The IROC – Page 3 – lee-lawmaster.com

Walkabout

Last week, I took a trip to my familial homeland. It’s a place that much like Rodney Dangerfield, doesn’t get any respect. I respect it though, and it will always have a place in my heart. So much, that I have it tattooed on my body.

Keep it easy on the gas ’round these parts or Joe P Law will make you pay

I didn’t have many reasons to go, I just needed a break. I felt as if I was sinking deeper and deeper into a depression. Nothing that I tried would get me out of it. I knew this would.

The one reason I went however, was to give my uncle the driver’s seat out of dad’s IROC. It was ripped on the edge, and trust is more important than anything else to me on this car. I trust the man with my life, and I trust him with dad’s car. After looking it over, he believed the best route would be to completely replace the seat covers with new ones. Something I didn’t want to do, but his experience is trusted and valued. So I bought new seat covers for the front seats, a $600 expense I wasn’t expecting. They will be custom made and sent directly to him. Where I will then come back in a few weeks with my other seat to have brand new seat covers on the front seats.

I spent some wonderful 1:1 time with my 3 beautiful aunts, all of which I love and adore. They feel like the only family I have left sometimes.

I then went on a mission. Something I had thought about but never attempted. I went to Tahlequah, marched into the Cherokee Nation headquarters and asked what it would take for me to become a member. The staff was wonderful and very helpful. I knew my great-grandmother was on the Dawes Roll, which is the requirement for entry. They told me that I actually could enter via my grandfather. I just needed his death/birth certificate, the same for my father and my birth certificate.

One of my aunts provided me with my grandfather’s death certificate. Another gave me a copy of his birth certificate. When I returned home, I ordered a death certificate for my father and birth certificate for myself. Now I wait.

I felt refreshed and ready to take on the world, my trip was over. But why stop the adventure there? I decided to take a route home that I had never taken before. I decided to take a southern route via I-40 to Memphis, where I visited a place of eternal rest.

The most peaceful and calming cemetery I had ever been to.

It was a rash decision, based on my happenstance. An author who appeared in Ken Burns’ Civil War is buried there. His colorful and vivid oratory sparked interest in the subject for me from an early age. I felt it was a duty to pay my respects and thank him in the best way I knew how, for the gift he provided me as a young boy.

I’ve never been a big reader unfortunately, and had never read any of his works. I just purchased one of his novels and can’t wait to read it. If his writing skills were as good as his vocal ones, I know I will love it.

I’m back home now, where my amazing girlfriend missed me. I missed her as well. I’m finding my soul to be as complex as it is empty at times. I need quiet reflection. I need times completely alone and quiet, and I need ways to escape the mental anguish I continue to face. I accomplished that during this trip.

Now to begin a period of financial self restraint, which I’ve never been that good with.

I Just Wanted New Speakers

What an adventure replacing the speakers in the IROC turned out to be. I ended up shooting so much video from it that I felt it was best to cut it into 3 parts just to make them consumable.

With it being December and cold, I decided on a whim to buy new speakers for the car. It had the originals in it. They were old, tired and I would be much happier cruising if I had good tunes. So I bought a matching set of 3-way Pioneer speakers in the appropriate sizes for the car. I intended on keeping the OEM Delco stereo, with cassette tape. Pure 80’s awesomeness.

I had been avoiding doing anything at home for some unknown reason. I had so much to do to prepare for the holidays. For the sake of doing something I went to work on the car. Little did I know it would be a black hole, literally and figuratively.

I figured replacing the rear speakers – which are easy to get to and easy to remove would be a good task to get my productive juices flowing. So I went to it. I replaced the drivers side, which went beautifully. Then I went to work on the passengers side, where the best words I have to use come from Star Trek: The Next Generation, “shaka, the walls fell.”

The passenger side speaker would not work. Was it the 30+ year old wiring? This car is completely factory and completely unaltered. So I connected another set of speaker cables to the factory speaker cable as a jumper – still no dice. That only really eliminated the factory style connector however.

