In the 1960‘s seatbelt laws were a relatively new thing. Until the National Traffic Safety and Motor Vehicle Safety Act was passed in 1966 there was no federal safety standards on automobiles. The law requiring seatbelts in all seats came in to effect in 1968. Cars manufactured before then generally had seatbelts as optional accessories. The front ones usually came by default and the rear belts were special order.

In the case of my ‘65 Mustang the front seats both had lap belts and the rear seats had nothing. At some point, a previous owner installed a lap belt for one of the rear seats. I’ve replaced the existing seatbelt (which was the wrong color) and installed a seatbelt for the other seat.

That almost looks like it’s supposed to be there!

Hooray for slightly more safety! This won’t, sadly, make those rear seats any more comfortable.

Just got the Mustang back this week from the shop. It had been there for the past two weeks. While I had dropped it off for what I had thought was going to routine clutch and transmission work – it didn’t quite turn out exactly that way.

For the first few weeks I have had the car, I was driving it all the time. Way more than it had been driven in a very long time. It was also the first manual transmission car I had ever driven more than just down the street. I had assumed, apparently incorrectly, that my terrible progress of learning to drive a manual had accelerated the death of the clutch. Apparently, though, it wasn’t me. And I’m better at driving a manual than I thought.

The clutch plate had been installed backwards by a previous mechanic. Backwards. How do you even make that mistake?

That, then, severely screwed up the flywheel and the flywheel bolts. Oh yeah, and the transmission input seal got damaged, most likely from the screwed up clutch. Really, all in all, a solid fuck up by someone in the past. Thanks.

Second gear was also causing problems by popping out. A synchronizer gear was to blame and so the transmission, with all this mess, needed to be rebuilt. And so it was.

Lastly the shifter was tightened up and the bushings replaced. No more slopping shifting for this car!

That car is even more of a pleasure to drive now. No more slipping, stalling, jumping, and popping. Smooth sailing all around. Knowing a good mechanic is priceless – except for the parts and labor, of course.

Back in May I picked up an AeroQuad Typhoon quadcopter kit at Maker Faire. I have been interested in model airplanes and other model flying things since I was little. I frequently had a styrofoam or balsa wood glider to play with in the yard. Gliders are fun – but throwing and chasing it around the yard got old after a while.

My Dad and I also had a gas powered model airplane many years ago (probably a good 10-15 years) that we only got out to fly a few times. Due to the need for a runway and space to fly we ended up having to join the AMA and a local club. They had a field and people who could help with instruction so we could actually learn to fly the thing.

I think the downfall of that experiment was the overhead of not just being able to pick up and fly it. That was a weekend hobby that wouldn’t get “fun” until a decent amount of effort was put in.

Fast forward to today where everything in that old airplane is outdated and archaic. For me, the introduction of the quadcopter (and other multi-rotor flying things) changed my thoughts on trying again. Quadcopters are generally easier to control, more stable, and the software on them can act like training wheels, keeping it upright and in the air (unless configure the accelerometer wrong).

The first few flights behind the house ended in collisions with walls and other things. I discovered the Sunnyvale Baylands Park via BayRC and it has worked out well for flying. I got the hang of it pretty quickly – and am now able to zip around the park. We’ll see how long it lasts before the first big crash.

I recently acquired a ‘65 Mustang convertible so you’ll start seeing things about it appear here. I’ve failed a bit at keeping up with posts about the Beetle – but I’m going to give this another go.

The name “Rose” was the name the previous owner used for the car. I’ve decided to keep it for lack of any truly better ideas (and to not confuse the car too much).

The photo above is from one of my first trips with the car down Skyline Blvd on the San Francisco peninsula.

So, to actually use the board I needed to figure out what the hell the unlabled connection points at the top of the badge were (all the I/O, etc was unlabled). I figured I’d publish the results so someone else won’t have to go through the same identification process.

