Binaccle "Miraccle" and Dead Presidents

 

 

Went to Disneyland with the kids last week, and while there, I got some ideas about future projects. Don't know if I could fit a whole fire engine in my parking space. Also went to the Nixon and Reagan Presidential Museums. Got a real-close close-up of two different Presidential limos (one Cadillac and another Lincoln). The former is the one that President Reagan was shot getting into. Eryn liked posing on Nixon's "Marine One" helicopter.

Progress on the van has been desperately slow. I have assembled all the gauges as well as the speedo and oil pressure cables. It's all done. I thought the speedo cable would be really hard -- British instrument and Japanese metric transmission. But I found the correct Japanese speedo and there was a guy in Medicine Hat, Alberta (named after Queen's Victoria's man) that used it to make me a correct, custom 6 foot cable for something like $60 (http://www.vintagebritishcables.com/Smiths-Custom-Speedometer-Cable.php). Great service.

I even got all the replacement lights for the binnacle. The oil and fuel gauges are new and they are obviously not perfectly accurate (they have the graphics), but they are good enough. The Speedo/ODM is original, as is the ammeter. So what here is originally from the van? Answer: The brass chummy that clamps the unit to the steering column. Nothing else. That's a lot of work.