DEUCE OF SPADES HOTROD FILM UPDATES - photos from the Saugus and dry lake shoots

WTF? Seriously?

Dude, you need to get a new throttle cable right now! What, are they like... $10 or so? I say wake it up - all those curse words that you store up for special occasions will come out all at once! It'll be THAT good.

Of course, knowing you your mileage will go down... LOL!

~Jason

 

LOLOLOL.. Good one! Good one!!

Did a nasty sounding burnout down the street from my house today... Terrorising the neighborhood again ... New carb is running strong. Since we redid the front brakes, the car is stopping real nice. I think brake failures are behind me now... Almost crashed three times, each time the car would fail to stop, becuse front brakes failed. Had to swerve in right lane to avoid hitting car in front of me... And was lucky each time cause noone was coming in the right lane at that time... Turned out the wheel cylinders were leaking inside the wheel... And I was losing brake fluid like crazy... And didn't know it... I also had air in the line (I now come to realize)...

but now no more.


Tomorrow my friend and I work on cleaning up the trunk area so I can bolt my trunk lid back on... Weee heee....

 

no no the cable length has nothing to do with it, it is the TRAVEL that is the problem. As in teh pedal is not craeting enough TRAVEL to PULL the cable all the way. To fix this, i think there are a few options:

1. put the torch to the pedal and bend it up.. But it is an original 32 spoon and the metal might not survive the heat, so I was told...

2. drill the cable hole higher in the firewall (but it will be an eye sore)

3. rethink the pedal assembly (my choice)... I want to check into the "cam" looking wheel that you can install at the top of pedal arm, to craete a more signifcant travel when you press... Had seen it a long time ago but can't seem to remember what it is called so I can google it and maybe buy one...

Can anyone help?

I will look into option one too, I'll call Gene Winfield and pick his brains about this... it would be the easier solution, if the pedal will survive the surgery...

 

Ah! I see...

I wonder if you could slide some sort of wedge between the pedal assembly and where it bolts on, to angle the whole assembly upward for more height? Like a door stop, only as wide as the pedal assembly, and with holes drilled through it so as to mount it with the same bolts that hold the assembly in the first place.

You know, also don't motorcycle shops - especially the ones that do custom stuff involving ape hangers - have the ability to shorten the wire inside the sheath of the cable? That might take up some slack, too. Just a thought.

Interestingly enough (fun fact of the day), most bike shops have this awesome tool that clamps onto the end of an accelerator cable and squirts grease through the sheath to the other side, lubing the cable.

I really like the bending idea. Perhaps instead of bending the pedal, you could have someone tack onto the pedal a new place for the cable to attach that would give it more pull?

Once again, these ideas are free, and likely you've thought of them already...

~Jason

 

FREE hey! the price is right... but then again they do say :"You get what you pay for" LOL


I like the wedge idea... It is actually brilliant - And no, we had not thought about it. THe advantage is that I can keep the same cable, same length (yes it is already as "tight" as it can get - or I won't be able to adjust idle anymore) since at its rest place, the pedal assemble will connect to cable in the same spot as it is now. the spoon will be higher up the ground. Then when I step on it, it will travel more until it readches teh floor, hence teh cable will pull more...

Ooooooo that is a gret idea and worth trying, because it is uncommital. I can undo it if it doesn't work, or alter it until it fits perfect and no damage to my firewall or my pedal.. hehehehehe...

I think I will experiment on this ASAP and let you know how it goes.



If anyone has other good ideas, please fire away...

Meanwhile a photo I just processed of my fuse box and connections - they are so beautiful, they bring tears to my eyes : You will not see any wires stiking out of the connectors, or any crimping (Mark showed me the errors of my ways LOL) and everything is soldered into place... My only regret: the shrink sleeve are not all exactely the same length... - Oh NO!!! I have become as anal retentive about wiring as Mark LOL...

 

Spring of '09? I can hardly wait! Would be totally cool to show at an event like "hot-rod-a-
rama" or "billetproof"! If you strt selling them on dvd, put my name on the list!
Beee-utifull wiring job by the way.