I finally got a chance to visit New York City (technically for work, but better than nothing). While there I took some photos.

My phone as been my “pocket watch” for years. I recently decided to try and “detach” myself a bit from my phone, twitter, email, and all the distractions we’ve invented. I realized that I check the time frequently and if I pull out my phone I’ll not only check the time but also read the notifications, unlock and read my email, twitter, and whatever else is demanding my attention.

Now, instead, I can raise my arm, look at my watch, and be done. No extra distractions.

So far I’m finding that I’m still subconsciously pulling out my phone instead of looking at my watch. I believe this is because I’m not really “checking the time” as much as checking for anything new that’s been pushed to me. I’m getting better at catching myself. When I can get to the point where I’m only consciously pulling out my phone when there’s something I want to do – I will have broken the information addiction.

• February: Moved, again. So far I haven’t lived in the same town twice yet, but we’ll see how long that lasts. This was the 5th town I’ve lived in here in California.
• May: Bought a Cannon T1i to so that I could really begin to learn photography. Getting out to photograph things has been coming in spurts, but overall I think I’m improving. It has given me a new appreciation for excellent photography. In general, it’s nice to have high resolution reminders of the past.
• May: Bought a meat smoker and experimented with another way to cook delicious food. I’ve used it a few more times since then and have improved my methods a bit.
• June: Embark with friends on an attempt to build a 6 person “bike-car”. Although we’ve so far failed at doing so, it got us to buy lots of fun and useful power tools. I’ve learned to weld steel, which has come in useful for repairs to the Beetle. Most of the other tools have also come in handy. Having a well stocked workspace is incredibly convenient. I hope that even if the “bike-car” is a failure, we eventually do finish some sort of large-scale project.
• July: Traveled to the Washington D.C. area to see some old friends.
• July: Bought a 1969 Volkswagen Beetle. I’ve been interested in the Beetle since I was very young and have always said I’d get one “someday”. During a commute on Caltrain, I have no idea why, I opened up craigslist and looked at Beetles to get an idea of availability and asking prices. I asked myself why I shouldn’t buy one now and I couldn’t come up with a good reason. Found a great listing, checked it out, bought it. It is definitely the most random and awesome purchase I’ve ever made.
• August: Took a family trip to San Diego. The weather and the area was awesome. Relaxed on the sand, went snorkeling, read books, and took pictures. It was a great trip.
• October: Traveled to D.C. again for my friend’s wedding. It was absolutely some of the most fun I’ve had all year.
• November: Apture, where I had been working for about 20 months, was acquired by Google.
• November: Trip to Orlando with the family to see my grandparents. My family is full of silly people.
• December: Started working through a book to learn Italian. I’ve meant to do this for years. So far I’m a couple of lessons in to the book. Hopefully I can keep it up; I get distracted easily.

I’m sure there’s more I’ve forgotten. I classify a lot of the random stuff I’ve picked up this year as a “quarter-life crisis”. I was always using the excuse of being “busy” and that “I’ll do it when things slow down”. Things never slow down. If you don’t do it now, life will pass you by. Sure, there’s more opportune times than others and you may have to plan ahead to meet financial goals – but in general there’s no better time than the present.

I also decided this year that my single track of focusing on software and computers all day, every day was becoming monotonous. Building software products is a great, rewarding, and challenging career which I absolutely love. But to come home and keep doing that at night and on the weekends leads to burnout. I decided to primarily focus on software at work and home was for all the other hobbies. I’m much happier because of the change.

The arbitrary measure of time that was 2011 turned out well.

The Parts

The process is basically:

• Take out seat

• Strip seats to frame

• Make repairs to frame/spring

In this case I had to weld the backrest spring back together.

• Put new cover on spring

• Put new cushion on

• Cover cushion with felt

• Put cover on seat

• Attach buttons on backrest

This was interesting because I didn’t have new buttons to attach. The original seats were red and the new seats would be black. I decided I’d keep a little bit of the old car in there by keeping the faded, red buttons on the black seats. It adds a bit of uniqueness to the car.

