Pictures Anyone?

Yes, I passed inspection!!!

The facility was in Asbury Park, about an hour away.  The appointment was at 9 am so I left the house around 7:30 am to allow a little extra time.

I was up at 6 to load the car with all my tools, paperwork, tape, glue, etc. hoping that if there was a problem with something, they would let me correct it on the spot.  I later found that would have been ridiculous -- the regulations don't work that way.  I was a little worried about getting the car on the trailer because it was cold and the trailer was covered with a thin sheet of ice, but no problems.  The drive was uneventful and since I was going against the traffic, I made it there 15 minutes early.  Good, I thought, maybe I can get through the inspection earlier, but no, the regulations don't work that way.

The facility appeared empty from the outside, but there was one guy sitting on a plastic chair outside a door.  OK, I'll try that door.  As I approached, I noticed the 23 signs that all said, "DO NOT ENTER", "RING BELL ONCE", "DO NOT RING BELL MORE THAN ONCE", "WAIT OUTSIDE"...  So what did I do -- rang the bell once and carefully stepped back from the door.  I had a feeling the doorknob might have been electrified.  I wasn't sure what was going on in there, but it must be important, maybe it had something to do with national security.  After a few moments, I heard footsteps approaching from the other side, locks unbolted and the door cracked open.  "Yes", the mustached man said.  "I'm here for my inspection" as I pointed my thumb back over my shoulder at the car on the trailer.  "Someone will be with you shortly", and the door closed.

That went well, I thought.  I looked around at the outdoor waiting area and decided to go back to my car since it was still below freezing.  25 minutes later, another employee came out to see me.  It was Joe, the guy who I had spoken with on the phone and who's house was destroyed by the hurricane.  He was friendly and put me (somewhat) as ease.  He told me unload the car as he opened one of the large garage doors.  I drove the cobra in and got it lined-up on the vehicle lift and then he had me open the hood.  Fortunately, he commented "this is a nice one".  Joe explained that this part was going to take about 45 minutes and I should wait outside.  So back to the car I went.  "This part?" I thought.  How many parts are there?  By the way, I don't have any pictures inside the facility because it clearly would have been a violation of the regulations.  Let's just say it was a very big garage with a couple car lifts, two guys working, some files cabinets, lots of OSHA signs and a giant safe like you'd see in a bank from the 1800's.  I figured the safe is where they keep all the important forms.

Presumably Joe was inspecting the underside of the car to see where all the wires, fuel lines, brake lines, etc were run and that none of the moving parts were close to any parts that aren't supposed to move.  About an hour later, the garage door opened again.

As Joe came out, I was looking for some kind of indication how "this part" had gone.  Nothing.  Is that good, or not good, I thought.  Finally, he said, "everything looks good", and I was able to exhale.  Then he had me demonstrate that the headlights, high beams, turn signals and brake lights all work.  They did.  I showed him a sensor that checks for brake fluid leaks.  But he didn't bother to check for other things that are required like a horn, flashers, windshield defroster, wipers and other sensors/indicators.  I had them, but I guess he had gotten comfortable that the car was properly constructed.  He asked me a couple questions about other design/construction details, but never bothered to confirm what I was saying.  "That's it" he said.  And then came the dreaded, "oh, just one more thing..., we have to do a brake test".  

The car doesn't have power brakes or ABS so I wasn't sure what it would take to pass.  I know the brakes work, but do they work well enough?  Joe had me move the car to another area where you drive the car forward and slam on the brakes while the car is on sensor pads.  After having just settled down, I'm more nervous than ever.  As I was waiting for him to give me the signal to drive forward onto the pads, he told me to turn the car off because the computer had frozen.  I looked over at the computer and saw that it was a Gateway computer from about 1997.  I hoped the system had broken and he would just waive the test.  But no, he restarted the computer and I saw it slowly reboot.  After waiting about 10 minutes for the computer to reload, I saw that the system now seemed to be working.  He had me run the car through the test three times and finally gave a thumbs-up.  I was a little unsure if I should ask what the test showed, but I decided I should know and he said that everything was within specs.

