Curtain Ties

A few weeks ago I got some curtain ties from one of the Vanagon parts shops but I was really disapointed that I had no way to attach them to the van. Originally there were screw snaps attached to the body near each window but all of mine were long gone. Well, after searching all over town for some replacements I finally found some and got my curtain ties installed. This may not sound like a big deal but it is actually quite an improvement. I've spent most of the past year driving around with my curtains drawn just because I never feel like climbing back there and pushing them back. Even when I do bother to do that I'm still covering like half of every window without the ties installed. Now that I've got ties I can actually see out of all of my windows and it really brightens things up. Plus, driving is a lot easier when you can see out of the overwhelming majority of the rear window. Light is good.

This weekend I think I'm going to replace the fuel lines in the van. I really don't want to catch on fire so I think replacement is long overdue. It doesn't sound like the job will be especially difficult but I do need to figure out what to do while I have my injectors out. I'd like to get them tested to see if they are still good but I don't really know where to get something like that done. I also don't know if they are easier to test completely out of the van or if that is something that can be done normally. In general I'd like to find a good go to shop that I can call when I need data. I'd really like to know what my engine compression is too.

I haven't been posting much lately and that is partly because I've been distacted by life but it is also because I 've had my head down researching. I'm increasingly bothered by the fact that I'm driving a vehicle that runs on gasoline. With gas prices continuing to rise and all the environmental/political issues associated with gasoline powered combustion engines I think I'm just about ready to hop out of the pool. So I've been researching my alternatives.

I'm already using my bike for most of my short-hop transportation and daily commuting but I really like the idea of being able to travel long distances without buying gasoline - bonus points for not dumping crap into the environment. Sadly there aren't any obvious cheap options but the options are better than I thought they were. First off the WVO route is a whole lot more plausable than I originally thought it was. I mean I would have to do a diesel conversion and install a grease car kit but once that is done I can basically get around for free. We've already got a giant tank installed in our house for the old heating oil setup so with just a little bit of filtration and a good source of WVO I could feasably pull all this off.