When I removed the speaker, the mid/high section just fell out of the woofer.

I called Crutchfield to get a replacement, but I was faced with a quandary. This model of speaker was on back order. I wouldn’t receive replacements until February. What do I do? Mechanically the speaker was still sound. None of the electrical connections had broken, the glue holding this stem in simply hadn’t held. I decided to get some superglue and fix the problem on my own. That still didn’t solve the issue at hand.

So off to the forums and internet groups I went. I’m sure someone else had faced a similar issue at some point, right? I then found some information that told me that it was common for certain components on these stereos to simply quit working over time. I was sold on the collective voices I read on the subject. I didn’t want to buy a new stereo however, I wanted the one I have. This level of electronics is something my grandfather was an expert on, but it’s greek to me.

The hunt was on, and while searching eBay, I came upon a listing for a stereo EXACTLY like mine that had been refurbished by someone with an AUX port added. Wow, how awesome I thought. I bought it without a second thought. At least I’ll know if it’s the stereo or the wiring after I get this, right?

When I received it – I almost immediately installed it and was instantly floored by the difference. Those dead speakers began working again. I was now mixed – do I continue installing these new ones or do I put the OEM ones back?

I went with the former. The last step was installing the front ones. They turned out to be just as frustrating as the rears. The dash (an item that people scour the country for) had never been removed before. Knowing my luck I would damage or destroy it.

My OEM dash pad, that is in perfect condition

Immediately after I removed the dash, I leaned it against my garage door. It’s not exactly flat or square. Big mistake on my part. Within a minute it fell, my heart sank. So I picked it up and brought it up to my living room where I took this photo. It sat here until I cleaned it and installed it back in the car.

These new speakers required a trim plate to be attached to them in order to be installed on the car. The OEM speakers have a thick metal plate that they are attached to the car with. These trim plates were finicky at best. I might have to remove the dash again to adjust and / or resolve any rattling issues that could happen from the operation of the car.

The sound coming from the stereo is now similar if not the same as I remember it being as a child. I’m extremely happy, the nostalgia is really hitting me hard these days.

These speakers can handle up to 400w of peak power, and since factory stereo systems are notoriously under powered I am considering adding a discrete amplifier to the system. After doing some searching, I found one that seems perfect. The Sony XM-S400D meets my criteria perfectly. It doesn’t require a thick power supply cable be ran to the battery, has a very small footprint (about the size of a brick) and will make the quality of the sound coming from these new speakers better.

I’ve got to stop myself on this however, as I’ve already spent over $1000 in the last month on parts alone. Little did I know that I would be installing a complete stereo system.

Trashy

Since around Thanksgiving I have seem to been accumulating trash. The orange trash bags required for the system of trash disposal I use seem to have been a unicorn around here.

It’s a good system, a system I have used and been involved with my entire life, ran by my county’s solid waste district. They sell rolls of these orange bags at local retailers. They also provide many recycling options. They even have an area where you can leave things that still have use for others to pickup and take.

I try, and always have to recycle as heavily as possible. With the recent holidays however, the amount of trash in this house has become too much!

I had a conversation with other people on the social media site NextDoor about this, which made me no longer feel like I was going crazy. Through them, I discovered that I was right. There was only 1 retailer in the county that seemed to have any, and they were literally a 30 minute drive away.

People have since posted images and stated they have been seeing them at closer locations to me, so I shall venture out to once again try to find these mysterious Orange Bags.

Once I accomplish this task, I hope to get back to working on the IROC. I want to get the installation of these speakers completed. I also might remove that sagging headliner in preparation to recover it. I then have to take my little piece of sunshine back to her mothers, something I loathe but such is life.

That did it!

I received the new stereo today. I haven’t been feeling well most of the day. I’m a human garbage disposal, and paid the price for eating too much last night.

I decided to try it anyway. I had a really hard time removing the old stereo, it felt stuck inside the opening. It would move around but pulling it out was a struggle. After some yelling, screaming and prying – it finally came out.

