(05/30/2012) 72' Chevy is moving again

Flash and I finally finished up the transmission on the '72 Chevy.  It's mobile again, but not without some complications.  Currently it only has low gear and won't shift into a higher gear.  Not good, but at least it's mobile again.

Mike's Mower

Mike came over the other day and wanted some graphics for his racing mower.  Here's how it turned out.

(03-06-2012) Transmission time

Jody came over and gave me a hand removing the transmission from the truck. It has been a long time since either of us had taken out an automatic and it took a bit of re-learning, but in the end the transmission came out, maybe a bit more quickly than we wanted, but at least it's out.

(03-04-2012) '72 moves into the shop

The '72 Chevy made it's way into the shop this weekend in preparation for a new transmission.

(02-22-2012) Tigershark

I have had the idea to put the P-40 Warhawk Tiger-shark jaws on my mower for quite a while. Last night the weather was nice and I decided it was time to give it a try.

(11-01-2011) Don't growl at me!!

The last few weeks Blondie, my 2001 VW GTI, has been growling. The growling was coming from the back of the car. First, I checked to see if the rear wheel bearings were the problem - jacked the car up and shook and rolled and put pressure on the wheels, but they seemed smooth and fine. Next I thought maybe the rear tires were the problem, even though they only had 12K miles on them and they looked fine, so I bought new rear tires. The new tires seemed to help, but within a day the growl was back as loud as ever.

Finally, on Tuesday, Flash and I installed new rear wheel bearings and my car is now quiet again. It's so nice to be able to hear the stereo again. :)

(07-07-2011) Turbo installed. Blondie Lives!

Took Blondie out for a trip to Berryville and so far she's doing well with the new turbo installed. It wasn't a fun job, but I have a much better knowledge of the turbo and the plumbing, and every little tiny vacuum hose on the entire car. It was a good thing to learn, but it wasn't a convenient time to learn it.

I haven't been able to tell any difference in performance, but I also have been treating the car gingerly and letting the turbo break-in. Maybe after I've driven it for a few days and I feel comfortable with the new turbo I'll give it a try.

I'm keeping a keen eye out for any leaks, but so far it looks good. I may have an oil leak, but that also may be coming from the oil drain plug on the pan. It's too soon to tell.

Also, I have to say a big "THANK YOU!" to Jody and Flash for helping me get this done. I wouldn't have been able to get it done alone. There were just too many jobs that needed an extra set of hands (or an extra set of eyes, or an extra brain {thanks Shannon}, or just someone to stop and have a beer with until you can come up with a better plan on how to do the job). The job wasn't fun (mainly because I was stressed about not having a car), but working in the shop with Jody and Flash was.

(06-26-11) Blondie goes down...

Blondie's turbo went out on 6-26-11. Actually, it appears to be a bad diverter valve, but after 250K miles it's probably time for a new turbo anyway. Bought a new turbo from ECS, but it didn't quite fit - the air intake was a different size, so I had to make another order on 07-01-11 for a new air intake. According to the guys at ECS, the turbo (K03 sport, instead of the normal K03) along with a silicon air intake could give Blondie up to an extra 65HP (although the software probably will not let it do quite that much). I didn't want more horsepower, I just wanted my car to run again. Oh well... Anyway, on 07-05-11 the air intake should arrive and hopefully Blondie will be back on the road. I miss you, Blondie.

(05-06-2011) Paula's new wheels

Today, Paula got her new wheels installed. Took a while to get them refinished, but I think they turned out pretty good.

(04-12-2011) Wheel refinishing

Spend the evening refinishing a wheel, just to get an idea of how they would look with a polished lip and a gun-metal grey center. Not too bad, but the wheel could have used a bit more sanding before I painted. The finish is a little rougher than I would have liked. The wheel still needs clear applied over the whole wheel (polished lip and the center).

(12-11-2010) The Beetle shows it's colors

Flash and I first put manual locking hubs, brake pads, packed the wheel bearings and flushed the radiator on my truck. Then we replaced the oxygen sensors and did a little seat repair on my GTI. Finally we got the old Beetle started and then we did a little playing with some spray paint on the door. The logo on the car is from Hack a Day, one of my favorite sites on the web.

(11-29-2010) Rear seats in the 911

Finally got the hardware to mount the rear seats today. I couldn't wait to get them installed.

(11-05-2010) Time for a timing belt

Flash and I did a timing belt, water pump and accessory belt job on my car this weekend. It was a chore, but I'm glad it's done. Ready to go for another 100K miles.

