Carlisle Show & Tell

Excellent idea, Carl! I'm looking forward to Carlisle 2015! 

Danny P conducting Weber Classroom Carlisle 2012! 

Good idea, Carl. Right now we're planning to attend with the hardtop installed.

Hardtop????   Tell us more, David.

Great idea, Carl---I know that newer members would love it if Danny would redo his carb seminar.  I know I sure would.

Giday, Jack. About a year ago, Carl Berry pulled off a near impossible deal from out in California and got us each a real nice start to a hardtop conversion. Carl's very creative and not only got us a VERY good deal on the tops, he convinced the seller to put each on a Greyhound bus heading East. His went to Connecticut and mine went to Upstate NY where I traveled about 30 miles to pick it up.

Here's a couple of pics of mine trial fitted a while back. I've since added a small...maybe 1/2" lip to the rear perimeter to make it sit better on the rear deck. The fit around the front bow is perfect and around the door opening very good too. Just been too busy to mess with it right now but I'll get 'er done over the winter.

The nice thing about a hardtop is that you gain a lot of valuable space in the rear seat area with the convertible roof and associated mechanism removed. More shopping space for the Bride..? Who knows ? I bought some headliner material and hope to make it look decent. 6.5 / 10 is about my style, eh ?

You are pretty amazing, David.  I hope yo see it in de flesh at Carlisle next spring. 

We're always looking for people who want to do seminars at Carlisle - under the tent or as a Carlisle feature seminar.  Let me know if anyone is interested in presenting.   

Whoa Jack, please. You are too kind, but please stand down on the amazed part. I'm just a self propelled McGuyver ( can't spell either ) that can't resist trying to do something on my own. I have little patience either but thankfully have no guns and therefore cannot actually shoot myself in the foot easily otherwise I likely would. Look fwd to seeing you again.

Actually, I do have one gun. A BSA rifle...I rode BSA bikes all my life and the Widow of one of my best Friends gave it to me when I helped her dispose somewhat properly of his 30 or so gun collection. Might be a .306 ? Really I have no idea. Ronnie was a real outdoors man. Once a year he'd bugger off fishing for a week in the Muskokas and one other week he'd be off hunting there too when the season was right. Never caught one damn fish and never shot a moose either. Seems he had a favourite friend in the Muskokas that caused some distraction.....

But to get back on track, Bruce. I'll have the hardtop on.

Very cool, David! Show us some more...

And I'm of the understanding that hunting and fishing is like that for a lot of guys; a chance to get away and drink too much (now who would do that!?), and it's a miracle that no one comes home shot in the foot or with a hook stuck somewhere...

I've been told that shooting a moose really isn't 'sporting'...it's like shooting a stalled pick up truck.

The only way it would be really "sporting" is if the animals had guns so they could shoot back. That would make it interesting! What comes close to sporting is hunting Grizzly by bow; by the time you're close enough to get a kill shot (40 yds or so) you're well within his personal space so he knows you're there, has the tools to make it a fair fight and he's coming to get you!

And yeah, generally moose don't move nearly as quickly as deer. The big problem is finding one. Great return for the one bullet expenditure, though...

I would love someone to post a video of said carb tuning 101 class as I just winged it this summer and none of the youtube videos I found really showed how to do dual carbs.

Go to the top of this page, put your cursor over the "resources" bar and when the choices drop down, click on "Knowledge Base". There are 4 very good articles on Webers/Dellorto's; 1 by our own Danny Piperato- "Weber Carb Adjustment and Sync" and 3 by Mark Harney- "IDF Transition", "Healthy IDF's" and "Tuning Dual Weber IDF Carburetors". Have fun!

Don't know if I want to do a carb clinic again, but I am always available to help guys with tuning/adjustment when we're all there.

Except Lane. Lane does now know that brass is kind of brittle! Lane WILL NOT work on his car at Carlisle!

I will lock my engine compartment and give the key to someone that I am caravanning with.  They will unlock ONLY to let me check my oil.  So help me Ferry!

Uhhhhhhhh.....let someone else do the oil checking, too, OK?  

You know......I take back that comment right above, and now that I've thought on it a bit, I think Lane would be a PERFECT person to do a clinic at Carlisle.

Here's a guy who came into this hobby having worked on a few cars in the past, mostly British, I guess, was gravitating towards Cobra Replicas and had never seen much of the Speedster replica world but, like the rest of us, he loved the look and wanted, somehow, to own one.  

So, as a group we managed to wrangle a way for him to have one which has led to a learning experience for all of us as Lane has continuously tackled more and more difficult projects on his car.  Along the way, we've seen his work-in-process posts, watched his ideas develop, offered advice when we could and Lane has persevered to complete some pretty difficult upgrades, all the while letting us tag along so that some of us could do those upgrades, too - Hydraulic clutch, LED tail lights, really nice wood trim and a bunch more.  His "Car Guy" skills have gotten better and better since we've gotten to know him and he's leading the rest of us by example.

So pick something cool that you've done, Lane, and present it to us at Carlisle.  The LED bulbs alone is worth a seminar, but there are others, too.

And get out there and drive that car today, on "Drive Your Tribute Car Day".  You've made your car into one of the most reliable on this site, so You deserve it! 

