Maintenance And Art

This week I have been taking advantage of my present situation and doing maintenance on my Chevy S-10 this month.  My friend Tom has a home body shop where I have a spot set up to do my jewelry and knife making projects until I can move back to Columbus.  He fixed my back bumper last week and I helped him stack firewood in exchange.  Yesterday we winterized my engine.  I had forgotten that I only had 50/50% antifreeze in my radiator, and had been driving around since June low on oil.  Yesterday, I learned that I have one of "the good engines" which means 6 cylinder as opposed to 4 cylinder in mechanic speak.  I marvel at the products that are available in the body shop and  would be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to explore turning my truck into an art car (truck).  Tom hasn't ever heard of an art car or seen one, but has always supported my artistic endeavors (no matter how weird).  It wouldn't be too hard to convince him to let me work on that project (one panel at a time) while I share this space.  Who knows, the good and plenty mobile may make it to the Doo Dah parade by July 4th 2012!  I am not completely sold on the good and plenty theme, rather I've been influenced by the present colors of my truck.  There is no way around using my truck while I decorate it. Barbara Nicolazzo (a follower of this blog) in Florida would be a good source of information about the process.  I met art car Barbara a few years ago when she came to Columbus for The Hot Times Festival.  She won two trophies that year for her art car, and Barbara believes I should make an art car out of my truck.  I certainly have kicked the idea around in my head since then, but had no real opportunity to actually start the project.  First things first though.  I need to replace a broken sway bar, one tire, and most of my exhaust system.  Somewhere in there a tune up, oil change, and flushing the radiator out is in order as well.  This truck has served me well, even when I had no money for maintenance (80% of my income going into my rental situation) this year.  I am grateful for my little truck and going to take pleasure in bringing it back up to snuff in the coming months.  I am so looking forward to 2012, finishing old projects, starting new ones, visiting old friends, and hopefully making new friends along the way.  An art truck may be just the catalyst for such undertakings.