purpose. I need to buy an SD card for it to work, so I guess I'm going to put on my biohazard suit and make my way to Wal-Mart tomorrow to buy one and see if I can catch the gas thief. Although I'm not sure what good it will do.

[Crankyolman]

Today I ran out and bought a new mini SD card for my little camera...I really hate dealing with stupid Before I went to Wal-Mart I checked to see that the card I wanted was in stock, not only was it in stock it also said "only available in store" and "3 in stock at this store".


So I go to the store with a picture on my phone of the item that says "3 in stock at this store" and ask her where it was. She said "That's online only". I explain that it says this store has 3 of them. She walked over to a shelf, picks a different one that is some brand I've never heard of and online isn't showing as available and said that is what they have. I explained that if their inventory is wrong they should fix it and I would prefer the Sandisk one if they have it. She then whips out a phone and looks it up and once again tells me it's online only. I point out that it says "Not available online, only available in store". She then rather snottily said "lets see what's available in our store". She then finds exactly what I already told and showed her, that it shows they have 3 in stock. She then tells me she has never seen them and doesn't know where they might be.



Stupid and snotty about it makes me angry but I kept my cool and just bought the one she had cut from the hanger but she kind of threw my thinking off and I forgot I also needed some DVD-Rs and I forgot to buy them but I also needed some canned chili in my emergency supplies so I needed to go to Big Lots because they are the only ones around here that carry Wolf Brand. While there it turned out they are the only ones in the area that actually have toilet paper in stock. My wife bought TP from Amazon just as this whole Covid-19 thing started but I bought some at big lots just because I could. It never hurts to have some extra. I think I'm going to list it on craigslist for a dollar a sheet


Then I needed to go put gas in my son's car because he can't work due to health and they needed to go to Seattle for doctors appointments and I have a dollar a gallon off at Safeway. So I went to grab my 5 gallon gas can off the truck because their mustang only holds 13 gallons and I try to buy as close to 25 as I can whenever I have a dollar off. So I went to grab my 5 gallon can off the truck. I had it strapped to the sideboard with a ratchet strap. When I got to it I found the ratchet strap was loose as if someone loosened it to see if there was any gas in it to steal.


So I think last night I missed my opportunity to see who is stealing gas and probably lost another 5 gallons of it out of my tank. I'm glad I only paid $1.70 a gallon but now I am going to have to wait another 2 weeks to catch them.

[MysticRob]

Hope you find the clown that keeps swiping your gas. Post up pics everywhere once you get them, and have the Police shoot on sight. Jackasses...

[Crankyolman]

Hope you find the clown that keeps swiping your gas. Post up pics everywhere once you get them, and have the Police shoot on sight. Jackasses...

Me too, not that it will do any good. Around here nobody bothers with petty crimes. People constantly steal from the grocery store down the street and nobody even tries to stop them but I guess we will see what happens. Maybe it's someone I can identify and I can sneak over to his car one night with a can of spray foam and a long enough hose that I can fill their exhaust with spray foam far enough in that they won't be able to see it.


I've been trying to figure out how to get this little spy camera to work on both motion sensor and infrared and I think I finally have it figured out. It only has 2 buttons and doesn't record while plugged in to the computer so it's sort of blind faith and hope that it is correct. I tried it at my desk and it seemed to work but I won't really know until tomorrow.

[Crankyolman]

A lot has been happening in my little world, unfortunately not to the truck.


Granny got some bunny ears and an Easter basket full of eggs from the dollar store because with so much going on right now I didn't want to spend the money on an Easter bunny costume. Unfortunately the dye on the basket ran when it got wet and stained her apron but I don't think she will be on there much longer.


A few days ago at work we were given a choice between taking a "voluntary" 30 day leave or having our hours reduced to 30hrs a week for the next 3 months. I chose the reduced hours option although I certainly could have used 30 days off to finish the truck and everything else but motivation to do much of anything has been hard to come by.


Because I already had a 2 week vacation scheduled for mid April, during which I planned to paint the truck, it works out that I will be working exactly 8 days in April. So now it looks like I will have the time to do the work on the truck if I can only find the motivation. My wife and I have been making a list of what is left to buy to finish the paint so we can get the truck finished and hopefully it will have a shiny new paint job and be back to being prissy soon

[chubbinius]

Because I already had a 2 week vacation scheduled for mid April, during which I planned to paint the truck, it works out that I will be working exactly 8 days in April. So now it looks like I will have the time to do the work on the truck if I can only find the motivation. My wife and I have been making a list of what is left to buy to finish the paint so we can get the truck finished and hopefully it will have a shiny new paint job and be back to being prissy soon

Silver linings, Cranky. Come the end of April you'll have an amazingly good looking truck to drive around in and enjoy...and a full bed that Granny can take a ride in ready for Memorial/Day/4th of July.

[Carnuck]

I would add the UV stuff to your fuel so you can track down who took your gas by the vapor from their tailpipe and the UV glasses.

[Crankyolman]

I would add the UV stuff to your fuel so you can track down who took your gas by the vapor from their tailpipe and the UV glasses.

Is that real or an April fools joke? I've never heard of such a thing, where do I get that and how does it work?


As far as gas people are driving less now and the cost is coming down so hopefully that will discourage them a bit, plus in one more week the truck will be down for the rest of the month for the paint job. I'm considering a few anti theft measures to go into effect once the bed goes on, like a screen in the filler neck and something around the tank, filler hose and fuel lines and probably a different fuel filler neck with a better, less easy to find locking cap so it's harder to find a key for it.

[ddversatile]

I cant wait to see it painted! I love this truck it has come a long way!