• Put seat in car

The seat on the left is the re-upholstered passenger seat.

The full gallery of images is here.

• Washed the car
• Lubricated frontend
• Checked master cylinder
• Adjusted the brakes
• Adjusted e-brake setting
• Adjusted steering wheel alignment (hooray driving straight!)
• Fixed the passenger defrost vent airflow adjustment dial
• Passenger seatbelt was attached incorrectly, causing it to be twisted
• Replaced the door window rubber seals
• Replaced door seals
• Replaced visor clips
• Fought with bent hinges on the driver side door (door doesn’t close right)
• Replaced trunk liner
• Replaced door panel attachment clips
• Replaced trunk wiring cover
• Replaced trunk rubber seal
• Replaced engine rubber seal
• Attempted to adjust the camber of the front, passenger wheel

• The gas cap washer was dried out and brittle
• The gas tank fill lines looked original to the car
• The defroster vent hoses were a mess
• One of the fresh air hoses in the engine compartment had a hole in it

Any or all of these things could have been the cause so I just fixed it all.

Every time I open another box from Wolfsbürg West it’s like Christmas

After I removed the gas fill hoses

The replaced gas fill hoses

I vacuumed and cleaned up the rest of the trunk.

The engine compartment is starting to look (and run) a lot better now too.

Over the past weekend I dove in to the first of the maintenance on the Beetle.

• Valve adjustment
• Oil change
• Spark plug gap adjustment
• Adjust distributer points
• Adjust idle

Took me most of the weekend to work through it all and get it to the point where I was happy with things. At the beginning of the weekend the car would idle incredibly rough, stutter on acceleration and generally be a bit sluggish. I attributed this to the car just being old. Boy was I wrong. By the end of the weekend I was zipping around the block and it felt like a whole new car.

In the days since the weekend I’ve continued to work on tuning the idle. I got a new Tach-Dwell Meter on Tuesday which enabled me to check the distributer points more precisely and also verify the correct idle speed (850 rpm). The idle is a bit finicky, but as of Wednesday night I think I’ve finally got it between 850-900 rpm and running smooth.

During the spark plug gapping we discovered that the cylinder #4 spark plug was threaded incorrectly at some point in the past and now sits at a nasty angle. It definitely still works but I have a feeling that cylinder isn’t working at 100%. I’ll be investigating solutions including inserts and possibly replacement of the cylinder head.

It’s amazing what little things can make a big difference in a car. Today most cars “just work” and computers control most of the functions. Being able to see how every little thing in a car works, though, means you have so much more appreciation for what it does and how it does it. I’m starting to get a good “feel” for the car and can tell when things are “off”.

Next up I’m hoping to replace some worn engine parts such as the spark plugs and air hoses. Then on to replacing some of the gas tank parts. Those hoses are pretty damn old (and leaking smell – but no gas yet).

• Google Apps user authentication
• Last added account disapearing from account list

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Tonight I go to get the open door activation mode of the dome light working and what-do-you-know? It “just works”. I’m not sure what happened, but I’ll take it.

As I was in the trunk (front of the car) I noticed there was a rigid metal cable running from toward the cabin to the front. After tracing it I realized it was a trunk release. It looked like when the glove box was replaced the trunk release lever wasn’t put back in. I just thought the trunk didn’t lock. I removed the glove box and disconnected the cable from the release latch. Then I ran the cable through the hole in the glove box and back in to the trunk. The lever got reattached to the glove box and I reattached the glove box to the car. Then the cable was reconnected to the latch.

Almost done now, I had to re-adjust the hook from the trunk lid since it had been made short to prevent latching (since you were unable to release the latch). Took me a couple of tries to get the right length on the hook – but it works now.

So far this car is exactly what I wanted. A project with lots to do and lots to learn.