Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026

My plans late yesterday (Friday) to attend the Depot Street Car Show in nearby Bloomfield fell through when a significant threat of thunderstorms arrived. I left home early to go get gas in the Chevy. Due to work on underground tanks at the nearest fuel stop, I drove further south for the Five Star Food Mart on North Third Street to top off the wagon’s fuel tank (about 7 gallons @ $4.17 per gallon.

Once I left Five Star and turned north, I saw heavy, dark rain clouds and shafts of rainfall in the distance. I called up the weather radar and saw the storms were north and northwest of us but traveling to the southeast, which meant we had a thunderstorm heading to the car show location.

Rather than head northeast to the car show, I drove on home. Within 10 minutes of arriving home, we were hit by a moderately strong thunderstorm with wind and rain. I hung out in the garage and waited the storm out. I went inside once the rain tapered off, and realized I wasnt going to make it to Depot Street despite my best intentions. The rain stayed away for the next couple of hours, then arrived later with a vengenance. Glad I stayed home.

NEW LED HEADLIGHTS. I ordered a relatively inexpensive pair of LED light fixtures and bulbs on eBay for about $45. So far they look good, though the fit was really , really tight. My fear is that the fan on the back of the LED is going to have its airflow blocked by the headlight bucket, which has a closed back. I tried them out this evening and nearly immediately, I lost the driver’s side headlight. I took the headlight apart and found that the plug wasn’t securely plugged in. In the process of cramming the bulb and fxture in place, I was pulling the cable apart enough for it to lose connection. I had to tear it down about four times before I finally figured out how to cram the wiring and bulb in place in a way that wouldn’t intrrupt the power.

It was late when I finished putting it all back together, so I’ll have to test drive in another night. The lights are much, much brighter than the old sealed beams, though I may need to aim them to take advantage of their brightness.

My real concern is that the LED bulbs may not have sufficient room for the cooling fans to run. Guess time will tell. But one thing for sure — I’m not getting rid of the sealed beam units anytime soon!

TAIL GATE VINYL DONE. Yesterday I finally finished up the black and white finyl tile I’ve installed on the interior side of the 55 wagon tail gate. The absolute finishing touch arrived today for the tail gate — a nice chrome latch cover to sit on the interior of the tail gate.

The vinyl squares were self-adhesive, though honestly, the stick-um on the tiles were only fair. I had trouble keeping edges smoothed and stuck down. I had to buy some vinyl tile cement to glue the loose ends down. The stuff worked quite well, too. I replaced the original painted tail gate latch with the chrome on today, which made the entire tail gate project look much more polished and finished.

Last week I went and picked up two 4×4 foot squares of 1/2-inch plywood. One of those should be enough for me to lay plywood along the entire cargo area. My hope is to start cutting the plywood to fit this next week.

I’ll also plan to try a couple of different tile options on the cargo floor as well. The stuff I used on the tailgate is mightly light duty stuff and I don’t think its going to hold up well to wear and tear. The tailgate tile has 16 b/w squares per 12×12 tile; I think I’m going to try 12×12 tiles that have 2 white and 2 black squares. Or I may just use the same 16-square tiles. If I do, I’m going to glue them down 100 percent and not depend on the stick-um on the back of each tile. If I lay it down, I want that shit to stay!

ANOTHER CAR SHOW ON SUNDAY? Yes, the county school system’s vocational school is hosting a car show tomorrow. Weather looks good for it, though I’m not sure I’m in the mood for an actual car show, i.e. a competitive show. My Chevy is fun, but it is NOT a show winner, I know that. I may get the gumption up to go tomorrow. Its from like noon to 6 p.m. Would be fun, especially since I didn’t get over to the Depot Street car show Friday evening. We’ll see and report back!