h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, the plan was to go to Carlisle, PA friday, but it turned out to be a Saturday trip having spent most of friday looking for my camera and sunblock.
Saturday morn, I headed out to Carlisle at 8am est. I arriaved just before 10am in Carlisle only to sit in line untill 10:20 just to park. The show was for KitCars, imports, and a sound-of. I could have lived without the sound-off. There were all kinds of kids trying to deafen themselfes before the ripe age of 30. I have plans for a stereo in Romana (my '72 VW Beetle) but I want to reproduce music with digital clarity and precission. Not have my small intestine used as jumprope. After parking and securing Romana, I preceeded to the entrance where I was greeted by the site of the Box sitting under an Oak Tree.
I would like to preface this by saying that this car show is not small. I was expecting a collection of perhaps a hundred cars. There was well over a thousand at a guess. Rows and rows of cars. A sea of glistening wax and glass with bits of people flowing in and out of buildings and bathrooms. I spent my first 3 hours of the show at the entrance taking a roll of pictures of the Box. When I develop them, I will show them here. I met Rick Alexander, the owner I have meen trading e-mails with. All I asked is, "What is the glass from?" The answer took 3 hours. The front and read windows are from a Pinto wagon. The side glass is from a Pacer, but it is strait glass and can be cut from a local auto glass shop.
This box, made by Aeromecca, was assembled by an idiot. The door was hung crooked, the glass was caulked in instead of channeled, the finish ras rough. Trim peices were riveted with steel rivits, which rusted immadetly, and some were rivited through factory rivits. Why? there was no weatherstriping throughout the whole car. Nothing. A homemade dash replaced the factory location. Plywood and plastic grass created the custom look the previous owner was attempting. The car had several construct problems. Rick had just replaced the chassis, so there was no problem there, but the transmission collapsed as soon as the engine was installed.
The front seat was cramped. My Geo Metro was a palace compared to this setup. The fiberglass floor is textured but had two places where it was smooth behind the pedals. The current pedals are stock VW in the stock location. A hole was cut in the floor and a footplate removed to make way for them. I think the origional setup (as we have not found blueprints yet) hade the foot plate installed, and aftermarket pedals (I would use a hydrolic setup now) placed in the smooth locations (where the cuts may have been intended.) This setup would give the driver much more room, and given it a "sitting on the floor" feel popular in the 1970's.
I made two suggestions to Rick that he may incorperate into his Box. One is an sliding sunroof, to replace the onepeice hard roof. The Box was not molded to have a trunk. There is space to add one in front of the cabin, but that was not in the design as far as we can tell. But lack of storage means that someone is holding the sunroof in the backseat. Also, removing or replacing the roof requires stopping and getting uot of the car. We did not have a tape to measure the opening but I think the roof is 36x36 inches. Street Beat makes a 36x36" flat sliding sunroof for non-Beetle instalations (a sliding sunnroof was available in the US on Beetles untill '62.) This would free up space when traveling and looks really snazzy compared to the hole in the roof.
The second was a way to remove the engine lid. For some reason, the design of the Box requires the removal of 6 allen screws to release the lid so it can be manhandled out of the way, and placed on the ground. It takes a little work as the lid can not be pulled strait out. It doesn't clear the bumper. There are 2 support beams that run from the bumper to the package tray in the Box. My plan is to add a stock rod to the inside of the engine lid transversing the sides of the lid. Then add 2 guide peices to the supports. These guide peices will be cut from aluminum. They will have a runner cut into them that the rod will be in. These channels will guide the lid up and out at an angle to clear the car and bumper and allow quick and easy access to the engine. Rick said he will go home and work on the angle and design of the runners. I recommended useing a wood box setup to see how the lid connects and runs on the runners.
After looking over the car, we went through the swaps looking for interesting bits and peices of other people's junk parts. I came home elated at my new-found knowledge.