Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Back at the Chinups, and Car Mods

I got back on the chin up plan today, though I decided to change things up a little and not go to exhaustion with every set. Also, I feel like I am coming down with something and feel a little weak as a result. It's funny how your body holds off on getting sick until after something important that you've been working on, and stressing over, has come and gone. Case in point, I handed in my final paper on Monday, and today I am feeling ill!

I did 5 sets of 5 pull ups and then 5 sets of 5 chin ups for a total of 50 "ups". They were pretty easy to do this way. I think that when I feel a bit better I might try something similar to the push up program and do a set to exhaustion at the end of a bunch of shorter and easier sets.

Also tonight I couldn't help myself and just had to go tear apart the inside of my car to install that auxiliary input for my IPod & Satellite Radio. I had all the bits and it had to happen. The install was not super easy, but it wasn't difficult either. I had to take off a panel down low in front of the gear shifter, unscrew a couple of bolts that held the climate control and radio unit, and then pull that thing out. That's the part that was hard, and even though I didn't need any tools to pry it out my fingers were in pain and little bloody at the end. Once everything was out I plugged the aux unit into the CD Changer port at the back of the radio, attached the grounding wire to a metal screw on a piece of metal chassis, and then used ties to hold it all in place and keep it from moving around. I also had to take out the little cover that sits in the hole where the fog light on/off switch would normally be if the car had any fog lights, and then drill a hole in that thing so I could fit the aux input through. This is all that is visible in the car and it's right beside the 12-volt power socket, nice and convenient. I then put it all back together, reattached the battery (I took off the negative lead on the battery to avoid a nasty shock), typed in the anti-theft radio code, and WOOT WOOT! The thing works like a charm!

Here's a picture of the way it looks that I found on the Internet - though it is not my car it looks exactly the same as mine. It's also where I got the idea for installing it like this. I added the arrow and words just so we're all clear on what the heck I'm talking about:


The next step is to install the Satellite Radio cradle somewhere convenient and run the wires for the power supply and antenna so that they are not visible and hanging all over the place. I also want to split the 12-volt socket in behind the dash so that I can plug the power adapter for the radio out of sight and still have the power socket on the dashboard for other things.

Sorry, I didn't take any pictures. I find that when I get going on these projects I just focus and doing anything but the task at hand seems like a waste of time. I didn't even realize that I didn't take any pictures until after it was all done!

Oh yeah, no lunch time swim today. The weather was nasty in the morning so I didn't bike to work and, therefore, had no reasonable way to get to the pool on time.

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5 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

I have an XM radio and love it! I can't listen to regular radio anymore because I can't stand the commercials. As a music fan, it's one of the best inventions ever.

December 10, 2008 at 2:02 PM  
Blogger Vava said...

Chad:

I agree! Not only the music, but as a baseball fan I can listen to all the games, not to mention the NHL and now NBA as well. This is why I'm doing all this stuff to the car.

December 10, 2008 at 2:29 PM  
Blogger BeachRunner said...

Wow. Nice work. I wish I had that (and your installations skills). My '06 Accord has built in Sat Radio (which I love) but there is no Aux input for my ipod. :(

December 10, 2008 at 3:10 PM  
Blogger B. Kramer said...

It doesn't seem fair that our bodies seem to cheat us out of our free time.

Good job on the chinups and the car mods.

December 10, 2008 at 4:17 PM  
Blogger Frayed Laces said...

Vava,
Thank you SO MUCH for all your encouragement throughout my BQ quest. You are one of my loyal readers and commenters--thank you thank you thank you! I hear ya about being sick; today I have a cold! Blech!

December 10, 2008 at 8:19 PM  

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