Car display

Soon to be printed out is my new display that I created using paint.net software. I plan on using the Produx Company display.
The picture has 7 layers to get it the way I want with the flaming glow letters. Not bad for free software and a couple of evenings of banging my head trying to learn new software. Paint.net does have good tutorials online though. I'm going to attempt some artistic pictures later. So stand by

Dash Circuit Board Replaced

Well, the board finally came in on Saturday. Only 3 days to late to put it in the car for Autorama. So I had to wire the fuel gauge with a short piece of 14AWG wire. Here's some pics of the new board replaced. Got it back in the car and it worked perfect.

Houston Autorama 2011

Outstanding in class. Which I was told is second for Conservative Hardtops. Pretty good for this year. Another fun time with the HALF group and Joaquin's new ride was surely what put me over the top!

Mini Me Firebird

I bought a old pedal car from a friend in Freeport that got this little gem off of ebay. I wanted to get to work on it so I could have it ready for Autorama this year.

It started in pretty bad shape. I had to remove all the rust from all of the hardware and fill in all the scratches and dings in the plastic.It had been a well loved toy in its day.

 

Then I got to work on the paint which is merely a rattle can job. I plan on re shooting it when I get a good set of spray guns. But for now the kiddo can play in it all he want without worry. Sort of like my car now. A good 10ft paint job.

 

  

I  also made some decals of the firebird emblems, gauges, tail lights and grills. I got some plexi-glass from Home depot and shaped a windshield.

 

 Ultimately it was a hit at Autorama this year but I still want toadd some working tail lights and headlights, fiberglass a real looking grill and maybe add some car sounds.

Johnny 5 is Dead

Well this is a new one for me. Saturday after the Alvin car show I saw my Fuel gauge jump past the 'Full' and then bounce back to the 3 o'clock position. It weird ed me out. All my other electronics seemed to be working. and the car was running fine. I knew I had plenty of gas to make it home so I had to bypass the HALF groups yearly celebration!
My first thing to check was the fuse. No dice. I had a feeling that wasn't the problem since all the other gauges were working.
So it's got to be a grounding issue. I checked the grounding wire coming out of the fuel sending unit. It looked a little gunky so I I cleaned it with a wire brush and and cleaned the trunk wall where it was attached. Reconnected the battery and ..... No dice.
So maybe a bad connection at the circuit board.  I dropped the steering column and took off the gauges.
Pretty obvious in the picture to what caused the weird signature. Part ordered and I hope it gets here soon. Autorama is next week! I have to have a fuel gauge so the fire warden lets me in.

Novemberfest in Alvin Tx

Went to the Alvin show for the first time. It was a great day weather wise until is started to lightly rain for no reason other than to hurry up the judging. Which had it own drama but I got to walk away with a plaque. About 90 cars so the field of competition was not staggering like Autorama.I will probably skip this next year because they have a scoring system that does not place cars in a particular class. they allowed you to be what class you want to compete in. So typically people were sandbagging. the 69 Camaro next to me which was a complete restomod with not a single original part, huge sound system and a TV monitor on the trunk lid was in the same class as me. The jerk should of been in the custom class.But thats what you get in a small town car show.

 

Kemah Car show

Nice weather to hang out at the Chick-Fila car show in Kemah. The car next to me won 1st place. maybe next year.