The Volvo Deluxe

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The Volvo Deluxe

This project brings so many of my interests together – creative repurposing, mid-century modern design, vintage car audio, electronics, woodworking, and metalworking.

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Posted in 240, radios, Volvo 1 Comment

The Test Mule

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The Test Mule

I’m not sure exactly where the idea came from. I suppose it is like most others, a tiny little grain of a thought gets stuck in your head and layers of ideas form around it. There were quite a few things along the way that needed to be solved.

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Posted in radios 1 Comment

Long Time

Wow. Has it been that long since I’ve posted?

I certainly haven’t been sitting on the couch, eating bon bons and watching Oprah. I moved to a new house (believe me, I have a lot of heavy crap – just ask my wife!). I set up a new workshop, did brake jobs on the Volvo and the Protege. Plus a few other projects.

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Initial set up of the new workspace.

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Posted in projects 1 Comment

Super Spark Sunday

It’s somewhat of a tradition for me, while the everyone else is watching the Super Bowl I like to take a drive. It’s like starring in The Omega Man – no one on the streets, no traffic, and usually, no mutants.

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Posted in Datsun, our cars, projects, Roadster Leave a comment

Scraps in the mist


Wow! It has been over a year since I brought home the Frankenroadster – a 1967.5 Datsun 1600 with the body from a 2000 and an H20 engine from a forklift.

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Posted in Datsun, our cars, projects, Roadster 2 Comments

Lying to the man behind the counter

Sometimes it is just easier to lie. Especially when you are wrenchin’ on something unusual – a Wartburg, an ancient Datsun or any car that has had an engine swap.

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Posted in car guys 2 Comments

Fairlady?

An illustration for a "SR20" badge.

I’m not sure if it’s because of Grand Turismo, or animé, manga or just the fact that Japanese classic cars may finally be getting some respect, but everyone seems to know the roadster as a Fairlady. As in, “Oh, a ’67 Datsun roadster, do you mean a Fairlady?” from the guy at the Knecht auto parts. Could have knocked me over with a feather.

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The knee bone’s connected to the leg bone

Mike - AKA Exit64 - gets busy on the intake

Well we all know how this one goes: you start out checking the air in the tires and before you know it, there is a new set of Panasports wrapped in fresh rubber on the project car. “While-you’re-at-it-itis”. My friend Jeff calls it “shipwright’s disease”. It starts with a burned out bulb, which leads to a new light socket, that leads to new wiring, which means a new ceiling, and so on.

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Posted in Datsun, our cars, projects, Roadster 2 Comments

Underhood bling – or “man jewelry”

You might need sunglasses for this post! There’s nothing quite as sexy to a car guy as a set of big, honking, ….. side-draft carbs. And a set that has been completely gone through and refurbished – every piece checked, all hardware re-plated, all new gaskets and the correct jets installed – is a work of art. “Man jewelery” as my friend Mike likes to say. And if they have been polished by hand and machine for untold hours – serious underhood bling.

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Posted in Datsun, Roadster 5 Comments

Wake Up Call

My daughter bounces out of bed somewhere between 5:45 and 6:15 AM with a “Daddy, I wake up!”. On the other end of the baby monitor, I usually just roll over and hope she’ll go back to sleep. The new project car, “Scraps” is also in need of a wake up call. It has not run in over a year, and it was making some strange noises at that time.

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Posted in Datsun, our cars, projects, Roadster 2 Comments