I had some difficulties connecting the cables to the new stereo, but once I did – I was amazed. It worked, ALL OF THE SPEAKERS.

As of right now, I’ve replaced the rear speakers. The fronts are still the OEM ones that came with the car, that was built in October of 1987.

I’m so happy 🙂

Turn Up, the Radio

In my recent adventures with the IROC, I decided to replace the speakers. The ones on the passengers side had quit working completely. What’s an 80’s mullet machine without bitchin’ tunes right?

I bought some classic speakers from a classic brand, Pioneer. I had been pretty much frozen in my mind for some reason and decided to finally install them. I started with the rear. I hadn’t been in the back of that car since I was a kid. Wow. I knew the space would be tight, but I didn’t realize how tight it would be.

That light colored panel to my right, called a Sail Panel, covers the rear speakers on each side.

I installed the drivers side one, and the difference between the OEM speaker and this new one was significant. I went to install the passengers side, but it didn’t go smooth at all. There was zero output from the speaker. I assumed there was an issue with the speaker cable. After testing and attaching jumper cables to the main speaker cable – this told me it was not the speaker but the head unit.

Not that I should have, but I purchased a OEM replacement that had been refurbished with one high tech addition, an AUX port. That’s right, a car stereo from 1988 with a built in AUX port! It works through interfering with the radio input when something is connected to it.

I really can’t wait until this comes in.

I should receive it tomorrow and plan on installing it then. We will see if it resolves the issue or if I have to dig deeper. I want to keep this car as original as possible. The addition of an aftermarket stereo is not something I want to do, as it changes the character of the interior in a way I’d rather avoid at all costs.

Bah Humbug

I’ve went all Ebeneezer Scrooge this year for some reason. I don’t know why, and I definitely do not like or enjoy it.

I’ve had a lot of things dumped on me at the last minute at work, with a demanded completion date of by the end of the year.

My girlfriend, and her children picked up some sort of sickness. So I did what I do in these situations, stay away. I’ve been at home, by myself all week.

I have a ton of things to do here, but no will to do them. I need to wrap Christmas presents, disassemble that darned TV antenna to return to Amazon, and work on the Camaro.

I’m stressed, the clock is ticking on Christmas, and I seem to be getting more depressed by the day.

I thought this was supposed to be “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” For me, it has been the darkest time of the year for 5 years solid now.

Before posting this, I decided to do something. Just writing this motivated me. So I attempted to install the new speakers in the Camaro. The drivers side went well. Then I attempted to install the passengers side. Everything went well until I tried to test them, they didn’t work. While trying to diagnose the issue, the speaker fell apart. Sigh. I’m going to bed, maybe I can forget this day.

New Video

That’s been a pure mess, trying to edit and finish the latest video I shot about my dad’s IROC-Z.

First, editing the video on my Macbook turned out to be a hassle without a mouse. So I tried to complete the task on my work computer. It became incredibly slow and quit on me. I lost all of my work.

So I rebuilt it using this different work build we are now using. I was having incredible difficulties being able to open any Adobe applications, and got no help from any of my co-workers on the subject. I figured it out though.

I seem to become a blubbering idiot when I film myself. It’s one of the reasons why I’ve never been a fan of video, or being in video. I’m slowly becoming more comfortable. I started this for two reasons; the kids in my life who are hopelessly addicted to YouTube and to remember my father. He was a man who loved the art of film-making from when he was young. I have large boxes that are filled with his Super8 films.

Here’s my old man, doing what he did best

I’ve primarily used Youtube to watch music videos on, I miss my MTV. I’ve learned through these kids though, and I think it makes them happy to be a part of the whole process.

Winter has come in southern Indiana, and so I’ve put the car away for the season. I have many things to upgrade however. Primarily the brakes and the suspension. I’ll also be taking the driver’s seat out to be repaired by my uncle Ed, a god in my eyes for many things.

The blubbering guy who needs a haircut