Want to know what was in that big safe?  After the brake test, Joe said he had to take a few pictures of the car for the file.  He went over to the safe, turned the dial a few times and spun the big wheel.  The door slowly swung open and sitting inside was a digital camera (probably as least 10 years old).  He took the pictures and I drove the car outside to load it back on the trailer.  He said he would fax the forms back to the main office and they would issue me a title.

I loaded the car and got out of there.

I should get the title in about a week and then I'll be able to get my plates.  On the road just in time for Christmas.

Final Inspection - Take 2

Just a quick update to let everyone know that my inspection has been rescheduled for tomorrow morning at 9 am.  Clear skies are in the forecast so I expect to be there with plenty of time to spare.  Today I finished up a few final odds and ends, checked all the electrical systems, ran the engine for awhile and gave everything a final look.

All systems go!

I have no idea what's going to happen, but it sure would be nice to get this done on the first try.  Wish me luck!

PS.  I promise to post some pictures of the completed car if I pass.

Inspections and Super-storms Don't Mix

Here is a quick chronology since the last post

Sept 21:  NJMVC receives my document package

Call, call, call (those are weekly calls to check on the status)

Oct 22: Call again and it goes like this, "VIN", "xxxxxxxxxx", "Oh, that was approved last week and we sent it on to the inspection center", "Wow, thanks (thinking: and was anyone going to let me know?)". "Call them to make an appointment"

Oct 22:  (Minutes later after I finished jumping around the house)    I called the inspection station and spoke to the actual inspector. He seems to be the specialist and was very helpful.  We spent about 20 minutes reviewing what he would be looking for and I had everything on his list.  Furthermore, they weren't that busy so I booked for the following Friday, Nov 2.  Hopefully just one more trip on the trailer to the station in Asbury Park, a
about an hour away on the Jersey shore.

Oct 29:  Hurricane Sandy hits NJ.  Pretty bad.  We lose a few big trees and our power is knocked out.  The shore is devastated.

Nov 1:  I called the station but no answer.  This is not good.  And we still don't have power.

Call, call, call... (these are twice daily calls to the station)  No answer.

Nov 7:   Someone answers.  They haven't been able to reopen yet and worse, the guy who does the specialty inspections lost his house and will be out for 2-3 weeks.

Well, that's where we are.  It puts a lot of things in perspective.  We have no lights, heat or power, and 7 inches of new snow, but we're safe and getting by.  Here is a good guy  who lost everything and there wasn't anything he could do about it.

Getting my car inspected isn't really that important.

The Home Stretch

Hi Friends, Fans and Followers,

I'm back after two months with no updates.  My apologies.  However, it doesn't mean I haven't been working on the car.  I have.  But we also took a couple trips, sent two kids off to college and had another start sophomore year of high school.  Not to mention doing all the other daily activities of our hectic lives.

But enough excuses.  I'm back and here's what's been going on.  First, I took a big step toward road-worthiness by sending in the information package required by the great state of New Jersey requesting a title.  Here it is.

You may not be able to tell from the photo but this is a two inch thick binder filled with forms, receipts, plans, instructions, photos, parts lists, etc.  Even with all this, I still expect that they'll have questions/problems -- I just hope I'll be able to convince them that this car deserves to be on the road.  I should hear from them next week.  After I get through this step, I can schedule the safety inspection.  It seems strange that I'm more worried about the paperwork than the inspection.  I guess it's just the nature of dealing with the bureaucrats at the Motor Vehicle Commission.

Since I've sent in the paperwork, maybe you've already guessed that the car is finished.  Well, it's not finished but it's pretty close.  I still don't want to show too many pictures because I'm waiting for the grand unveiling (hopefully soon).  Here are a few.

I finished the dashboard by making and mounting the glove box door.

I attached some felt to the dash using contact cement.  This provides some padding.

Then I trimmed the holes.

Next I did the same thing with the leather.

I installed the gauges and switches.

And added connectors to the various groups of wiring.

Before I could install the dash, I had to make a contact for the horn.

The copper plate will be the contact when the horn button is pushed.

The steering shaft goes through the horn contact so it is exposed regardless of the steering wheel position.

I had to trim part of the body to fit the dash into place.

And here is the completed dash assembly.

