Tara and I have been going to the local Summit Racing (McDonough, GA) every Monday for their weekly show-n-shine just to park up and open the Wagon trunk and shamelessly promote a couple of our pedal cars - namely the red fire truck pedal car and the orange Champion fifties-style pedal car.

We're getting a great reaction from people who seem to globally love these and hate the plastic pedal cars you can buy in the toy stores. But no sales as yet. :(

Still, you get to see a little bump in the web traffic on Monday night & Tuesday, so people are at least looking. If you see us there, drop by and say hello. If we're not with the car, pick up a card and call us and we'll come running!

Yesterday Jasmine died at a traffic stop. Everytime we put it into Drive the engine would stall - but Reverse worked just fine. Conclusion?  The transmission is messed up internally and I'll need to find a local expert to fix it. That's not going to be easy or cheap I suspect.

In the meantime, I have a wagon with a crummy engine and great transmission and a convertible with a great engine and crummy transmission. Which one will win?

After a little bit of thought I'm going to sacrifice the convertible and swap its engine into the wagon. Tara will get a fun car to drive and the convertible will be off the road until.. well, further notice.

Reason being, I want to drive around the pedal cars to local events like Summit, HAMB & Grits and get the work out. I got the first one, a fire truck pedal car (shown here) yesterday.

This weekend I got a few hours in the garage so I worked on my dry sump tank, water header tank and both catch cans.

I had one small setback where I put the header tank too close and forgot that the rocker covers are on studs so I needed more room to remove them, but at the second attempt I'm happy with how everything fits.

Now I have to start planning the hoses and hose ends to plumb them up.

I got $50 from the in-laws today (my birthday) so I think a trip to Summit is in order for hose ends!

Congratulations to Hot Rod magazine for launching a new magazine this month. Hot Rod Deluxe is a cool new vintage-themed magazine that isn't hurt at all by putting Dayna Delux on the front cover!

Great articles about a straight-axle vette, steel wheels and a great montage of photo's that I've never seen done by another magazine.

It's described as a "prototype" to gauge reactions; I think they've done a great job with this one.

I had a great time on Sunday meeting others from the HAMB forum for breakfast. Brett (GreenMtnBoy) arranged it and was surprised when 20 people showed up at the Skillet in Roswell. One of my old haunts when I lived in Roswell, a great place for real Southern cooking!

You should read the thread about the meeting, but here's a pic of yours truly admiring Dave's (dvanecek's) bike..

Do you know what present I'm looking forward to most this year?

The Electroline Diaries

Laurent Bagnard spent some time with the Burbank Choppers (where our very own Keith Weesner is a member) and documented his stay in this great new book. I can't wait.

Perhaps I could even persuade them to let me sell them here..

A few more little things done on the wagon this weekend.

First was removing the wheels and painting the centers of the drums silver - it was a quick and dirty fix to the problem of having no room to fit the cones.

Then I scrounged up enough of the old trim fastenings to fit the trim...to one side of the wagon! I'll have to order some more, but at least Tara will see the trim  when she gets in the car.

Getting the indicators to ground to the bumper is still an issue, can't get one of them to work still. I suspect I'll have to buy a new housing.

Last weekend I finally got the fixed wheels back on the car (they fitted, yeah!), dropped the body on and rolled it outside!

For the first time I can see how the chop looks, how the rollcage looks in the car and how the car will sit over the wheels.

I'm really pleased.

It's not fitted of course, I just rested the body on the rollcage, and jacked it up a little at the back with a piece of 2x4. I think the small rake is about right, what do you think?

The front end is sitting a bit high in these pics due to poor fitment, so the front wheels will be covered an inch or so more.

I'm so glad I went for the Mopar Police wheels, not the usual big billet!!

A couple of weekends ago Tara decided to jump in and upholster her Tiki Wagon!

Although the vinyl seats were in pretty good shape, they were a bit tired and a boring dark red color and Tara wanted to "spice things up" a bit. Well, I think we found the right material for that, that's for sure.

We bought a roll of pink, furry leopard-like print material that I joke is so nice to sit on it that everyone should drive in it naked. Tara made me promise not to though.

Amazingly to me, Tara made these truly fitted covers over the weekend, took the seats apart and fitted them to the seats properly. Not just elasticated slip-ons, but really fitted. It makes a world of difference.

Love them or hate them (and every woman who sees them, loves them) they certainly liven up the interior. Door panels will come soon, Tara is already planning how to replace the flat sheets and re-use the top fiberglass panel.

I've read about this movie on the H.A.M.B. for a while now, but it's getting exciting now with Faith still slaving away on finding period sets, cars, people and more - everything needed to make a movie that is as period-perfect as possible.

Oh, and on a zero budget.

This thread about the project is really incredible.

Check out the plot, cast and beautiful pictures at www.deuceofspadesmovie.com