(10-18-2010) 914 engine swap

Flash and I worked on swapping the engine in his 914. The engine swap itself took most of a day, but it was a good time and learned a lot about the car in the process. We broke a shift coupler in the process, and so we're waiting on it to arrive from Germany. Hope to see it back on the road soon.

(09-18-2010) 911 Update

The 911 has been down for a while because of charging issues. This weekend it got a new alternator, a new battery, new battery terminals and a bit of a rewire in the battery compartment. I don't have a voltmeter, so I can't tell how well it's working, but so far it seems to be charging just fine.

(08-28-2010) Signal Light wiring complete

Today I wired up the signal light sequencer board and gave it works great. It has a potentiometer to change the amount of time for the red and green lights, and yellow is always 5 seconds. Now that it's all working properly, I can get to work cleaning and restoring the case.

(08-22-2010) Signal Light

I found an old signal light at the swap meet this weekend. I just did some wiring, cleaned the lenses and tested it. It still needs to be really cleaned and painted, but I think it will be cool hanging in the shop.

(05-29-2010) Blondie update

Poor Blondie, after 221,000 miles she needed some attention. Her water flange had broken and needed replacing. An easy job, once you figure out where the coolant is coming from. Time will tell if I got all of the leaks, but I she's ready for another few miles.

(04-17-2010) Josh wins his first race!

Josh won on his first time out. Congratulations, Josh!

(04-28-2010) Virtua Racing update

Last night I spent a few minutes working on the Viruta Racing machine. I adjusted the brake potentiometer on the player 1 side, and now the machine is fully playable without any problems. Now, I want to clean up and restore the machine - but for now it's great to just be able to play the game.

(04-23-2010) WOOT!!! Virtua Racing DUAL!!!

Tonight I finally got the DUAL part working on the Virtua Racing cabinet - before it had been a strictly solo experience. Lots of tweaking to do to fix a few problems, but it's a lot of fun as it is.

(04-03-2010) Josh's car

Flash, Josh and I put graphics on Josh's stock-car. I think it turned out pretty good. Good luck with the racing, Josh.

(03-26-2010) Goose approved!

Goose finally got to try the kart out for the first time. He had a good time, until he bit his tongue while driving. Oh well, live and learn.

(03-24-2010) The Dragon is Loosed!

Today I finished up the kart and even took it for a couple of quick test laps around the house to make sure everything worked. Then I pulled it back inside and put it to bed until The Goose comes to give it a try this weekend.

On other fronts, I've been working on the Virtua Racing machine, trying to get both sides of the game working. So far no luck.

(03-12-2010) It's not finished!!

Goose was none too happy that the kart wasn't finished, as you can tell by the fine Pakistan steel he wielded against me. I was able to manage a stay of execution by promising to finish the kart soon. :)

(03-10-2010) Seat for the blue dragon

Made a seat bottom for the blue dragon last night. I now know why I don't do upholstery work for a living. It's definitely not a great job, but it will work for this old kart. I have the seat back cut and ready to stuff and cover. Soon it will be down to putting the motor back on and having some fun!

(03-08-2010) The Blue Dragon

I made some graphics to the go-kart using the vinyl cutter.

I also go the stuff for the seat today, but just didn't have the time to make that happen.

(03-06-2010) Ol' Yeller becomes Ol' Blue

Saturday I spent sanding and grinding and painting my son's go-kart. It's still a $25 go-kart, but it looks like it could be worth almost $50 now.

I still need to make some new seats and repaint and install the motor. Hope to have it ready for next weekend when The Goose (my son) arrives.

(01-23-2010) Dad's truck continued

This past week I have been working on the old truck, just giving it a good tune up. Did an oil change, put some stop-leak in the power steering pump, new spark plugs and thermostat. Also did some cleaning of the truck and installed a under the hood for emergencies. The old truck is shaping up. Looking forward to having it on the road.

(01-19-2010) Dad's old truck

My brother Dave and his wife, Audrey, gave me an old truck, but it's not just any old truck to me. It was my dad's truck. It's in dire need of a little TLC to get it road worthy again. I installed a new alternator and have a list of other things that need to be done, but hope to have it on the road again, soon.

Thanks Dave and Aud, you guys are awesome - but you already knew that. :)

(10-01-2009) Home Automation continues...

Edit: I've decided that this really doesn't fit on my "shop" page. So, all future posts about home automation will be posted on this page: Don's Home Automation


Last night, while fighting off a cold, I worked on an X-10 interface for the CM11A, and it finally works. So, now I can use the PC to turn on and off lights and other devices. I have yet to weave it into my main home automation program, but the hard work is now done.

