Pattern of All Patience

So after I vacuumed out my bug, I saw the grill around the speedometer, and the really dirty screen backing them. So I sandblasted and painted them. They look really good now, and it makes such a difference to look at. Its cool how subtleties can do that.



Anyway, with my fuel gauge out, I decided to replace the broken plastic shield. I had the brilliant idea of replacing it with a CD case, I was very proud. The original was about .065" and the CD case was .040" so it was thinner but not by too much. I cut it out like you would cut glass, and it looked really good. In this picture you can only see the edges and the crack in the original, but you get the point.



I should have stopped there, but I wanted to shoot white grease into the wire tube to make the wire move more freely in it. I had to take it apart to get to the tube. Like a litany I repeated "don't break the needle", but like an idiot brute, time and time again, I broke the needle. This time it wasn't so much my fault as it was an unfortunate mistake, though.



Just like my speedometer I wanted to make a new one. I had beads made out of bone, and I knew it was going to be perfect. I ground down to the basic size, then filed and sanded it to within a hundredth of an inch in all dimensions.



I ground out the new center, using my dremel with a mill-like cutter.



A perfect match in depth.



I drilled a very small hole to press the needle into. an incredibly close tolerance hole, I couldn't believe it came out so perfectly.



After some shaping of the needle, it was a perfect fit. I couldn't make that nifty little tail for a counter-weight like the original had, but I offset the hole to achieve the same purpose.



I was meticulous. I was "the pattern of all patience." four hours in the making, and I couldn't have made a mistake if I had tried; everything was coming together perfectly.



I had it. Everything was together. At any point something could have broken, but it hadn't and it was now the last step. To cinch the top of the shaft over the new needle, like a rivet. This had to be done by hitting it with a tapered punch. so I did it.

Perfect. It worked perfectly. but the needle won't move with the wire! I knew the problem, the rivet wasn't pushing down hard enough. This time I ground off the tip of the punch so it would push down the sides more, and hit it.

no change. hit it again. still nothing. one more time. IT BREAKS!!!!! I kinda wanted to laugh.

I really wish I had a picture of it before it broke, because it looked really good.





This was my biggest hang-up from the very beginning. The needle goes over the shaft labeled #2, which has splines to make sure it catches the needle. But the lever labeled #3 rotates freely on that shaft, and only turns the needle by friction, because the needle is pushed down by the mushroomed shaft labeled #1. This was done so the needle could be adjusted, which is necessary. My hang-up is that I had to drill off the edges of the mushroom to take off the original broken needle, so I didn't have as much material in the shaft to mushroom over the new needle! I had originally solved this with a rubber o-ring that would catch the lever, but it wouldn't fit beneath the plate, and so I went along with the original design, which didn't work for me...

I'm keeping the needle, since it is in good shape, and I think at some point I will try again to fix it, we'll see how it goes.

Thermo-Aesthetics

Well I've just finished the beginning of a long project of painting my wheels. I started with the spare tire. I muscled off the tire, then sandblasted the wheel, using the spiffy new media-blaster I got from santa. Here is what the wheels look like to begin with.



Starting on Thursday Jan. 11, I sandblasted and primed my first wheel.



I'm in love with this sandblaster. Now that I have it I want to sandblast everything. This wheel is down to bare metal.



On the 12th I added a second coat of primer, white this time. and let it dry for 48 hours



Sunday the 14th, 48 hours later, I added color; it's the same as the bumpers, Ivory gloss. I sprayed multiple coats, then let it dry 48 hours. Tuesday the 16th I added the clear gloss coats and let it dry another 48 hours.



Thursday the 18th it was dry and ready to put back on. I muscled on the tire being very mindful of the new paint, but still I managed to chip off a good strip on the front of the wheel, down to the first coat of primer. That really ticked me off, but this wheel is the practice run for the rest of them, being the spare. I'm going to practice painting bare metal, because I've had chipping on my bumpers too. I think it is from not sanding the primer coat before painting, which I didn't think was necessary, but we'll find out with my experiments. Anyway, I patched up the scars so they only look a little lumpy, and then stuck it on. I'll admit I'm not as stoked on it as I first thought I would be. There is just something wrong with the aesthetics.



In this picture I Photoshoped the rear wheel, running board, and blinker to match. This should be pretty close to what they will look like. I'm undecided about painting the running board, but I think that is another aesthetics problem.



On to other projects! I finally found the use for my tranny-hatch!! because my transaxle leaks so much gear oil, I have to refill it every now and again. Before, it involved jacking up the car, removing a wheel, climbing under, and squeezing into very tight, oily spaces. but now, I just pop the hatch, and BAM! its done! I am so very stoked.



and I also painted my stick shifter. I did it in a hurry, since my daily driver is useless without it, but it looks good. This was prompted by the rattling noise it made while driving. I had only planned on re-greasing it, but I went a step further and painted it too.