Cars, Coffee and California...

[oldgrayleather]

Have been hearing so many similar stories since shelter in place where every day feels like ground hog day for many working from home. Weekends and weekdays blur. Kids' homeschooling feels more like an extended summer break where parents are preserving their sanity by relaxing the usual rules on video game time, bed time, et al. The weekend evening pajamas and the work day pajamas have become pretty much the same thing. So I decided I needed to try something different and took Friday off with the goal of not joining the raft of Webex calls but to tackle something different. "Vacation" is a strange concept when every day feels the same but it actually didn't. I *knew* it was Friday, I knew others were working and I wasn't. I was finally stopping the excuses and procrastination to take on something I'd wanted to do for, well, for a few years...

When I got my Barchetta bumper it came with four clear lenses so after some digging around and help from friends I learned 1) the lenses are the same as old Mini's which Moss also stocks replacements for (p/n 115-534 CDU3374 for the amber ones if anyone is curious) and 2) the lenses can't be removed from the housing easily. Nic informed me the trick was to put them in the oven and bake them off. That sounded risky. Like what if the plastic heated to the exact right temperature to let off chemicals that would poison the whole family?! What if it melted the bases entirely when I haven't yet been able to figure out a suitable replacement?!?! What if I just messed it up entirely? Yep, lots of excuses. Enough of that so I set the toaster oven to 250 (easier to put it right beside the window), timer set for five minutes and waited. When the buzzer went, I opened the door and was horrified at what I saw. The lenses were bubbling and soft to the gloved touch. I think I went too far. The base of one of the lenses had softened and was slightly misshapen. Damn. The first lens could be coaxed away but the second was immovable. Back in it went. 30 second intervals. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. Finally, the first small victory as I had managed to get them apart!



Next the base that had softened wouldn't accept the bulb housing. After about forty minutes of sanding and testing and tweaking and more testing I finally persuaded it to get back to a more normal state to accept the light fixture! (I was honestly sweating bullets the whole time that it may been irreversible).

The final decision was whether the turn signals should be on the inside or outside. It can be an aesthetic debate but I've seen plenty of examples of cars that look great going either route. The decision was made as a throwback to a functional purpose. What I use as day time running lights also serve as an analogue to the old British practice of requiring dim outside bulbs to denote the width of the car.

It took much longer than it should have but I'm so pleased with such a small modification and probably a little that I finally stopped making excuses...



Now let's see if that motivation extends to the Garagestar frame rails that have been sitting in my garage for nearly four years.

Stay safe and well!