Battery Tie Down Bolt

This is a great indicator of the overall state of Black Car. While it looks pretty good from the outside and from 10 feet away, when you start looking closely you start to see small problems.

When I popped the hood, the battery tie down was missing the forward bolt. Now, there really isn't a good reason for this bolt to be missing, just a general lack of attention to detail.


So once we Black Car moved into her new home in the car-hole, I unpacked some boxes and found my bucket of bolts that I salvaged during my AE86 donor car tear down.


A quick dig through the bucket and I found a bolt that would fit.


The battery is now secure, but the OCD part of me is still trying to figure out if I need to go figure out and track down the correct length bolt since this one is likely too long. Since Black Car will never be a Concourse level vehicle, this will probably be good enough.

Not Much Happening

Getting off to a slow start with the new Black Car.

I picked it up shortly after moving for a new job and am living in a temporary apartment when it was delivered. All of my stuff is in storage so I have no tools or parts to start playing with, just the bear necessities to live and go to work.

Once we find a house with a carhole, I should be able to start playing a little more with the Black Car.

For now, here's a pic of when Black Car lived on the left coast and got to play with a bunch of other Toys:


That picture was taken at the 2007 T.O.R.C. meet and if I remember correctly, PJ Bonifacio was still the owner of the Black Car. I think he had built the black Corolla and white Cressida that are both shown at the left.

JAF Emblem

Got the JAF Emblem in the mail today. Not normally the first thing I'd buy for a car since it's really quite a JDM-fanboy thing to do, but most of the classic Japanese tin seem to have them and how would I fit in if I didn't have one?


In any event, I didn't bother to clean it so it still has the authentic JDM road grime on it for that added bonus. It appears that there are bootleg badges floating around on eBay, but a quick look before buying and this shows all signs of being authentic with the way it is constructed.


So at least it's a real fanboy piece and not a knockoff.

Nardi Horn Button

Black Car came with a Nardi steering wheel but lacked a horn button:


I came across a genuine Nardi Torino horn button for sale and picked it up:

Easy to install, just hook up the horn wire and click it into place. The only trouble now is that the horn still doesn't beep when the button is depressed. A small problem to look into in the future.

Excited

I'm very excited to have picked up this new car. It's in pretty good shape but by no means perfect. I'd say it's what you call a 10-foot car. It looks great from 10 feet away, and in pictures it looks really nice.

But once you get up close and start looking at things there are plenty of flaws.

All in all, I think it's a perfect starting point for my new project. Lots of little things to take care of, and a couple of Big Things that are in work, so it should be entertaining.

Got a New Toy Today

So I got a call at work today from the truck driver that he was delivering my new Toy. Here's what I saw when I drove up; a wonderful sight. Fresh off the back of the truck.