Projects Building My First Roadster in San Francisco

After fixing the gauge situation, my coworker Steven stopped by on his new motorcycle. He was happy to try the roadster out for size. Like me, he's 6'3" and fits in the car pretty well.

 

Now to my next question. In the past few months, I've am***ed quite the hours gauge collection. Out of the three that I have, two have a tab marked "+", while the one I'm putting in the car seems to be marked "+" on each tab. Does that mean I just wire it in line like an amp gauge?

Lots of Hobbs. But where's Calvin?

Here is what we're working with. I removed the mounting clamp and nut. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks everyone for the Hobbs advice—I appreciate it big time.

I didn't really feel like going down to the garage tonight, but as I was hauling out the recycling I decided to open up the door and take a peek. "While I'm down here," I thought, "why don't I take a look at the Hobbs gauge?"

For the next 30 minutes, I started playing with circuits and test lights. I couldn't get any of the three meters to work, which seemed really odd. Switch on, switch off, different posts, etc. Then, after finding continuity, I realized I was heading in the right direction. Out came the cloth-wrapped wire, ring terminals, and heat shrink. I plugged everything in per @pprather's diagram and all of a sudden, I heard the sound of an old clock. Tickticktickticktickticktick. It works!

Just for fun, I tried the NOS Hobbs "Electric" gauge, which I discovered doesn't make a sound. I'm going to stick with the NOS script gauge because it looks the best and fits with the car's overall feel. Last time I heard anything like this was TRJ's old forklift—talk about a throwback.

I spent the remainder of my time down there cleaning up my thermostat and speedometer cable placements. Not the craziest night in the garage, but it felt great to check a couple more things off the list.

 

Tonight's story starts the same as last night. I didn't have the mental capacity to start on the brakes, so I scanned my list to see what I could check off. Next up? "Bolt in seat."

Not a hard task, but one that's tricky to do quietly. Nonetheless, I located the rest of the hardware, broke out the tools, and got things situated.

The aforementioned tools.

And said car. I popped the cowl top back on and took a moment to appreciate this thing.

 

haha you’re welcome here anytime.

I can use all the help I can get!!

No GNRS for me this time around, although I had a little project for the show that I’ll share more about at a later date.

 

Last night’s progress consisted of buying a deep-well socket and two kinds of tape from Cole Hardware. I also ordered an extra spool of NiCopp from the local auto parts store to give me plenty of room for trial and error this weekend.

It’s kindof a strange feeling to walk down to the garage and not have 1,000,000 things to do. More will come up, I’m sure, but I’m trying to relish in the moment. That’s all for this bus-ride update. More soon!