As it nears final completion, we gave the Eclipse a wash out in the warm sun, then opened its doors for some fresh air. It did a good job of catching the eyes of many passing students on their way to class. Then, it was back into the auto shop after its quick tease, for some more work...
While running the engine outside for a bit, we noticed a strange smell and some vapors coming from the vents and discovered that the original heater core was leaking. Not a problem. Seeing as how we will not be driving the vehicle in the winter, we elected to bypass the heater with some couplings. This will easily prevent the heater from leaking antifreeze and vapors into the passenger area.
We have been blessed with the support of wonderful community sponsors, all of which we want to ensure are promoted on our vehicle. So on went the last of the decals, citing Atlantic Towing and our SHSM program for their support.
Finally, we needed to put our own mark on Project Eclipse, and there is no better way to signify it as our own endeavour than with the Reding Royals lion's head! The sunroof became the best location for our final decal, custom cut and installed by two young ladies in our Transportation Technology program:
After working on removing a few air bubbles from our largest decal, we moved onto repairing an issue we weren't expecting...
The rear hatch trim had cracked in Monday's hot weather. This was because of the expansion of three different materials against each other. So we removed the panel, sanded it down, and resined in a thin sheet of cloth which will be sanded and painted soon, ready for its graphics. Hopefully, the newly layered hatch trim will withstand hot temperatures without deforming or cracking.
And on to good news again...
After some careful disassembly of panels, trimming and routing, we were able to install the Webcast system into the Eclipse. This system uses two webcams- one in the front and one in the rear of the car, to capture pics and videos of interviewees during special on-site events like sports games and charity events.
Once installed, we initialized the cameras and interfaced them with a video editing app on the in-car android computer.
This dash cam will capture footage of interviews in the "Hot Seat":
and the rear cam will capture footage of interviews when groups of people are standing
in the "Cool Zone," behind the vehicle.
The footage then gets edited in-car, then uploaded to the school hallway monitors or our upcoming new website: specialevents.redingroyals.com.
Mr. DaSilva is encouraging BR students to make use of the Spirit Car and it's technology as a venue for promoting on-site events. From a music station to a broadcast vehicle to a sales booth, the BR Spirit Car is up for any task...just like our BR students!
We get things done!
Stay tuned for details on our unveiling day, and feel free to email Mr. DaSilva at brautoshop@gmail.com if you have any questions about the vehicle or our official launch!
See you soon!
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