Recent Project: The Weider Olympic Weight Bench

Sears had a great sale recently on this olympic weight bench from Joe Weider, so I decided to splurge a little bit on myself:



Unfortunately, the box (although banded) contained two identical uprights, which come pre-drilled in order to be assembled and aren't supposed to be interchangeable. You can see how these two posts have the holes drilled at exactly the same spots:

This is how they are supposed to look:

Notice the holes on the right one--different setting for them on this correct upright from Sears. Luckily, they serviced my incorrect order swiftly and with no fuss at all. I returned the post later that day after I bought it, they recognized the problem, and simply went into the back stock area, opened another seperate but equal weight bench box, and exchanged the post.

I also found a sale on 300 lbs of olympic weights at Sports Authority, plus a good, sturdy olympic bar:

With preacher curl attachment:

Loaded up and ready to go!

It's a lot like an old glove that still fits after 30 years. I've benched all of my life since I was 12, and it has always been a comfortable ritual. Good for the bones, which contributes greatly to overall health, toning/strength enhancements to the muscle groups involved, and development of balance skills due to the nature of free weights.

To say nothing of the mental therapeutic benefits.

My Latest Distraction

In still shots:






And the finished product:

Recession-Era Answer: The Coat-Hanger To The Rescue Again!

INCIDENT: Pulling away engine skirt when backing out of a parking space with concrete curb:

And the other side was equally ripped away:

Normally, this kind of damage to a car would require a replacement of the entire skirt assembly, as this has happened once or twice already. But times like this call for less-than-optimum answers to common problems such as this above.

The answer? The ever-handy, always reliable, COAT-HANGER:

After cutting the device into (4) sections, simply thread one end through the eyeholes of the skirt assembly:

After threading a portion of the REA (Recession-Era Answer) into the corresponding holes, bend into a circle, securely fastening the ends upon themselves:

Repeat the procedure for the other side:

And Voila':
Another half-assed job performed in America during the recession.

Recession-Era Answer To The Convertor-Box Dilema

Installing A KDC MP438U Into A 05 Corolla

I decided to get Pam, my girlfriend, a car stereo this year for Christmas. Unfortunately, she couldn't use her factory 6-cd changer anymore when some of the discs I made for her got stuck in the unit, unable to be dislodged.
So I decided to get her a new unit alltogether. I haven't ever replaced a car stereo, so this was done with a little uncertainty. She has an Ipod, so I decided to find a head unit (the proper name for a car stereo) that had not only an Ipod input on it, but a USB port as well. The answer: the Kenwood KDC MP438U.

This is what the old factory unit looks like from a rear view:
With the hu (head unit) removed from Pam's car:

I admit: The plugs situation sent me to the internet, and then a local car stereo installation shop to find the answer. I needed a specific wire harness that was custom-made to fit the plug assembly for her make and model of car.
I purchased an 05 Corolla (6 JBL speaker) plug assembly for 17 dollars at the local stereo shop. Otherwise, I didn't need to purchase anything else, other than the din unit (dash kit) and the stereo.

The attendant at the local car stereo shop was glad to show me the harness I was wanting, but suddenly, after pecking around on his pc keyboard a bit before ringing me up, he gets a serious look on his face, and told me that he's supposed to include a $110.00 pre-amp digital converter if my girl's car was a 6-JBL speaker setup. It was, but this new amp device was news to me. All of the research I'd done, plus seeing the plugs as they were originally plugged, told me to resist his hard sell.

I quickly steered the conversation into deeper details, ("Well, why does the 6-speaker assembly need a digital conversion that the 4-speaker wouldn't", etc) mainly out of shock at the price of this device, and had him unable to answer me within a minute or so. He finally said, "Look man, all I know is that if your stock stereo has inputs like the ones you got in this picture, here", [I printed off a copy of the above photo with "05 Corolla stock radio" in it to illustrate my job needs when I went to the shop], pointing not to the ones that are circled in yellow, but to the ones on the left side of the rear of the stereo, "then I'm supposed to include this amp convertor".

That port looked more like the port on the back of the new Kenwood, and I had been wondering why there was nothing plugged to them when removing it. But the ONLY plugs (besides the antennae) from the Corolla were the ones circled in yellow above, going to the yellow-circled ports above that pic. Nothing was plugged into the left-side ports, and I told him that twice--once in the beginning, then again now.

He said, "If you didn't have cables running to that port, then your car ain't a 6-JBL speaker system--it's a 4-speaker system." triumphantly, with finality, as if there was no more left to say about the matter.

I told him, "I'll take my chances, let me buy the 17 dollar JBL 6-speaker harness for now, and if I need to, I'll come back for that amp convertor."

The new harness is to be connected to the one your radio manufacturer sends you. They look similar, but with different plugs, of course, and maybe some labels, but they are using universal colors in the car stereo industry, so you just merry up color to like color. This is the Kenwood harness that came with the package:

My advice: crimp (with butt joints, not crude splicing with electrical tape) the new assembly to the new stereo wiring harness, which should be included in your new stereo packaging:

After crimping, attach them to the car's harness:

Before attaching the wires:

After plugging in your antennae (single-post adaptor, usually), plug in your new hu:

Slip it in, and carefully snap the dash console back in place:

And VOILA:

All works great, and she's really impressed with the upgrade. I'm happy--she deserves to have nice things. We particularly like the USB port capability, and the dual-zone feature, where the rear speakers play from a different source, in their own "zone". The rear speakers can be playing something from your jump drive while the front speakers are listening to an IPod, satellite radio, a phone call, or, if you care to listen to the museum of broadcasting, terrestrial AM\FM radio and its polished turd, HD radio.

FOOTNOTE: The guy at the stereo shop was wrong, obviously, by saying that Pam's car was a 4-JBL speaker system. I knew that when he told me that I had a 4-speaker setup if those (yellow-circled port above) were the only plugs I had going to the factory unit. Luckily, I had already taken apart Pam's dash before going into this store, seeking a part and advice. That's how I knew for sure that I didn't have to purchase the $110.00 device.

I listened to each of her 6 speakers, all responding in beautiful clarity.