Indoor Fun on Rainy Days

Winter weather returned with nearly three inches of rain, near freezing temperatures and strong northerly winds, so again I had to focus on things I could do inside the house.


I ordered a new $20 multimeter to replace the $10 multimeter I bought about thirty years ago, and it arrived yesterday. The old one still worked fine but it didn’t beep. Since all my continuity testing will be a one-man operation, I figured it would be worth twenty bucks to save a lot of time and effort when crawling around looking for wire terminations and just listen for the beep and not have to watch the meter face. I braved the cold for a short time and did accomplish a quick power isolation test. I didn’t find any shorts, so I can get busy continuity testing the circuits when warmer weather arrives tomorrow.

One of my indoor jobs was investigating an idea I had to make radio antennas to mount atop the tailfins in the stock factory location. The OEM parts I found online were priced from $150 for a set of well-worn parts, to $500 for a NOS set, and I cringed thinking about spending that much for something functionally unimportant. That said, I always liked the look of dual rear antennas and dual rearview mirrors on the fenders, so I’m looking for less expensive options.


My idea was to design a custom-shaped base to adapt a flat mounting, generic antenna to the narrow fin top. I had already purchased one stainless steel antenna that looked like a good candidate to modify, so I carved a base from a piece of heavy wall vinyl tubing to see if it could be made to look okay on a daily driver. I was pleased enough with the results to order a 12” piece of 1-1/4” diameter machinable black ABS rod from MSC Direct. It showed up today and I spent the morning laying out the dimensions on the raw material. Now it would be nice to own a mill as it’s going to take forever to cut and shape everything with hand tools. If I’m successful, I will have about fifty dollars invested in parts and material, but I won’t even attempt a guess at how many hours the job will take.

Buddy Holly - Everyday

Another year has passed since the day the music died in 1959. I won't repost my thoughts about that fateful day as I've done that on previous anniversaries, so if new readers are at all interested, they can refer back to those entries.

In the meantime, I'll just post this Buddy Holly favorite and hope the words forecast recent progress on my lifelong project Plymouth.

I spent a few hours earlier this week finishing a few remaining wiring jobs. The battery ground cable is now bolted to the frame under the trunk and ready to attach to the battery when I purchase that.

Today was supposed to be sunny and warm like yesterday, but it clouded over and began to drizzle so I worked in the house creating continuity checklists. I actually began continuity and isolation tests yesterday, but when I soon found a short between battery-power and switched power circuits, I decided to first make a checklist to keep track of what I'm doing.

I also routed and tied in a few wires to the location where I'm placing the backup camera, but I won't cut a hole and install the camera until I finish painting the exterior.

The rear antenna cable is also waiting for me to locate the dual antennas. So far, everything I've found has been OEM NOS or used and is far too expensive for my non-stock '56. If I can't find reasonably priced aftermarket parts, I'll probably make new bases from casting resin to attach generic parts to the tops of the fins. No use putting lipstick on a pig!