Your Regular Dose of Dave

Shiny!

2008-06-24T22:14:00.003-04:00

It's done! After 4 weeks, Bodymotion finished up all the work I had them do on the 911. I gotta say, it turned out just like I wanted. They repaired all the panels, the bumper, replaced the front and rear glass, and did a full exterior detail.

After I got it home, I replaced the rear taillights and center reflector with newer ones (the backup lenses within the center reflector were cracked and clouded). In the process I found a dead lizard! I am not kidding. Apparently, he stowed away many years ago when the car lived in Tampa.

Dead reptiles aside, here it is! Another thing you may notice is that I had the rear wiper removed. I think it looks a lot better with a clean rear end (then again, don't we all).

Check out the nice clean front bumper:

Spoiler up, ready to go!

See? Looks much cleaner in the back now. And one less thing to break on the car, too!

They even made a nice leather plug to cover the hole for the wiper arm. Matches the interior and everything!

It really did turn out great! Thanks to Mike and Dave and their crew at Bodymotion!

Holy Crap I Have Been Deliquent

2008-06-07T16:45:00.007-04:00

Sorry folks ... I really did think I'd maintain this blog a bit better. I guess because Kelly sends out all our photos from trips, etc. on Kodakgallery I've had less need for the blog.

Well, time for some photos of my own. I decided it was time to fix all those annoying little dings, dents, scratches, etc. on the Porsche. None of them are mine, by the way, but I had lived with them long enough. Plus some rust was starting to form down in the corner by the front windshield so it was time for the body shop anyway.

Here's the "before" photo. In the larger version you should be able to see the gouge in the front bumper (it's between the license plate and the fog light).

Here's a detail on the rust. I know it's a small spot, but sometimes those small spots can be the tip of the iceberg!

Here's the car in the shop! I dropped by to visit after they'd had it a week. You can see they've done all the disassembly, and already done the rust repair around the windshield.

They had also pulled the dents out of the panels, like from when the previous owner accidentally smacked it with a golf ball. I kind of like the reflection of the Pirelli sign.

Not only did they repair the gouge in the front bumper, but they found seemingly 30 other spots to repair at the same time!

That's it for now. According to my most recent update, they have finished repainting, and are installing the windshields. After that it goes to the mechanic for regular service, then to the detail shop for a full exterior detail, then I get it back. I can't wait!!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-22T22:22:00.001-05:00

Man, I have been really slow with the updates. I apologize.

I hope everyone out there is doing well, and enjoying their holidays (however and whatever you choose to celebrate).

Best Wishes and see you in 2008!

Complete!

2007-11-16T22:48:00.000-05:00

Well... 8 hours, 130 pages and hundreds and hundreds of parts later, I finished the Ferrari! It really turned out great as you can see.

Here's the rear end (again with working suspension)

The rear end features a working differential gear! (Somehow this was not as exciting to Kelly as it was to me...)

The engine cover is removable, so you can see the guts of the engine. They got the number of cylinders right (at least for the year it was released, the F1 cars were running V10s). And yes, the pistons actually go up and down!

Ready to roll!

This was a lot of fun to build. Just shows you're never too old to play with LEGO!

I finally own a Ferrari

2007-11-13T22:01:00.000-05:00

Of course, it's 1:8 scale and made of ABS interlocking bricks, but hey, it's a start...

I got this great Ferrari F1 car LEGO kit from Kelly for my birthday, and it's sat upstairs for over a month before I finally got the chance to start working on it. I spent about 3 hours last night getting started, and it's coming along great!

It's funny, the senses really take you back ... the rustle of the parts as you sweep your hand around looking for that one particular part, the click as the bricks go together one-by-one, the easy to follow instructions with no words needed at all. I even got the "long LEGO session" dry eyes, so I knew my time was up for the evening!

You can see from the pics, it's pretty intricate. The model features working suspension and steering (among other neat-o things) and I got those assembled (at least for the front end) last night. They even got the mechanics of the suspension right -- the shocks (yellow) are inboard rather than directly connected to the steering knuckle. Pretty cool!

That's it for tonight. Stay tuned for more updates as the build progresses.

The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Porsches

2007-10-31T22:39:00.000-04:00

Wow, almost a month has gone by without any updates. Boy, I'm really slackin'.

Well, last Sunday was fun. Did another Porsche run with the Rennlist gang. I got up bright and early at 5am, and started heading up the Garden State Parkway, collecting Porsches as I went. Our small group joined up with the main group in Sloatsburg, NY, and for the next 45 minutes, the Porsches just kept coming. I'm not sure if anyone ever got an official count, but I would have to say we had over 50 cars easily. We finally set out, cruising along the winding backroads of upstate NY, making our way west to Port Jervis, before turning back and finally winding up in New Paltz.

Along the way we would stop for gas or bio breaks, and just to collect the group. One impromptu stop was at this Mobil station. We pretty much took over the entire intersection for about 15 minutes. The guys at the gas station loved it!

