car stereo [3].

A few months ago, K and I realized we had two of the same vehicles. She had a Yaris, I had a Corolla. Well, basically the same. And when it came time to take our family on an adventure, and bring along the pup, we were out of luck. About the same time, we were driving back and forth to our ski hill, where we witnessed everything from a semi-trailer jack-knifed, splayed across the highway, to a little Prius that got stuck just trying to leave (and I spent a good five minutes trying to help the poor people push it to no avail), to some old Mercedes fish-tailing all over the highway as it crawled up to the pass.

Yeah... all wheel drive might be nice...

Being a Toyota family, we had been looking into a RAV4. The new ones sure look stylish and... whoa, wait - they're something like $30 thousand dollars. Okay, no. Oh, and they only come in automatic transmissions. No bueno. So after doing some research, we learned that Toyota only offered the RAV4 with a manual transmission up until 2005, after which they ceased producing (or exporting) vehicles with that option. Bleh. But no worries, really, because an early-2000 was much more affordable.

After very little time spent on Craigslist, we found what seemed to be the perfect specimen! A 2001, manual (duh), AWD, 1-1/4" tow package, roof racks, sunroof, tinted windows, only 135k miles, and so on. After test driving, we could tell it needed an alignment and an oxygen sensor, but after talking the dude down almost a grand, we drove home with it that night.

Welcome... Luna!

At Stevens Pass this past winter...

And at our campsite in Glacier National Park, BC (yep, not the Glacier in Montana)...

K came up with the name, clearly named after the rugged peak in the North Cascades...

And well, she needed a new stereo, too (the car, not the mountain... ok, ok).

This install was somewhere in between Spencer and Stuart. Meaning, I had to modify the tweeters a little creatively, but everything else was pretty easy-peasy. Particularly (as usual), the receiver -

Boom...

Boom...

Boom... Done.

That is another reason why I really like older cars... their stereos are so much easier to replace! (And older cars are generally just easier to work on and fix ourselves)

Then it was time for the speakers. I didn't spend a fortune on this (yet), but rather just started with a new (Bluetooth) receiver and four new speakers to replace the stock ones. The only tricky part on the door speakers was having to drill a new hole for the new speaker bracket (well, really not tricky - just an extra step that took about five seconds) -

And installed!

Well - maybe worth pointing out is the window insulation I had lying around that I used to create a tight seal for the bracket, and avoid it rattling when the speaker was cranking -

The component tweeters were a little trickier, like I mentioned, only because I ended up having to file them down a bit to get them to fit behind the little sail panels...

Step 1: remove factory tweeters...

Step 2: splice new tweeters to existing wiring/harness...

Step 3: file edges of tweeter with coping saw/metal (or wood) file...

Step 4: reinstall using factory mounting bracket...

Step 5: reinstall sail panel...

And done -

The rear door speakers were more or less the same, minus the separate tweeters. I shoved the factory stuff into a bin in our crawl space, in case there ever comes a time we sell her (highly unlikely) and want to remove all the fancy(-ish) stuff...

The next question is whether or not to add an amp and/or a sub under the seats... But for now, we can pair both of our phones, take calls (yikes!), and play our various iPods with decent sound.

dirtbagging [part one D].

Do some maintenance to old beater Toyota pickup.

After reading super-helpful posts online that give great instructions, and tapping the tool shed and expertise of a handy father-in-law, fix the classic sagging rear end by spending $36 on a pair of Add-A-Leafs and $50 on a couple of new shocks.

To start, it helped having a real floor jack, and then a couple of jack stands to keep the entire rear-end of the truck lifted while we worked, which also allowed us to remove both wheels (giving us more room to work).

Before I say anything else, I must say that Scott's 'cheater bar' was my best friend today, mostly in the removal of the four (times two for each side of the axle) 19mm bolts that were torqued to probably 80 ft lbs. I had sprayed them with PB Blaster earlier in the morning, which may have helped. But either way, with that cheater bar it was just a matter of slowly pulling and every bolt came undone.

In short order, we had the rear springs disassembled and ready to insert the Add-A-Leaf -

We smeared the anti-friction pads with marine grease and inserted the AAL -

After calculating the length of the new 3/8" centering bolt (and sawing it to that length), we had to figure out how to line up all the leaves to get the bolt through them. We ended up clamping all five together with Scott's giant C-clamps and then tightened the new nut onto the bolt, before reassembling the U-bolts.

Then it was time to quick replace the rear shocks -

And soon enough the first side was done (new shock and the AAL is the black leaf second from bottom, or the overload spring) -

We worked together on the second side (while K took some photos) -

And then it was done, too -

It may not be easy to tell between these photos, but the difference in the lift was immediate as soon as we dropped Stuart back to earth...

[Before - taken the day I got ol' Stuart... ]

[After - note the difference in the amount of space between the wheel and wheel well in the two photos... ]

Anyway, now he is level and, according to Scott, can probably handle another 600-700 pounds in the back. Next... get the exhaust system redone (at a shop), and maybe replace the front shocks. Then he'll be ready for Part two... building out the back for dirtbagging.

dirtbagging [part one C].

Fix simple things, like instead of some hack found on Youtube to keep the rear window open - just Google the factory model # of the lifts and spend twenty bucks at Amazon to get a new pair.

The lock was a bit more ($50), but probably the same price as taking it to a locksmith and having a key made (actually, I have no idea how much a locksmith would cost).

dirtbagging [part one B].

Slap outdoorsy stickers on canopy.

dirtbagging [part one A].

Have old beater pickup (preferably late 80s/early 90s Toyota)... check.

Find old canopy that a) perfectly fits it (even if it'll need some parts which, spoiler alert, will be part two) and b) offers elevated headroom... check (thanks to some guy K found selling one on offerupnow).

And... already returning, loaded with gear from a weekend adventure in the North Cascades...

Part two will include replacing and adding some parts before building out the bed to let us dirtbag for real... at last!