 Good thing Chris was around to help install the windshield.

And then Chris helped mount the hood.

I had to finish the wiring for the tail lights.

Here is a shot of the engine compartment.

And the interior.  Notice that I still have to finish the carpeting.

As you can see, I'm getting very close.  Wish me good luck with the NJMVC!

The Happiest Guy on Route 95

In my last post three weeks ago, I knew I was getting close to getting the body back from the painter.  Then, a few days ago, he told me he was done and I could pick it up today.  More about that later, but this afternoon driving with the freshly painted car behind me on the trailer down Route 95, I caught myself glancing back through the rear view mirror with a big grin on my face!

I knew I had a lot to do to get ready for the body, but boy did I underestimate it.  The first thing I realized was that for every hour I spent working on the car, I only got 20 minutes closer to being done.  And the second thing I realized was that a couple months ago when I would tell people I was 80% done, I was closer to 40% complete.

As this week progressed, the days got much longer culminating with a 20 hour workday on Friday. Here's what I got done over the last three weeks.

Finished the wiring throughout the front of the car.

Made a pair of butterfly valves for the fresh air system.

Prepped the dashboard for the final switch and gauges location.  Next it will be covered in leather.

Installed carpeting in the driver's footbox area.

Completed the engine wiring.

Did my first wheel alignment (all four wheels).  There are strings running along side the car from front to back that are parallel to the frame.  These gave me reference points to make sure the wheels were straight.  Then I used a wheel alignment gauge to get the right angle on each tire.

This week was a record for the number of parts deliveries I got - at least one a day.  Here is UPS Chris checking in on the progress.

I made molds to create fiberglass enclosures for the rear speakers.  I'll put fiberglass on the outside of the mold and then remove the pink foam.

I finished fabricating the trunk area.

Covered all the aluminum with sound deadening material and did about half the carpeting.

I built a frame to hold the stereo components in the trunk.

 I welded the frame pieces together and I was worried because the welder hadn't been working correctly.  I even took it to a shop for them to check it but it worked fine there.  I knew welders use a lot of current and I was concerned that our house wiring couldn't handle it.  Well, I traced all the wiring back to the main electrical box and everything looked fine.  Finally, I found the problem.

We have a refrigerator in our garage and it's on the same circuit as the welder.  Whenever the refrigerator turned on, the welder stopped working.  With the frig unplugged, the welder worked better than ever.

I finished about half the wiring in the rear portion of the car.  You can see some of it in the picture above.  Here's another view.

While I was busy on my end, the painter was doing his job.

All that took a lot of hours.  Laurie has been so supportive during the whole journey and that's made it possible for me to get this close to being done.  That's why I love her.

Last night I wanted to load the car on the trailer so I could leave early this morning.  Since the wiring isn't connected, I couldn't start the engine and drive it onto the trailer, but fortunately we have two French exchange students staying with us.  They helped push the car up the ramps and onto the trailer.  That's how we do it in America!

The trip to the painter this morning was long but uneventful (he's in New Haven CT).  Before I got there, they had staged the body in a separate room so they could have an unveiling ceremony.  When I walked into the room, I was so overwhelmed that I actually couldn't breathe!  The car looked incredible!  Better than I had imagined and it looked even more amazing when we got it into the sunlight.  My friend Ninat met me there and was a big help getting the body on the chassis.  That only took about 10 minutes, but then we all stood there for an hour admiring the colors, the body lines and the mirror finish.  I definitely made the right choice on the colors and using this painter.

I as said earlier, I realized during my return trip that I must have been driving along the highway for at least an hour with this big grin on my face.  You know the type of smile when your face starts to hurt after awhile.  I couldn't wait to get home to show Laurie and the kids.  They were waiting for me as I drove down the road to our house.

My plan was to keep the car under wraps until the big unveiling party.  Well, as soon as I pulled into the driveway, some friends who were driving by stopped to see the car, and our neighbors on both sides came over.  Later, some other friends who heard the car was back came by.  We'll still have the party and I can't wait! 
 
I'm not ready to reveal the whole car yet, but I'll give you a sneak preview.

Now I'm really excited to finish.  I better get back to the garage.