We also stopped at the Mountain Brauhaus, which was our original dining spot, until our group got too large. Too bad, because they have plenty of parking. I say next year, we just eat in shifts! Anyway, I got a quick pic while we were all assembled in the parking lot.

Unfortunately, the pics don't really do the day justice. It's hard to capture the scale of 50 Porsches, and all that great NY scenery. Much bigger and better than the mini-run I did a couple weeks back.

That's it until spring (for the Porsche that is, hopefully I will update the blog before then!)

New Roof

2007-10-02T15:28:00.000-04:00

Time for some more house pictures, this time, of our house!

Our house was built in 1989, so it's about 20 years old. The original roof was only a 20-year roof, and was showing numerous signs of aging. So, we called around to a few places and finally settled on a roofer. The guy showed up with his crew this morning (bright and early at 7:30am), and by 1:30pm they had packed up the truck and finished. Wow!

As you can see from these photos, they did a good job. The color is "pewter" which has a nice contrast, but isn't too black. The house next door has a black roof, and I didn't want to be twins.

So all in all, I would say our first contractor experience at the new house is a success!

E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES!!!

2007-09-13T22:34:00.000-04:00

That's right folks, it's football season. Finally.

The winter sports in Philly were rough. I'm not really much of a Sixers fan, and the Flyers just finished their worst year in franchise history. Sure the Phillies are teasing everyone, but I've been on and off with the Phillies over the years. So good for them if they win the Wild Card, but I'm not really following it.

Of course, there's always F1, but that's usually every two weeks anyway, and Kelly will listen to me blab on about it, but she could honestly care less.

But we all agree on FOOTBALL!!!

So we gathered up all our Eagles paraphernalia, dressed up Buddy the Wonder Dog, whipped up a batch of nachos and settled in to watch the Eagles - Packers game.

Hork.

How you can go into a game without an actual punt returner is a mystery to me. Maybe it wasn't on the list of stuff to pack. "Let's see, we've got some kicking tees, some practice balls, a tackling dummy... Wait, where's our punt returner? We don't have one? Well, just throw Greg Lewis out there, I'm sure he'll be fine."

So yeah, Eagles' season not off to an auspicious start. Luckily most of their past seasons have started the same way, so there's plenty of football left.

Fun Run!

2007-09-13T22:20:00.000-04:00

Let's catch up a bit tonight with some new posts. Sorry for the lull, everyone. This is why I didn't title the blog, "Your Daily Dose of Dave."

First off, a few weekends back, I went on a fun run with some guys from Rennlist, an online forum for Porsche enthusiasts. We met up in light rain in Englewood Cliffs, or as I like to call it, "one wrong turn away from NYC." Zipped up the Palisades Parkway, then took some of the park roads in Herriman and Bear Mountain State Parks. The rain lifted and we got some great views of the Hudson River Valley. Fantastic!

Unfortunately, we were too busy keeping our cars on the road to get photos of the lakes with the hills in the background and stone walls in the foreground, but one of the guys did manage this pic of me (blue) and our fearless leader (red) on the Palisades.

After nearly 3 years of owning this car (and being a Rennlist member just as long), this was my first group event, and it was a lot of fun! Hopefully I won't wait 3 years for the next one.

Mom and Dad's New Digs

2007-08-22T22:34:00.000-04:00

My parents have a new house.

I'm not saying they bought a house or they moved or anything. It's actually more like the new house came to them. Some guys came by, my parents wrote a big check, and piece by piece they removed the house that I grew up in and put a new one in its place. They cut down trees, ripped up bushes, replaced the roof, the windows and the siding. And it looks great!

Funny thing is, though, even knowing that all this had been going on, it was still a shock to turn the corner, come down the street and see it. So here's the view that I got:

See what I mean? New house.

Here's the side, the back, and around the other side:

OK, I'll admit the diagonal layout is a bit cheesy, but this is post #3, so it's still a learning process.

Last picture for the night. Closeup of the front porch:

It looks amazing! A little weird to see the changes after 24 years, but amazing nonetheless.

'Til next time!

Testing, 1-2-3

2007-08-22T22:25:00.001-04:00

OK, we're rockin' and rollin' now with this blog thing. I am so 2002.

Now it's time to test some photos, or this ain't gonna be much of a photo blog. So here goes:

Success! This is the pagoda building at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I was there back in June for the United State Grand Prix. That's Formula 1, not NASCAR or even Indy cars. F1 is like the soccer of motorsports -- big around the world, except in America.

Looks like if you click on the photo, you get the larger view. Sweet! This is already easier than the old blog.

In The Big Inning

2007-08-22T22:12:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my tiny corner of the Web.

This site is taking over for my old Comcast photo blog, since I've now moved, and well, don't have Comcast service anymore. It's as simple as that. So rather than setting up a Cablevision (or Optimum, or whatever they call themselves) blog, I figure I'll setup this little Google Blogger job.

This is basically a place for family and friends to come, see some photos of what I've been up to lately, and get a little commentary besides. Probably boring to anyone else, but I promise to keep it fresh(ish).

So blog on!