Happy Father's Day

Today's Father's Day.

I'd like to send a big thank you to my father. Almost exactly 12 years ago I called my father at 3am. The car had left me nearly stranded on the 101 in the middle of the Redwoods. I was able to find a closed gas-station with a payphone and a light in the parking lot. It took a couple hours and many phonecalls but eventually we diagnosed and fixed the problem. (The solution required a screw-driver, a folded piece of paper, and running around in front of a motion-activated light every 5 minutes.) It was enough to get me the 700+ miles back to LA.

So for this, and countless other jams you've helped me out of, Thanks Dad.


(Although, it should be noted that dad sold me the car that left me stranded. So maybe he's not always looking out for me. :) )




I finished the seats on the 1973 TR6 this morning.

For the passengers seat I decided not to replace the bottom foam, just the seat back. As it turns out that makes the project a whole lot easier. The vinyl and foam aren't attached to each other on the seat back. It seems things are held in with tension. It's not quite as easy as putting on a sock but the same concept applies. (Push, twist, wriggle your toes, pull, repeat.)

On the drivers' side I decided to replace the back and bottom foam. This was alot more painful. Mostly because of the way the vinyl is glued between two pieces of foam. And the original glue was pretty strong. I spent over an hour just cleaning the little bits of foam off of the vinyl because the adhesive was stronger than the foam. After getting stuff cleaned up (and discovering that upholstery spray adhesive is expensive as well as strong) it wasn't too difficult to rebuild everything.

Between the two seats I probably spent 3-5 hours. We'll see how much harder it is to do the same job with new vinyl in about a month.

Next time I'll wear latex gloves. It's going to take a few days to get all of the glue off my hands.