Rage drove me to it.  Our 2001 Toyota Sienna failed it's Massachusetts emissions test this year, the problem was with the evaporative emissions control system  (code #P0446) so I dropped it at the dealer to be fixed. 

You see, several years ago I decided I had  enough frustration working on cars and decided to focus on more fun pursuits. 

Several things have happened since then.  #1 - I have a much better shop and more capable tools.  No rusted nut or bolt can resist the hot wrench (mechanic's slang for an oxy/acetylene cutting torch) !  and #2 - I've become a radical Makepunk. 

. . .

Hi Everyone, sorry I missed the last two Jay Leno Wednesday posts! I was in Hawaii on holiday and with Meredith at Burning Man things have been kind of quiet. Well I'm back and so is Jay and his 1906 Stanley.

For our next instalment of Jay Leno Wednesday here at the Steampunk Workshop we have Jay stepping us through the start-up procedure for a 1909 Stanley and then giving us a ride.  Well worth the watch if only for the part where Jay burns all of the hair off his forearms!  He handles the explosion like a true mad scientist!

So I got vanity plates for my kit car that read STMPNK but when I did a search on that term I just got unkind and disemvowled Boingboing comments so I acquired the domain stmpnk.com and I've been dropping crumbs around the net like this to boost its position on the page.

When it comes to late night comedy I'm more Letterman than Leno. But when it comes to things mechanical Jay Leno is a total mench and exemplifies true Steampunk spirit. 

Here he is talking about a Czech Tatra, a streamlined, rear-engined, air-cooled V-8 powered car from 1938 which would look completely at home in any Dieselpunk feature film!

Lots of progress!  She's on the road, registered, inspected, and passed, including emissions which is pretty cool considering that she's basically a 1972 VW Beetle that was re-titled in Ohio as a 1985 "assembled vehicle."  A close read of the Massachusetts auto emissions law would seem to indicate that a kit car of this type should be tested under the make, model, and year that the chassis was manufactured.  However, the test station can only test to the make, model, and year the vehicle is registered. 

Since this vehicle was titled as a 1985 in Ohio that's the only thing that our RMV would let me register it as.  They told me I'd have to go to Ohio's DMV to get it changed - but under Ohio's rules, it's correct!  Classic Catch-22.  Read on to see what I did.

Oh yes! and I got Mass plates STMPNK no less!

Work on the Steampunk car continues.  Here I remove the rotted seats and mildewed interior. Rebuild and rewire the dash as well as replace the VW tail lights with reproduction Model A lamps.

Late in 2007 I spotted this car on eBay with a "Buy it Now" price of $1500 and, well, bought it then.  Its a 1929 Mercedes Gazelle SSK replica made by Classic Motor Carriages. CMC made these cars in the late '70s and early '80s. In fact,

I remember seeing advertisements for the kits in the back of Popular Science magazine when I was younger and thinking they looked pretty cool. I later came to realize their intrinsic cheesiness; but that makes them all the more hackable as I won't be getting email from all over hell-and-gone telling me I've ruined a collectible car!

If you've visited here before you know that one of my long term projects is to built a fully road-able steam powered automobile.  In addition to requiring a great deal of research, such a project requires tools.  I will need machine tools such as a lathe and a milling machine.  I'll also need a flat bed trailer, initially to bring home the machine tools, but also to fetch the donor car that I'll base my vehicle on.