Current interfaces for the Weeder W800RF and the CM11A are working. I think the CM17 (aka The Bottlerocket) will probably be next - but I want to make it part of the CM11A interface, so that both the CM11A and the CM17 are on the same port.

For those who don't know: The CM11A sends/receives commands through the power lines, while the W800RF receives wireless signals and imports them into the PC. The CM17 is the opposite of the W800RF, it takes commands from the computer and creates wireless signals to control X10 devices.

(09-27-2009) Blondie's new treads...

Put new wheels and tires on Blondie today. I think they look fairly good. The pictures are a little blurry because I took them in low light, but you get the idea.

In other news, I tried installing a USB drive on a Wii this weekend and using USB Loader 1.5. I hadn't tried this before, but it works great. Also, the ISO images that store on the USB drive are much smaller than I anticipated, so you can save a bunch of games on even a small USB drive.

(09-14-2009) Slacker...

I've been slacking when it comes to working in the shop lately, but I have been working in the house adding motion and open/close sensors throughout, as well as cameras to monitor everything. I wrote custom software to monitor everything, send tweets / text messages when events happen as well as trigger sounds and speech (via voice synthesis) when these events happen. I have a few more things planned. Adding support for 3 more cameras and monitoring all doors, as well as glass-break sensors are in the plans. Just for fun, I'm planning to add an IR transmitter and setting a timed event for sending the Roomba out to clean the floor every day at a specified time.

Lots more home-automation stuff in the queue, but who knows when I'll have time or money to make it all happen.

(08-21-2009) Swap Meet Time!

Had a great time at the swap meet in Springfield, MO. Here are a few pictures that I took until my hands were too full to take pictures, which didn't take too long. Great time! Everyone who enjoys old cars and memorabilia should attend!

BTW, if you see that Model A for $250, back off, it's mine. :)

(08-15-2009) '32 Truck - cab reconstruction

Saturday, Flash and I worked on putting some wood back inside of the cab of the 1932 truck. We got a good start, and while no one will think it's a factory install, it will keep the truck from tearing itself apart when we drive it.

(08-12-2009) Virtua Racing lives, partially...

Last night, Goose and I, resurrected one side of the Virtua Racing machine. We took the best boards from the VR Twin and made one fully working side. We also found that the fan that cools the boards on one side is dead (probably the cause of the death). After a little cleaning and monitor adjustment, the game looks and plays great!

(08-06-2009) Working on Virtua Racing

Last night, Goose and I started working on the Virtua Racing machine. We drilled the locks on the base of the machine and blew out some of the dirt and grime with an air hose and checked the system boards. The first player board smells burnt, but I haven't removed the boards and examined them to see where the problem lies. Maybe next week I'll have some time to look it over.

(08-01-2009) Another project...

Jody and I drove down to Texas (Thanks Jody! How much beer do I owe you?) and picked up a Dual Virtua Racing cabinet on Saturday. It was a looong trip, but it's home and it's working (well, sort'a). Can't wait to get both sides of the cabinet working (only one side works, and the 3D rendering seems to have some issue).

(07-31-2009) '32 body work...

Flash and I started removing the body from the '32 to check the wood and see how bad it is. Most of the wood is still there, but it's very dry-rotted. Flash is going to work on building some new wood reinforcements and put the cab back together.

(07-30-2009) More video of the '32 running...

Flash took the '32 for another run and I just can't get enough of watching this old beast run around the farm, so I thought I would post it for everyone to see.

Special guest stars in this video are Papa J and Uncle Jack. Glad you boys came by to see 'er run!

(07-30-2009) Let's run'er boys...

Flash and I got the old '32 Chevy out and ran it around in the driveway a little. Just for fun, here is a little clip of the old '32 taking it's first real steps out of the shop.

(07-19-2009) Clean up time...

Not much has been going on in the shop lately, but with the addition of the '32 Chevy truck and working on the Beetle the shop had become quite a mess. This weekend was clean up time. The shop isn't really clean, but I think it's clean enough that some work could be done again. :)

(06-20-2009) Rods and Relics show in Branson, MO

This was a great show, hosted at Area 57 in Branson MO, with lots of great cars that were lovingly envisioned and created. I was very fond of the straight six with a turbo - that was really cool! There were lots of people having a good time and enjoying some classic music with classic cars. Wish we could've stayed longer and talked to more people, but it wasn't to be. At least I was able to snap a few pictures to share.