My Batmobile!

My black beauty

I drive a 1959 Plymouth Belvedere, 318 V8/Auto. People stop me all the time and shout about my “Batmobile”… fine by me, I’m a caped crusader at heart! It’s not myuch to look at, a ten-foot car I believe is the term? The car’s seen some rough years and cheap fixes, but I have been finding out what needs to be replaced on the car by trial-and-error. I drive her, and when something breaks, I fix her. She’s not yet named, but she is definitely a character. I picked her up for a song out in San Francisco, looking tired and beat up, but running all the same. I am crazy for seeing potential in the rusty black hulk I purchased, but it has proven to be a worthwhile venture! So far, I have done some tune-up work (her engine had been rebuilt) and with a few cycles of fresh fluids, she’s got no leaks and good compression. There are lots of small needs, but for less than $2100 invested so far (repairs included), I am quite satisfied!

A couple weeks ago, I was driving with my gal and she asked me about the horn, whether it worked. I knew it was busted, never worked from the day I got the car; I’ve pressed that horn ring a hundred times waiting in traffic, impatiently and never heard a peep. I looked at my girlfriend, pressed the horn rim, and the horn let out this quiet, distressed little *meeep* and I started laughing maniacally! The car is fixing itself! Yeah, like Christine…. I’ve always been, and now am even moreso, a firm believer that some cars aren’t just metal and paint….

About to get mounted!

Last week I shot down the bay to Sunnyvale in my ’66 Plymouth, where I hooked up with an old hot rodder who had a set of wheels for sale; I ended up driving home with a pretty much perfect set of chrome smoothie wheels and hubcaps (4 fresh tires mounted on them!), and a nice unmounted set of used P78/15 (the big ones) 4″ wide-whitewall tires very worthy of a second life on somebody’s car. Those will sit for now, but I’ll be spending a day next week installing and polishing my new chrome wheels! This hobby can get expensive, but the best advice I have is; check craigslist first!! I got $700 worth of new wheels and tires for $250. WIN!

The next big step is interior. I’ve bought brand new seatbelts (chrome buckles, like the 50’s airlines used!) and have a fresh headliner in box, with carpet picked out. I’ll be making new door panels myself, with clear sheet plastic tracing out the old panel fitment, then hardboard sealed with rubber spray & cut to fit the original location. Wrap it all with a quality vinyl and you’re in business! I’m leaning toward oxblood leather-grain vinyl, should look nice against all the black of the body/dash/etc.

With a 2bbl carburetor feeding the engine, I am quite unimpressed with the get-up of this car;  yeah I can burn some rubber, but those 5.2L engines are capable of so much more! Enter Craigslist (again!), where I found a guy in the area who’s got a 4bbl intake waiting for me. Drop in a new Summit Racing carburetor for about $240, and I’m in business!! Those dual exhausts will be put to good use any time now….. *rumble*

Pics and updates to come!

Planning!

I’m sitting here at work, listening to a playlist of songs from the early 90’s that were on the radio when I first started Model Railroading. Boy this takes me back…. I used to spend hours addressing the little details, winding my locos around my NTRAK modules (bought after the plywood-and-grass-mat proved bland haha) and I would spend literally hours tinkering and hauling little trains. I sold those off about, um… fourteen? Yeah, fourteen years ago. Good thing, too…. what’s the point of Ntrak modules without enough to have a loop? Yeah, I never thought that far ahead when I bought ’em. I should have built my own, but I was a kid and they were available/cheap. I’m over it.

I spent a couple hundred bucks the last year or so, and built a practice layout (gosh I really should post pics), enclosing workbench table and everything. Grass, scenery, trees, ballast, switches, turntable… Fun project, sure, but I can only watch those trains go around the loops (2 ovals, 2’x4′) about four times before I start snoring. Yeah, it’s that bad. I think I am done with it, perhaps some other newbie will want to buy it for a song and run it for his kids.

For the time being, I have spent my efforts and resources collecting and modifying quite an impressive fleet of locomotives, not to mention all my freight cars and passenger consists! It’s been a long trip from 2 locos and some Rapido-equipped cars… I’d list all my stuff here but it’d be a long read 🙂

The new layout will be different. It will be big, it will be long and well built and movable (in separate modules). I measure. I sketch and visualize and brainstorm. There are thousands of railroad photos on my hard drive, and I scan them all for new ideas, for inspiration.I have an opportunity to finally make something of my own- make a layout suiting my wants and needs, fitting my space, meeting my standards. Something that will provide me with the exact operations and capability that I want, running my own trains. This is exciting as hell! There have been few times that I have racked my brain this hard on a project, usually I just attack head-on and get it done. Not this time, no… I want everything to be purposeful and inspired, well placed and useful.

So here I sit, planning…