New Truck

About a week ago I was at the RC races watching and thinking how I need to do this... Well after the race they said they would be racing again next Sunday (usually its every 2 or so) and I thought ok, I can get my old truck together with some new parts by then. So I got online and found a hobby shop in the area (that means within 2 hours of here) and made a list of parts that I would need to get. Saturday I went, intending to buy all the parts needed or for +~$100 a new truck that I knew had its own class in racing here and that I have liked since it came out. After looking a while, I ended up with the new truck and some new higher capacity batteries. I got home after making a stop at the motocross track and junk yard and opened the truck up. Its a nice, big off road truck, ready to run, with lots of suspension. I was ready for the races...then I read something (I forget what) that made me look at the batteries I bought, bad news, they were a newer type than the 14 year old Radio shack batteries that I had and were not compatable with my charger. So I tried the old batteries, the truck looks really cool running around, but the batteries were only good for about 2-3 minutes and I needed 5. Well maybe I could get my Nitro car running, it just needed a tune and I could probably get away with running it in the novice class. When I was about to go run it I realized that I had to charge the glow plug heater, but where was the cord? Long story short, I found the glow heater charger about 30 minutes before the race and its a 4 hour charger. So I ended up going to the race and just watching. It was good racing and the weather turned out being a lot better than it was supposed to be.

Halloween

The question came to my mind about 4-5 days before Halloween: what sort of costume can I get/make in a town that lacks a real Wal-Mart, has a Big-K and a soon to close Mervyns (the only real clothing store in town). The reason that I needed a costume was for a party that I wasn't really expecting. I looked a bit on e-bay, but shipping probably would have been to slow. I looked into Halloween stores; I would have pretty much had to drive to LA for that. So I just decided to go with a costume I had been wanting to do for a while - ninja.

Given I had nowhere to get the good parts of the costume (weapons), I figured I could at least get a long dowel at the Home Depot for a bo ... wrong, the biggest dowel was 1/2 inch and 4 feet long. Time to head for the plumbing section :) I ended up with a 10' section of 1" PVC. Once cut down and partially wrapped in tape it is nearly the dimensions of an actual roku-shaku-bo (rough translation: 6-foot-staff).

Next was the outfit. I had seen ads for Todd's Outdoors having costume stuff so I headed that way - not so much with the costume stuff really, but he did have 2 swords. I looked around the store and found some black pants that looked like they would be good and a few other small things. And no, I didn't get the sword, I didn't feel like paying that much for part of a Halloween costume. For the top I found a long sleeved shirt that looked like it had the right cut off at the arms and removed them. I intended to do more with it, but as it was i only finished the costume 15 minutes before I left for the party. I bought some black fabric at Wal-Mart for the other things - head band, face mask, belt, shoes.

All in all it came out pretty well, by the end of the night the pieces of cut material had all frayed at the edges, but it still looked pretty good.
This costume should get used again and I know several upgrades that I want for it.

More Speedfest stuff

I just thought I would throw these videos up that other people had taken at the speed festival

What happens when I get bored

Angela was here last weekend with the Holiday, we did a whole lot of nothing, just hung out, watched some movies and spent some time with friends. This was a flex week so I ended up with a three day weekend this weekend also. The fair was in town this weekend, so I didn't go to that :) I was going to go to the demo derby today, but you have to pay for two admissions just to get into the derby - so that was out. They had a parade yesterday, but I managed to do some major sleeping in this weekend and missed that also.

So, what to do? How about painting...the truck.

The hood has been looking really bad for a while so I thought I might try to paint it. First thing was me trying to get the clear coat that was left on the hood off - what was left was really tough.
I got to a point with the sanding and decided that was enough - I'm sure I'll regret that later.
I bought a couple of work lights in case it got late, they were $5 each, which I thought was a deal.

Through down some masking material and go to painting.
Not bad for spray cans. The color matches really well, but you can still see the scratches and such that I got to hasty to sand out (and where there was still the clear underneath).

Is just red good enough? I think not.
I officially hate trying to get pinstripes straight...Ready for paint...

Removing all the plastic...There it is, I think the paint will even once it dries a little more and is clear coated. I am still trying to figure out if there is anything else I want to do before I clear it.So there it is, I like it, and I think it should last at least as long as the rest of the paint on the truck.

Silver Medalist

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Apparently they had leftovers from last year, because it has 2007 on the plate, but I don't really care.

Speed Fest Pictures

Here's the link, I took a few: 617 Pictures.

If you think your car is ugly, you could just make a new body for it:

Festival of Speed

Last weekend I headed down to San Diego for their Fleet Week and the Festival of Speed. It was two days of Vintage car racing along with a large car show.

Some only have three wheels and two cylinders:Trans Am series group, there were nearly 40 cars in this class and the racing was really good:
A picture of part of the car show, the BMW club was in the row behind me and then a mustang club behind that. There was a line of stock cars along the back fence that they let run in a exhibition race.
The Ferrari club of San Diego had a pretty big group there:
68 Horsepower to the wheels:
Cuda 440 6-pack
Old racing Vette (licensed for the street)