When I was a kid, my pinewood derby car was so terrible looking, the race marshal ran it backwards. I can’t say I could blame him though, there was no way to tell what it was supposed to be. Well, like they say, it’s never too late to have a happy childhood. This year, my [...]

Am I installing a Nixie clock in my car? No. But I do like to sell off one hobby to finance another, and refurbishing and modding an old car can be a costly endeavor, so I am offering up this exquisite, Jumbo IN-18 Nixie tube clock for sale. I never got around to building an [...]

Update: This did not turn out to be a lasting repair. after several months, the main crack started to re-emerge, and the truck bed lining started to blister in spots. Please do not expect this procedure to be anything more than a last resort option. If “dash caps” or replacement used dashboards are available to [...]

Ther’s a new obsession in my life, and believe me, I’m obsessive. Lately I’ve been spending all my free time, energy, and money refurbishing this “Neue Klasse” BMW. An Unlikely Orphan This car came to me in the most remarkable way. My Friend Hugh, who is a fellow vintage BMW enthusiast was given this car [...]

Inkjet license plates and packing bubble head lights.

It was about 15 years ago that I purchased Vol. 3 of the Popular Mechanics Do-it-yourself Encyclopedia at an estate sale. Inside that red, hardbound collection of reprinted PM feature projects, I found an article that would ignite a long-standing, sometimes dormant but never extinct desire to build my own car. Specifically, my own 3-wheeled [...]

One of the things that I have noticed about model driver figures, is that they tend to end up with a really alarmed, kind of Marty Feldman on crack sort of bug-eyed stare. I thought that by toning down the “whites” of the eyes a bit, I could achieve a more relaxed look.

[1] [2] [3] [4] In 1980 I saw a TV commercial for the most remarkable model car that I had ever seen. It was a radio-controlled off-road buggy from Tamiya called the Sand Scorcher, and it could jump through the air, blast through water, and generally tackle the terrain like no other “toy” that I [...]

In this 1969 Popular Science article, 2 Editors get a chance to check out GM’s new Pinto-Vega-looking XP-883 hybrid-drive commuter car, and love it.

Finishing up the Megasquirt DIY programmable engine management and fuel injection system.