Every time I've brought my Toyota Yaris in for it's regular service I was surprised to find a $50 charge for replacing the "cabin air" filter. It always annoyed me, but they assured me it was a pain to change the "special" filter. 

Turns out that's bullshit. It's a cheap paper filter that takes about 30 seconds to replace.  Corporations use proprietary parts and slip through overcharges for simple maintenance to add to their profit, of course. But this is an ultimately dis-honest practice that risks making otherwise satisfied customers, like me, angry and desirous of revenge for being duped.

Well here's my revenge Toyota, a step by step set of directions on how to turn a $5 household furnace filter into two Yaris cabin air filters.  It took me an hour and a half to figure this out and make two filters and another half hour to write this page.  Someone following these direction should be able to make a pair of filters in an hour, saving them (and denying you) $100!

Quote from L.A. Bike Show Website "What is it? Some bike contest entries defied classification and description..."

We know what it is, don't we folks?  It's Steampunk!  

This is the home of Dave Geertsen's home made metal sculpture on wheels,the wheels are straight but his custom motorcycles are anything but off the shelf. If you have a creative idea or a custom motor bike part you would like to have made or created by a true artist, metal worker, craftsman and biker you have come to the right place, the home of bentwheel.         [via THE NEW CAFE (RACER) SOCIETY]

James writes from Hirakata, Japan:

Hey!  Big fan of the site and of anything and everything steampunk...Funny thing is, there are so many people who are straight-up steampunk without even knowing that such a cult underground exists.  For example, when i was a teenager, I modified a 13inch TV i had from the 80's to fit inside of a 1930's TV box that I found in an abandoned, half burned down factory near where I lived. [I did the same thing! -JvS]

Well, the same thing occurs throughout the world, I've found.  I live in a small town in Japan in a very rural area.  Upon exiting the supermarket the other day, I came across this steampunk masterpiece!  I waited for an hour for the presumed Japanese steampunker to come out with his goth gear on and his mohawk, but low and behold, an 85 year old man comes out, grabs his lighter from his scooter, and lights up.  I went over to him to complement him on his work, and with barely audible Japanese since he had no teeth at all and had very badly fitting dentures, started to explain how he put it together in the heaviest Japanese countryside accent I have ever heard.  Classic!

James is spot on, Steampunk is not a new thing but an expression of something that has been with us all along.  What's different is that people's dissatisfaction with what they are offered in the marketplace has more and more of them turning to DIY to make their own wonderful things and the advent of the 'net gives them immediate access to how to information and each other.

Thanks James!

Rage drove me to it.  Our 2001 Toyota Sienna failed it's Massachusetts emissions test this year, the problem was with the evaporative emissions control system  (code #P0446) so I dropped it at the dealer to be fixed. 

You see, several years ago I decided I had  enough frustration working on cars and decided to focus on more fun pursuits. 

Several things have happened since then.  #1 - I have a much better shop and more capable tools.  No rusted nut or bolt can resist the hot wrench (mechanic's slang for an oxy/acetylene cutting torch) !  and #2 - I've become a radical Makepunk. 

. . .

For our next instalment of Jay Leno Wednesday here at the Steampunk Workshop we have Jay stepping us through the start-up procedure for a 1909 Stanley and then giving us a ride.  Well worth the watch if only for the part where Jay burns all of the hair off his forearms!  He handles the explosion like a true mad scientist!

When it comes to late night comedy I'm more Letterman than Leno. But when it comes to things mechanical Jay Leno is a total mench and exemplifies true Steampunk spirit. 

Here he is talking about a Czech Tatra, a streamlined, rear-engined, air-cooled V-8 powered car from 1938 which would look completely at home in any Dieselpunk feature film!

Lots of progress!  She's on the road, registered, inspected, and passed, including emissions which is pretty cool considering that she's basically a 1972 VW Beetle that was re-titled in Ohio as a 1985 "assembled vehicle."  A close read of the Massachusetts auto emissions law would seem to indicate that a kit car of this type should be tested under the make, model, and year that the chassis was manufactured.  However, the test station can only test to the make, model, and year the vehicle is registered. 

Since this vehicle was titled as a 1985 in Ohio that's the only thing that our RMV would let me register it as.  They told me I'd have to go to Ohio's DMV to get it changed - but under Ohio's rules, it's correct!  Classic Catch-22.  Read on to see what I did.

Oh yes! and I got Mass plates STMPNK no less!

You'll recall I posted a picture of my recumbent bike last week and that one of things I wondered aloud was how one would go about steampunkifying a bike?  Well Eric and Alan - a.k.a. Steuben's Wheelmen - sent me a whole passel of new photos that show exactly how one would go about this process!

Don't miss the video!

. . .

Meredith's post on the Handcar Regatta reminded me that some of you might be interested in my daily ride.  This is a TourEasy recumbent bike from Easyracers and it's how I got to work this morning.

You see, I was an avid cyclists right up until the age of 16 1/2 when I got my drivers license and set my beloved 12 speed Fuji Grand Tourer aside. 13 years and 40 pounds later I decided that I should not let my 30th birthday pass without making a change. 

So I purchased a Univega touring bike, which was a decent enough bicycle, put pretty damn un-comfortable.  In contemplating the issues of comfort and cycling I recalled seeing a story on the news about David Gordon Wilson, an MIT Professor who rode an odd looking bicycle to work called a 'Recumbent' . . .

Wandering through the industrial neighborhood of West Oakland, You'll find more than a few warehouse art studios, each one filled to the brim with all manner of projects; from giant robots to huge metal art - and of course steam machines.

A few days ago, I was fortunate enough to be invited into the studio of one of the artists that reside there; a fine chap by the name of Tom Sepe. After sending out a call for willing subjects (aka, interview-ees), Tom contacted me and, with but a few words, lured me into his studio. Those words were simply: "Want to come see my electric-steam hybrid motorcycle?". He calls it the Whirlygig Emoto.