Chessboard hobby project - Part IV

If you didn't follow this subject I recommend reading the previous 3 posts dedicated to this project (you can find them in the archive spread out throughout the past months).

So, finally, after almost two months without any progress, just a few days before Christmas, the welder (RO - sudorul, IT - il saldatore) managed to find a few free hours and came by and yes, you guessed it, the flipping granite chessboard table is almost ready! The entire rotating mechanism and all the metal parts are completed and I am almost at the end with this long-time project.

All that needs to be done now is two small granite borders (I have to glue them with a special glue over the metallic holder of the table) and the paint :D - the red-metallic colour you see now is just a thing to protect the metal from corrosion & rust - so don't worry, it will look better, the only fact is that I can't paint it with the low temperature that we have these days because the paint won't last...

Anyhow, enjoy the images & please let me know what you think about it.

Opel / Vauxhall Astra G Led Tuning Tutorial

On popular demand from my YouTube "Opel Astra G Led Tuning" video, I have decided to make a tutorial on this subject – "How to change the interior lights of your Astra G".The demonstration is made on my Astra G, a 5 door hatchback from 2001 and this is important to notice, because the Astra produced from 2004 in Poland has a slightly different position of the screws. There should be NO differences between the cars produced in the UK and Germany, but please don't get angry if you find yourselves in a different situation, because it also depends on the Astra G model/year, especially the ones made after 2004.
So, here is what you need to get started:

1. The LEDS with your favorite colors (4 LEDS for the indicators, 2 for the central radio/temperature/hour display, 1 for the klima AC console and 1 for the lighter, TOTAL = 8 LEDS)
   
2. A screwdrivers set, both + and – screwdrivers.

If you want my advice, I would consider ordering/buying a few extra LEDs.
1. The speed, RPM, water, fuel indicators:
The red dots in the following images represent the positions of the screws. You need to remove all those screws.





After you have removed the screws, remove the 2 plastic masks represented with red and green in the image.




Switch the lever represented with the white color in the image to loosen up the speed, RPM indicators. Extract the part and replace the normal lights with your new color LEDS.


ATTENTION!!! Be careful to get the polarity right, otherwise you will have to redo the entire thing again. You can try to put the indicators back in again, switch the lever again and turn on the car headlights to see if all your LEDs are working. Once you got that right, go ahead and put everything back the way they were and put in the screws.

2. Klima / AC control console:

Grab the central lever (for the air intensity) with your fingers and pull with force and attention at the same time. You need to pull it with attention to avoid breaking it.






Once you have pulled out the air intensity button, proceed to replace the light with your new LEDS. You should use some pincers / tweezers if you have big fingers :D. After this, find the right position and insert the air intensity lever back to its place.


PLEASE NOTE!!! In the picture I already have the blue LED in because I already changed those.

3. Lighter:

Watch my video "Astra G LED Tuning Tutorial" from YouTube to see how you should proceed to get to the lighter light to change the LED. Once you have removed the two plastic pieces, locate the light bulb, easily squeeze out the lighter and change the light bulb with your new LED. After that, obviously, put everything back in place.



4. Central console (hour, radio, temperature, date display):

First of all take a moment and think a lot if you want to change those light bulbs too, because of the hard work involved. In case you decide to change them, here is what you have to do.

In the first image, the blue dots represent the screw positions. As you can see, you need to do the following things:

Remove your stereo and then remove the screw behind it.

Remove the plastic cover from the free space under the stereo: you need to release the 4 clams and then remove the screw behind it.



Remove the 4 arrow – triangle button (the one you use for emergencies or car problems). You need two (2) straight screwdrivers; insert them on both sides of the triangle button and extract it easily. After that, remove the 2 air vents (Image 19). There should be some other screws behind the air vents, after removing those, remove the entire big plastic piece (image 20).




Once you have done this, look behind the display and change the light bulbs with the new LEDs. When you have finished, put everything back in order and you're done!

Hope this was of good help to all those of you interested in modifying your interior lights. Cheers!

HOME – Fighting the climate change

First of all big thanks go to my dear friend Florin for telling me about this documentary. I've always been kinda' sensitive when talking about climate change and I seen other documentaries on this subject and HOME is one of the best. For this blog post however, I will limit myself just to let you know about this production and I'll leave the analysis and commentaries for another time. I think the great part about this one is the recency of the investigations, the good overall explanation and the numbers – sad and worrying numbers…

It's non-profit film and on the official YouTube channel it says that redistribution is free. I know you may have seen other similar initiatives on the climate change fight and we'll get in the merit of acting and sustaining these initiatives in a further post, but information and social action are crucial in this global fight so this is why I am giving you some links.

HOME YouTube official channel

HOME documentary (English)

HOME documentary (Deutsch)

HOME documentary (Russian)

HOME documentary (Arabic)

HOME documentary (Français)

HOME documentary (Español)

HOME official web-site