Hmmm...  Other than changing the oil, my most frequent job is removing and disassembling the webers to clean out the last 6 months worth of accumulated gunk.  I just completed that for the fall about an hour ago.  Most cleaning tasks can be done just fine without removing the carb body, except you can't get to the progression ports.  I can do all that without compromising the tune, but I've also learned how to tune them fairly well myself.  I'll never be another Danny Pip, tho'.

The LED taillight thing is so easy it's almost silly, but I'd be glad to do that.

As for my mechanical skill in general, I am actually fairly good as long as I don't lose my temper.  Sadly that happens all too easily.

I'd sure like to know more about LED taillights.

I have LEDs in my rear grill for a thrid, center brake light but would like to understand how to replace what I have with lED tail lghts---plus where to source them.

I hope you'll consider that, Lane, because it's a safety improvement and in these little plastic tubs we need all the safety we can get!

I am currently (since there's little left to break on the Speedster this summer) insulating and then sheetrocking the rest of my garage/shop (pretty itchy, too).  

The back wall was done last fall when I hung those cabinets.  The intent is to heat the place as well as provide a noise insulation for those moments when something goes very wrong and maybe a little profanity slips out.......well, OK, so a REALLY BIG, LOUD AND PROFUSE CUSS.  

The louder music is a given in MY garage, but when the weather is nice I might have the garage doors open, like when I let go with a good one once and looked out front to see some lady walking her dog down the sidewalk and looking in. 

Along with the new walls I think I'll definitely need a shop fridge, for when my neighbors might drop by to watch the Rolex series, or maybe Dr. Who...(but usually to borrow tools).

Jack, this guys lives two towns away from me.  Never met him but I would go check out the product as a favor to anyone.

http://www.culayer.com/356_Teardrop.htm

Marty--that looks like just the ticket.  I'll contact them to see what they have that is a simple "plug and play" for my car----thanks!

I like the idea too. Is there a simple way to quantify the improvement ? Is it five times....ten times as bright etc. ? Much better in daylight too ? I'm not familiar with LED's but would like to improve my chances. Thanks...

In my experience the improvement is the daylight is not huge unless you're right behind the car.  The biggest problem with the Speedster light cluster is that the top is open to sunlight, which tends to wash out the lights during the day.  At night it's quite significant.  Also LEDs tend to be very directional.

I checked out the culler product, but in the end I went in a different direction.  I need to find the receipt so I can provide part numbers.  Remember that you must match the LEDs to the color of your twilight lens or they will disappear.  I have amber turn signals/running lights and red brake lights.  Normally the euro-style lenses have the brake lights and turn signals together under the amber lens, but I wanted red for brakes so I swapped the wires.

Lane,

Along with 'part numbers can you also advise the best aluminum soda can to use?

As I recall you were satisfied with Coca-Cola...or was it Mountain Dew?

Is Carl saying, Lane, that you cut little aluminum strips to fit inside the tops of the taillight lenses to block out the sunlight so they could be seen easier during the day?

I have Jim Franzen's LED tail lights that Marty mentioned above.  Great product, great service, and US made.  Ticks all the boxes for me.

ALB - Nope.  The LED arrays are round with a flat back and they provide double sided tape to affix the arrays to...  something.  That's the problem.  There is no "something" in the taillight fixture to affix them to.  So I pondered this whilst drinking a Coke.  Upon finishing said refreshing beverage I had an epiphany.  I cut the now empty can into the requisite shapes to form the aforementioned "something" and used the tape to hold the arrays in place.  The pigtails on the arrays have a couple of inches of wire ending in sockets that fit where the original bulbs were.  Easy peasy.

I used to have pictures that showed exactly how it all went together but lost them when our last system crashed (disk controller), taking the backup drive with it.

EDIT: You know your idea is worth trying, though.  

Well, the ad says  " no modification to tail light required ". Does that mean no special adapter or what Lane describes is now required ? Might be worth a trip Marty and thanks for the offer...

I put Culayer's in 4 bee hives. They're 100 bucks a piece but really great...

Thanks for that, dsrtfox. Could you please elaborate on what is needed to mount them? Thanks.

HOLY HANNA!!!!

That's a hell of a lot of money for tail light bulbs!!!!!!

They install in the standard sockets the same as a standard bulb. The one's they make for the tear drop is somehow one piece and I'm not sure how they install...Also if you should have any problems with them they can be repaired by sending them back. He implied that was a free service but he's never had to repair one yet...

HOLY HANNA!!!! I thought so too Gordon...

I bought some LED bulbs (1157 brake & 1156 tail) at the local Pep Boys for $18 (pack of two LEDs). Had them in the tear-drop lights on my previous VS and now in the bee-hives of my current VS. They are VERY bright and work great (and don't melt your lenses). Easy-Peasy.

They look similar to the LEDs on this link.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4x-BAY...923d8db4&vxp=mtr

Mine came in arrays about an inch or so in diameter.  I seem to recall that all four cost around $100 or so.

Jim any problem with the flashing unit  working with the Leds ....thanks

Just curious here. With teardrop tail light lenses ( might be the same with beehives anyway ), are your outboard bulbs the tail lights and the inboard pair the stop/turn signal lights ? I just discovered that my local CarQuest carries LED 1157 bulbs. No idea of the cost yet. Thanks...