 

Hey, that ROCKS! I've probably just missed my last chance to get some sleep tonight, as I spent last two hours reading this thread and it's well in the morning now, but it was worth it! Last time a movie that made me feel like this, even before I've actually seen it, was The World's Fastest Indian, when I translated some preview of it for the Czech edition of Easyriders. I just knew I had to see it, and it's the same with Deuce of Spades... and I think that the "movie about the movie" could be equally interesting in this case, seeing your unbelievable effort to get this done...

But, what I wanted to ask - do you have any plans of international distribution? Any chance we can get it here (Czech Republic), or at least any chance we can at least arrange a few projections on US car shows? I just decided that I WILL see it on big screen, no matter what it takes

 

THANK YOU Did the wiring job bring tears to your eyes, too? LOL

OK, to get an email notification when the film is available on DVD, simply leave your email address here:

http://www.bettatalk.com/mailinglist.htm

Don't worry, You won't get emails from us until then. And noone else has access to that database but ME. So no junk mail either .

Please let your friends know about this film by emailing them the link to the trailers and footage:

http://www.vimeo.com/user326991

THANK YOU

 

So far I have no contacts in Central Europe, I do have some Northern europe contacts... Would ove to talk to you about it, please PM me .

I relate to your lack of sleep and glad the thread was worth it. It is 2AM now and I have been working on processing video footage and the repairs and snapping photos from the footage and processing those... All night...

So we are both on the same boat LOL

THank you for yoru kind words of encouragements, it means a lot to me.

Here are some new photos:

Jerry is always the one to snap photos because I am filming with my consummer compact camera, and so it seems most of the photos I post are always of ME. but now that I converted my footage into photos I can also show you some of the other cool awesome people who worked with me and tought me the ropes.

Here is Jerry, who has been a life saver for months now, assisting me both with the car and with the film in any way he can. Jerry is the founder and president of the LA Classic Chevy car club.




My loyal torch...





Loyal but also bi-polar: It kept bursting into flames on and off, making it real entertaining to work with especially near the carburators when I was wiring my ignition coil





This here is my buddy JIMMY, I love this shot of him he looks adorable.





This is Jimmy and I working side by side under the dash





This is me making a connector:





And me working under the dash, putting my gauge panel back in the dash:









Especially for Jason, another shot of my "Stompers" as I lay upside down nder the dash






This here is Kent Weaver, master tune up dude, Lord of Tri-power





Say hello to the latest addition to the family: My "new" mid fifties Rochester center carburator:





Fun times at Kent:

 

RAD!!!!!

Happiness is a well-tuned Rochester Carburetor.

That should be a T-Shirt!

~Jason

 

Glad you liked the idea with the wedge. "First, do no harm", as they say in my profession (I'm not a doctor, but I fix computers for people that make magazines for doctors - does that count?).

And coming from you, I'll certainly take the "brilliant" compliment to heart. You're the brilliant one - I learned it from watching you! That wiring job is excellent! I mean, I'm anal, but not like that!

As for that wedge, maybe you could have one made by someone with a home machine shop. It gives you the freedom to make it too thick on purpose, and then keep bringing it back to have them shave a little off until it's right, and not have to pay a huge amount each time...

~Jason

 

YES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I HAVE FULL THROTTLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you Jason! Tried your idea and all it took was a 10 cent 3/4 piece of wood, under the pedal assembly and it was PER-FECT from try one.

Took teh deuce for a spin and floored it, it is fishtailing quite a bit, even when it shifted to second... ... I had to lay off the gas pedal some or I was going to go sideways.



Oh YEAH>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

KICK ASS!!!!

Vous me devez un tour, princesse!

~Jason

 

Non tres cher, je vous en dois DEUX

 

I'll take however many I can get.

~Jason

 

With full throttle capability, HiboyGirl will really be DANGEROUS! Great idea Jason! -Jerry:>)

 

HiboyGirl the wiring is a work of art! There were no tears until I saw the Rochester trips all together. Looking forward to the Duece of Spades premier. I will be travelling to wherever it opens. Great job X 2! The wiring and the Movie. Thanks for the great posts and keeping us all informed.

 

Wow, you're gonna be coming from FAR AWAY ... That's way cool.
Thank you for the kind words, it means a lot to me. Encouragements are what keeps the indie filmmaker going in their time of struggles. I really look forward to sharing the film with you. I can't wait!!

 

My friend Jerry just emailed me this photo he took of me last night, painting the back of my seat: I got pretty high on all those fumes LOL...

