Can't Get It Right

A while back I received a really nice message from a person complimenting me on one of my blogs and also my writing style. Positive words are always appreciated and one good turn deserves another, even if it is a little late in coming. Of course it helps if that "turn" is a catchy song and a cool video. I don't know why Brooklyn James hasn't become a major star yet, as it looks and sounds like she has what it takes, but I'll let my readers be the judge. Check out her music video of Can't Get It Right which features a Chevy Nova SS and a '70 Chevelle Super Sport. Be sure to listen at the end as the Chevelle makes it's own music...

New Year, New Project, New Problems!

I finally managed to get my latest project, a '72 Cutlass, into the Amberlight. It took the threat of some serious rain storms for me to clear out some space for it, plus I didn't want the car sitting out for too long in the elements. Lord knows I have had my share of rusty cars and I didn't need to add any more to this one! Now that the car was safely tucked away in the garage I thought maybe I should come up with a good name for my new whip. I usually like to name my projects to give them some individuality for blogging purposes. My last '72 Cutlass was a lighter shade of yellow and I appropriately called it "Number 1". My brown '71 Cutlass was "Number 2"💩, so you can see the theme there... Usually a name will pop into my head as I am working on a project and this one did not disappoint me.

One of the first items I decided to tackle, besides putting on some new front tires so I could roll the car, was the battery area of the car and it's associated wiring. What I thought was going to be a simple battery tray replacement turned into a wiring nightmare. It became apparent to me that the reason the front lights, blinkers, or marker lights did not work was because someone had decided to cut and splice, at random, the harness leading to the front of the car. There was one item that seemed to be everywhere in the engine compartment. The more I looked the more I found. My first thought was I must be seeing things but these offending creatures were everywhere! I hate this item more then anything. Actually hate is not the right word here, I loathe them. I know what you're thinking, it must be rats or rodents, right? Wrong! But if you guessed Scotchloks, you would be right. For those of you who are not familiar with Scotchloks, let me show you a picture of one of these little blue devils.

Behold the Scotchlok

 

Someone at sometime had decided to attempt to re-wire the car for whatever reason and then decided to use Scotchloks to do it! I suppose these devices do have their purpose. In my opinion that purpose would be as a temporary connector, as in a temporary emergency. I am sure a lot of readers have seen these splicing in a trailer connector plug, as that seemed to be the aftermarket industry standard for quite a while. While repairing the wiring harness and eradicating all the Scotchloks, I noticed that underneath the coat of yellow paint was the original blue color that the car rolled out of the factory with. All of a sudden the perfect name suddenly popped into my head. I decided to name the '72 "Project Yellowjacket". This name is most appropriate because it's as though the car is wearing a yellow jacket over it's original blue paint!

This was only a small portion of the little blue devils that I discovered

 

The wiring harness is now repaired, thanks to a factory wiring diagram, proper soldering, and heat shrink tubing. I also cleaned and painted the battery area and replaced the tray. I'll post more details on the harness repair in an upcoming blog, as it was quite a challenge. For now, Project Yellowjacket is resting comfortably in the Amberlight, minus a bunch of little blue devils of course.

Project Yellowjacket inside the Amberlight