Airporting the Extreme Way - WDS

I have not posted on the Yellow Box of Doom in quite a while, and that is mainly because i have been really busy with wedding arrangements and any time spent blogging has been done on the wedding blog (yes I know, all very sad and anally organized but we do indeed have a wedding blog!!)

Anyway, I had a free evening this evening so spent a bit of time trying to get the apple airport network working at its best, which is hasn't really been doing since we moved to the Palatial Ranche......long and short of it is the place is just too big and the wifi just isn't reaching all the corners one would expect of the Heineken quality Apple usually supply.

Airport Extreme........reachs the parts other rooters* cannot reach

However, once I started reading around the subject it tranpires that all this time I have had the network set up incorrectly. I had it set up as an extended network, which apparently means that it simply shares internet and printers etc. If I want the express to boost the signal to the other part of the house i need to utilise WDS (Weally Difficult Sh!t).

Now I won't claim to understand a single word of how WDS works etc but there is a rather clever chap I found through google who does, so I thought I'd share the link for anybody else who might find it useful......and so I can find it again in a few months time when I can't remember how it all works:

Spencer Critchley is the clever chap.

So I am off now to test the new and improved boosted signal while sat on the toilet using the internet.

* for any Australian readers out there I simply couldn't resist the deliberate use of the Australian meaning for rooting ;0)

Shadowy Gangsta Wars

Warning to all woudl be fools who leave a YBOD on hos own with only his cameraphone and shadow for company.

While 'helping' BSS2 with the wheel respray I noticed out of the corner of my eye that my shadow, the little tinker, had chosen to earn a crust on the side a shadowy gangsta!!

Never trust your shadow, they might look all innocent and tustworthy, always there right behind you:



But at the first opportunity they will arm themselves



and when you confront them about it they draw their weapons



and fire at random in the air!!



Ibbah ibbahhh underlay underlay!!! El presedenty bandito, I kill people for money, but you are my friend.....I kill you for free!!

Golden Spade Star Shot

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

ME4x4 Golden Spade 2009

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The yellow box gets new shoes - well, pollished ones at least

Well, its been a long time since I last posted on YBOD and to anybody who has been patient enough to be a regular reader, I appologise. So what have I been up to. Well, two things - planning a wedding (yep, I am getting married next month) and also I've been out playing a lot in the truck with the guys from ME4x4

However the driving season is over now as the hot weather comes in and camping is no longer a realistic option. As a result I should have more time now for updating blogs and tinkering......which brings me on to the subject of this entry:

For a while now BSS2 and I have been seeing more and more FJs around Dubai which have been modifed, resprayed and generally pimped to a more or less degree. And while some of these look better than others (need I mention the PINK FJ doing the rounds in Dubai). I have over the time I've owned YBOD3 partaken in a bit of ICON bolt-onary but BSS2 and I decided to enbark on a bit of re-spraying to give YBOD3 some nice new black wheels.

Now this task was of course planned out meticoulsy in advance, with all factors considered and the optimum time to carry out the work chosen.....which was why we ended up making an early start, and spend most of the day until 3pm in the blistering heat of Dubais summer. I think average air temps were around 40ish, maybe a bit higher. But still, as you can see from the step by steps it was all worth it as she does look VERY cool:

Step 1 - Jack the car up and put her on Axle Stands (note 'before' shot of silver wheels)


Step 2: Remove Wheels and take to the back garden (via the front rooms so be sure Alex isn't looking otherwise you have to explain tire tracks through the house, and she isn't going to believe you that a gang of hells angels passed through)


Step 3: Taking Care to carefully label each one so you know where to put them back in the wrong order later on only have a girl notice your error forcing you to correct it (not that we will admit that happened of course)

And remembering to keep you nuts somewhere safe so you don't loose them

Step 4: Put down plastic sheeting, layout wheels to be sprayed and mask up the tyres (which you don't want to spray as they are already black). note that the back is sprayed first so that any paint that runs through can be sorted before the front is sprayed.


Step 5: Spray everything up, allow to dry and then flip and repeat step 4. Sorry, no pictures of the spraying stage because....well.....I was too busy drinking beer and pointing out the bits BSS2 had missed

Step 6: All to dry over night while you head off to a three year olds birthday party to drink more beer

Step 7: Return in the morning with a mild hang over to find that BBS2 has been up at the crack of dawn and already cleaned off all the masking and put the wheels back on for you. Stand back, admire and tell yourself that while BSS2 might have done all the clever bits, and all you actally did was clean the wheels and shake the cans of paint for him, it stil looks damn good and feel proud of yourself.






As Alex put it, it make the YBOD3 look more Rufty Tufty. I'm taking her word for that ;0) There was one other minor modification that was made in the process of spraying. Given that YBOD3 had long sinced passed out of the relms of simple motorised transport and inot the much more appropriate bracket of big boys toys it seemed only fitting to modify the Toyota grill badge accordingly: