Metallicar

That thing looks like an accident waiting to happen. It also looks ingenious and funny. Maybe you could put in some electric baseboard heat in line to put a load on it it to regulate it down. It may not fit inside the cart unless you bend the elements. Oh wait, get some heating elements from mom's electric range.

I am no expert in this matter. I think Silicone will not cure properly and when it does, it will not adhere properly to both the rubber and painted metal surfaces, so it will fail as an adhesive / sealant. The rubber or butyl based stuff will always remain pliable so it will flex between the rubber and metal. Pliabilty is important due to the expansion / contraction of the rubber weather strip. The soft sealant seems to be self healing, so to speak.

That's funny. I think it took some guts to save the rear strut tower vinyl and caps.

I found the Acetone did flash fairly fast, but not too fast. This I think is a benefit. Spraying the hood with the Acetone mix made for some quick action in order to keep a wet edge. I would have thought as slow as mineral spirits dry, the paint would take too long to flash.

How fast was the drying time for the raychem paint? I am not real sure. I had the built a spray room in my shop to paint. So I would spray and go home for the night. I painted this 16 months ago, if I remember right, the paint was dry enough to be bug proof in about an hour. I did not attempt to color sand until two weeks after I painted. It does look pretty good considering it is my first one. At the end, I gave up trying to make it perfect. I just wanted to get in and drive. I am grateful for all I learned here. RacerX did share tons of insight. He even sent me info about building the spray booth. I made the spray room out of 1"x3" furring strips and 4 mil polyethylene. I made up 18, 4'x8' frames, with the 1x3s, made up some 3/8 plywood triangles (approx 8" x 8" x 12") to use for corner gussets. I used an air stapler to put it all together. Wrapped the plastic sheet over the frames tight and I used wood lathe to keep the plastic on the frames. 1-5/8" dry wall screws to connect the panels in a rectangle making it 12'x 24' total. more furring strips crossing the top, plastic sheet for a ceiling. Pretty much dust and bug proof for less than $200. I unscrewed the panels and stacked them in the shop for future use.

I spoke with Tech Support at Rustoleum and the person there told me if I was to spray, I would have best results with Acetone. So I went about 4:1. I also had good results rolling it. See my post, http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=108495

After spending much time prepping my car for paint and running low on cash to spend, I agonized over what paint I was capable of using and paying for on my car. I did use epoxy primer as my base, which is Rust-o-leum Brand. It is part of the Industial Line, I purchased at WWGrainger. My paint is the Raychem paint and hardner, purchased on eBay. The Trim and Hood black out is again, Rust-o-leum, Satin Black. I used a Devilbiss Finishline gun, for the colors, and a Husky (Home Depot) HVLP for the primer. I have never painted a car before with anything other than a rattle can, so I am just a novice. I probably should have done a few things differently.In spite of all of the great advice and information found in this forum, I did what I did, based on my lack of expertise and cold hard cash. My attitude has always been that this is a temporary condition. I mixed the Satin Black 4:1 with Acetone to spray. The Raychem paint is pretty hard, seemed to color sand well. My talent however is lacking, so the the swirl remains. I gave up, I was getting too aggressive and actually cut through to the primer at some edges. Overall, the car looks okay, It is no show car finish. It's alright for me, right now. By the way, I did roll on the rocker panels with the Rust-o-leum paint, cut with Acetone.

Two Thumbs Up! Thank you very much for sharing.

Would any of these help? http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/electrical.htm

I am not giving up, yet. I am going to try these, Instead of these, Perhaps the multi led buld will scatter enough light to do the trick. The multi led bulb is $6.99 vs. the inverted $2.99. Though I am thinking of just adding additional bulbs to each gauge. Adding addtional holes in each gauge should not be too bad of a job. I would splice in addtional bulb socket/ pigtails at one point in the stock wire harness. Maybe use bullet connectors and connect them with bullet multiplier connector so I don't actually pierce the factory wiring. Since the led lights are smaller and cooler in temp, it may work just as well.

In my dome lamp assembly, the light diffuser/switch pops out of the roof trim. The trim cavity has no reflective element at all. Perhaps I should try applying some foil tape in there..... On second thought, the wire terminals are naked and perhaps too close for comfort. I could inadvertently short something out. But this is just a thought. I will investigate this tomorrow. Of course the wimpy bulb I bought with 4 leds instead of the nine leds is a waste. I need to edjumacate myself before I order more of these bulbs. I really would like to see some light like AK-Z has! As I said earlier, I am trying to keep a stock look, so I am keeping the black gauge faces. I would love to see green lighting. If I took a picture of my dash in the daytime, you would never see any lighting, unlike AK-Z's picture. I just got home from work, it is now dark here at about 5:00pm. My gauge lights hurt my eyes they are so dull, could be tears though, damn lights, why do they suck so much?

I finally had a chance to install the new Led bulbs. I am disappointed. Maybe my own fault, climbing a learning curve. First, I installed a led Festoon bulb for the dome light. The bulb I ordered is 1 -3/8†long and has four (4) leds in it. The light certainly was white. Because the leds are small, inside the festoon, once inside the dome lamp lens, the light was diminished to just a single spot on the lens. Perhaps I should have considered trying to install one of the 1- ¼†9 led units @ $8.99. I then installed new green led bulbs in the three small gauges. First I merely remove the old bulbs and installed the new ones. Yes, because I was hoping for a stock look, I choose green bulbs. The gauges certainly looked green! A nice green, but very dim. The bulbs, I used here are the BA9s Inverted Lens. I then removed the gauges, disassembled each one, and removed the green lamp diffuser in each gauge and reinstalled. Of course, in my haste as I pried the little green things out of each gauge, I broke off the little buttons located on the wings that retain the lens, making re-installment nearly impossible. Once the bulbs are installed without the green filters, they did brighten up to be about equal in light emission as the yet untouched speedo and tach lamps, just greener. One highlight, the ashtray light now has a White BA9 Focused Lens. The blue diffuser creates a very nice glow. Since I stopped smoking weed, the lid stays closed, now that I keep loose change in there. It seems pointless for me to insert a picture of this, now. Once I find the right bulb selection, I will. Maybe I should try one of the 4 led cluster 1895 BA9 bulbs, which are focused or maybe a frosted BA9. Perhaps after I overspend my budget on these relatively pricey led lamps, I will be back to cheap colored bulbs.

Sorry, for the crappy resolution_ These are the only two I can find:

I ordered an assortment of bulbs from them last week. I am hoping to brighten up my dash, dome, and map lights. I expect the bulbs tomorrow or the next. The web site is a bit clumsey to navigate. Every page has the same menu, so if you click a link to something, the page reloads but looks like the same page until you scroll down more than a screen full. The guy does have a technical page discussing the need or no need for electronic flasher.

I hope you have a real buffer, not one of those single speed jobs from Home Depot.I am still overcoming the learning curve on this too. I was lucky to find 2500 and 3000 grit paper to move up to. I found speed and weight control of the buffer is very important. I think about 300 to 500 rpm with the foam pad works well.

If you wish to try it yourself, at least get the foam pads, as RacerX stated. It is difficult or impossible to get the swirls out with the terry cloth pads. A cheap buffer like: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=92623 is better than the tie on type you have. Of course, I am a novice, so this is only what I can offer.

Very Nice! you've made it to the next level!

I am just a novice painter, so all I can tell you is what I have found out about this stuff. I bought some 4 oz. bottles from my local rep. He did not seem interested in the product at all. His bread and butter business is still the "usual suspects" in the paint business. I own a cheap airbrush, so I started to fart around with the little bottles of paint. I taped up some random stripes and weird patterns on a spare fender. I have. I really like using the paint. I put down the white base, then a coat of metallic silver then some feathering of metallic green. The stuff does dry pretty fast, so moving along was very easy. Just like on TV. I did paint over acrylic enamel. Cleaning up with water is a great benefit. I also got very lucky at my local Pearl Art Store. I found three gallons of the Auto Air Paint on closeout for $20.00 each! Of course the colors are not to my taste, but for just practicing with the stuff, who could ask for more? Anyway, the paint has cured with the help of a heat gun. It is very durable. It seems to have taken to the base paint very well. I even carefully sanded down the high edges of my taped up work without much problem. The paint seems to color sand as well as the enamel underneath. At this point this is as far as I have gotten with the stuff. My work has taken me away from the garage for a while. I need the $ for more stuff.

It is difficult just to wash my hands of this without dumping this on my friend (the garage owner) or the City. If the city were to impound the vehicle I would be hung for the tow,storage on city lot and fine of $750 approx. I have been doing some homework. This is of course just a passage, but it does pretty much give me a way to go with the situation. PA Law- METHODS OF DISPOSING OF ABANDONED VEHICLES FROM PRIVATE PROPERTY A landowner may not repossess an automobile for the costs of storing the vehicle upon the landowner’s private property unless the landowner is a bona fide warehouseman as provided by the Uniform Commercial Code, 13 P.S. Section 7102, et seq. A lien or bill incurred for repairs to a vehicle can be collected only by filing a complaint, obtaining judgment against the owner and having the vehicle sold at a Sheriff’s sale to satisfy the judgment. Notice of the proceeding must be provided to any person who has a lien endorsed upon the certificate of title for the vehicle according to the records of the Department.

I believe in this guy’s case, his email is working fine. It's his behavior that is bad. He certainly got the email I sent him in regards to telling him he owes me for storage. He also uses his email to still conduct quite a bit of activity on Ebay, as recent as this morning he won another auction. This guy has been buying up cars and motorcycles like crazy, with good feedback score. One car he bought and got good feedback for was over $35K. I sent him the title Express Mail with a tracer. It confirms delivery to his home address. I am just p.o. about being taken advantage of. I think I will get a duplicate title, resell the vehicle, and maybe send him the net result after fees and rent etc.

In Philadelphia, they fine $300.00 for parking an unregistered vehicle on the street. If the vehicle remains on the street, it is considered abandoned and towed to the impound. A $100 tow fee is charged. In order to claim vehicle it must now be registered and insured to the state minimums. A storage fee of $15.75 for the first 5 days and $17.25 for every day thereafter. After a total of 21 days in impound, the vehicle is auctioned off no matter what. A note: even though the buyer has the title in hand, I hold the registration. In my wisdom, I had titled and registered the vehicle as a Classic. So the registration stays in my name until the title is transferred by DMV. The registration never comes up for renewal as a Classic Class Vehicle; it was a mere $75.00 one-time fee.

Here is an idea:

I would like to tell you it is my secret weapon, but no, it is a crappy photo. or is it? Just a crappy photo.

This may not be the typical Ebay story. I am in a quandary, so I ask what would you do? On February 8th of 2005, my auction of an antique car ended. The high bidder placed his winning bid in the last few seconds of the auction. After a couple of days, I did not hear from the buyer. I sent a few e-mails, no reply. I found the guy's phone number in the information permitted by Ebay, and gave him a call. The guy is across the country, says he has to make a trip out east to pick up a few other cars and visit some friends, in a few weeks. So, I lay down the law, and I tell him, just like my listing explained, Pay Me! So he agrees, he did in fact wire the funds into my checking account as we had worked out, the very next day. I had to go out of town, but I had the title with me. So, as I agreed, I overnight the title to him, express mail. I called him up the next day, and he said he received the title and he would be able to pick up the car in early March. The last week of February, I call him and confirm the day he is going to pick up the car. It happened that I needed to go out of town again that week, I explained, But I would rearrange my schedule and be there. The appointed day comes (March 6), I call him on his cell phone and he tells me, he is still at home and cannot make it until sometime in April. He would call. I was a bit miffed, having to arrange things to accommodate him, "No big deal" I told him, and I could keep the car in my rented garage for a while. I emailed him April 14, I even added a picture of his now paid for vehicle, asking remember me? Where are you now? No answer from him. In the middle of May, I email him again, telling him I am moving. I need him to get the car. The garage owner gets paid rent for the space. $300 a month. No answer from him. I did in fact move, from my house, across the river to NJ. The car is still in the rented garage that I have still been paying for. The summer went by pretty quick. I have kept up with the garage space rent, as I have been using it somewhat, since the sold car was there anyway. I emailed the guy August 11. I explained he needs to pay the $300@ Month rent for May thru Sept, which I lay out, or I will sell off the car again, to recover the money. August 22nd, I get a phone message from him. He says, he never got the title, he has been trying to reach me, and I never told him he would have to pay for the storage. I emailed him back on August 23rd, as I did not want to get into a yelling match, and I wanted to keep a written record of this. I explained that as far as I am concerned, he has abandoned the car; I have the legal right to dispose of it any way I please. I told him to write me back with a plan to resolve this within the week or I will do as I please. The week has passed, again, no word from him. The guy is still trading on Ebay, using the same email address that I have been using. I look at his feedback and he spends thousands and thousands with good feedback. I did in fact get paid over $2500 in cash from this guy. It was real money I spent, and am not in a position to return to him. I also have been paying for storage. This is now in the 8th month. As a humble kind of guy, with very limited resources, I want to be fair. I feel that I have been taken advantage of. What would you do?

Yep, lenders have been giving money away to alot of people. It is all part of the market frenzy. The lenders felt confident that as long as home sale pricing was going up and up and up, they (the lender) stood on good ground and that they could better than recover their dough in the worst case scenario (the borrower's default). The real estate market like everything else is cyclic. Some realtors I know, say it is historically a 10 year cycle, well in the Eastern PA, region anyway. I think, the DC Beltway is no exception to this, as Mike said, it has just kept going up with a slight plateau about what? ten years ago? So as I said in an earlier post, the prices may not drop during this period, but they will go flat. Flat is better than down.