 

Hey, that shit can kill you!

Well, only a little bit.

~Jason

 

UPDATES:

I am very honored to be invited to the Sidewinders February 3rd car club meet to talk about my film and show snipits of my 1955 SCTA flashback scene.

I must say that the SCTA and its many members have been incredibly supportive of my project. To hear the President of the oldest SCTA car club (those guys have been around since the thirties!!) tell me "I saw your teaser and you are SPOT ON" was a great delight. And considering that this whole film is being made on a ZERO budget, that makes me even more HAPPY.

Below: A pick up shot I filmed last Saturday. This board is an exact replica of the board used in 1955 by the SCTA to log on the run times. All the data on the board is 100% accurate and was pulled from the SCTA's 1955 records - just in case you were wondering whether I made up all these numbers and class codes .

 

Put me down for a copy of this awsome movie...Well done...

 

The teaser was great, and your attention to detail on this whole thing is great. Best of luck to you!

 

way too cool keep up the good work!

keith

 

It's all about the details gang, and HiboyGirl doesn't overlook a thing. This Movie will ROCK!!!

 

I try... I try.... Special thanks to Jim Miller, curator for the National Hotrod Foundation and SCTA and Sidewinders member, for providing me with the 1955 SCTA records. Jim and I are longtime friends, we worked on a documentary together a little over two years ago. He is a wealth of knowledge! He has been one of my main historical consultant on this film, along with Tom Spark (but there were many other old timers who helped)...

Just keep in mind that no matter how hard you try, mistakes and innacuracies are bound to sneak in and I am sure you will find some. A few might be because we didn't catch them, while others, we were aware of, but could not fix because of lack of budget or man power. So you are going to have to be forgiving to a certain degree and remember that this is NOT a documentary, it is a FICTION and that we did the best we could within the means at hand.

 

I found one, but it's nothing anyone would notice, even if they watched this movie about a million times. Hell, it doesn't even matter!

I mean, seriously... are people going to notice that the color of the wall phone in a 1955 scene is from 1956?

HELL NO!

Like I said, it seriously doesn't matter. Usually I'm an unforgiving asshole about these things, and totally nitpicky about period-correctness, but all of the other stuff in the film is so dead-on, and so impressive, and SOOOOO good, that I can totally blow the phone thing off.

This film is absolutely amazing... and there's not many movies I can say that about.

She's done a better job of being period-correct than ANY of the full-on, hardcore, real-deal, multiBAJILLIONdollar movie studios have in most of the movies I've seen in the past TEN YEARS!!!

You guys are right - Faith really DOES rock!

You keep on keepin' on there, home slice!

~Jason

 

hey Mr Diablo, thanks for all the useful info you just sent me regarding Australia magazines ...

WHEELS MAGAZINE, Northern Europe biggest hotrod magazine, serving many countries, is publishing a pretty nice size write up about my film in their upcoming issue .. I heard through the grapevine it is over 3 pages...



Wow!!!

Let's hear from the US magazines! Who will be the first one to give the scoop to their readers? Anyone????

 

It's hard to believe that the US Magazines have by-in-large overlooked this amazing effort so far, but it's true. In my mind, the very well produced HOT ROD DELUXE should be the first magazine to do an article on the Film. But how about ROD & CUSTOM, HOP UP, or any other of the Vintage Hot Rod style Magazines? They could do articles as well. Seems like an easy article to do for some US writer, and a real plus for the magazine that prints it. Let us know if any of them respond, Faith. As always, good luck! You are doing a First Class job and all of us at the HAMB appreciate it!!

 

Yes, so far we got support of magazines in New Zealand, Sweeden, Finland, Northern Europe (including germany), France, Italy, South Africa. Next up will be England, Canada, Australia and Japan. Possibly a little South America too.

All these countries have been extremely supportive of the film, wanting to help me in any way they can, even offering some distribution via their magazines if I need it. It's really awesome how they are on top of things.

But there is hope . I just got a wonderful email from the older son of Wally Parks (founder of the NHRA), in which he told me he wants to do an update write up regarding the film in every upcoming SCTA newsletter. "This is our heritage" he commented. I was very touched, and honored that he also wanted to collect my biography for their records.



Little ol' me?????

This rocks. I love the SCTA. These guys get it.