One side down, one to go

I worked for about four hours Saturday and finished the passenger side of the car. I learned that I can talk on the phone and work on the car at the same time. Thanks to Steakfinger for helping me test my abilities. Yeah multi-tasking!

You can see everywhere

I spent close to four hours working on the car Saturday and it is now symmetrical again.

The beautiful weather meant a lot of my neighbors were out so I met several new people as I worked. One of my blind neighbors felt the car while waiting for his ride. I love the texture myself, so I suggested it as a way to explain what I was doing. Many drivers stopped to ask me questions, as I was working in one of the main cab/passenger drop areas for my apartment complex. One said that I should be safer while driving since all the eyes on my car will make it so that I can see everywhere.

That's a Fancy Car

I've gotten a lot of questions recently about how I wash the car. The car has been through a drive-thru car wash and came out unharmed (although I didn’t stay under the drier for the entire time). I always wash the car before I start gluing eyes and normally, I just go to a self-serve car wash to clean it.



I didn’t get many eyes on the car today. I had planned to make the passenger side match the driver’s side today, but it started sprinkling. I continued gluing for awhile, but it soon started raining too much to keep the glue dry. Maybe with daylight savings time, maybe there will be enough light after work for me to focus on the car a little each day.

After my failed work attempt. I went to lunch at Phil’s Ice House. When I was leaving a family that had been at Amy’s Ice Cream was looking at the car. The mom asked if it was OK for them to touch the car. One of the little girls said “This is a fancy car. I like fancy things.”

Daily Texan

My office is next to the office of the Daily Texan (the University of Texas' newspaper) and yesterday after work Katherine Fan saw my car and talked to me for a few minutes while Garrett Traya took photos of the car. I went into work this morning to find this looking out from the newsstand.


Such a great photo and write up. I think Katherine does a good job of describing what it's like to see the car in person. The story begins:
"When other drivers began yelling at April Burcham a couple of days ago, she was afraid she had cut someone off. It turned out they just wanted to compliment her car, and with good reason. Burcham's red Ford Escort seems to be covered in bubbles. Upon closer look, they morph into googly eyes. Dozens and dozens of colorful plastic eyes, commonly used for dolls, line the driver's side and trunk of her car. Some of the plastic eyes retain moisture from the air, catching even more light depending on the angles of the sunlight."

Vandalism2

I'm not sure if someone was writing their name or if this is just random symbols. This appeared on the car sometime between Saturday and Tuesday. This image also shows how dirty the car is. Any glue residue attracts a lot of dust.

what you lookin' for?

I only finished the driver's side door today. Direct sunlight makes the glue set up VERY fast. It also results in very bad sunburns for fair-skinned folk.

A truck load of people stopped to look at the car while I was working. They asked several questions from far away and then drove closer to say "What you lookin' for?" then "See you later." Ha!

Eyes in the wind

I worked six hours today. It was very windy and several little eyes escaped into the parking lot. For the most part it was a beautiful day, so several of my neighbors stopped to ask questions about the car.

The older lady who drives her rascal scooter at breakneck speeds through the apartment complex said her special transit service driver (cap metro little bus that picks her up to take her to places her rascal won't go) had been asking where I got all the eyes. She seemed disappointed that it was via the internets.

An exchange student was surprised that I was working on the car in the parking lot. He thought I had some other place to do that work. He also asked me if I was an artist.



Passenger's side (I just did the line that goes from the trunk to the front of the car above the window on this side today)




Driver's side above the window




Driver's side (I also finished half of the back door on this side)

Eyes

I now have enought eyes to finish or to come really close to finishing.

1250 black variety pack 10 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, and 20 mm
1250 multi-colored variety pack 10 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, and 20 mm
1250 painted variety pack 10 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, and 20 mm
1250 bright color variety pack 10 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, and 20 mm
4000 12mm
5000 15 mm
20 40 mm
20 35 mm
80 28 mm
80 30 mm
20 40 mm color eyes
20 35 mm color eyes
80 28 mm color eyes
80 30 mm color eyes

Total this entry 14,400

Total eyes for project: 17,842

Short pause

I'm currently pausing the work while I build up supply reserves. I want to have enough eyes and glue on hand to do the sides before I get started. The car made it back from its trip with no damage. Reports have it that while cruising the parking lot at Wal-Mart in Lawton, Okla., it was admired by oldsters and hipsters alike. I can’t wait to get it completely covered.

Googly eyes are watching you

I spent about an hour putting the eyes removed earlier this week back on the car and finishing up the trunk lid. I had a few more eyes, so I also did the gas tank cover. The car is about to go on a long trip, so we'll see how the eyes hold up to long periods of 70 mph.

Eyes

The bulk company sent me the rest of my order at no charge, woohoo!

125 black variety pack 10 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, and 20 mm
125 multi-colored variety pack 10 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, and 20 mm
125 painted variety pack 10 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, and 20 mm
125 bright color variety pack 10 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, and 20 mm
108 14mm
150 6mm(?) donated eyes. Thanks, Sharon!

Total eyes this entry: 758

Total eyes for project: 3,442

Vandalism

This morning about 10 of the eyes were ripped off the trunk and lovingly placed on the windows of the car. I’m sure this will be the first of many times I will have to redo work on the car because someone decides they want to mess with the eyes.

I’m sure if I lived at a house with a garage, things might be different – the car wouldn’t be such a temptation. But I felt sure that if I kept waiting for the perfect conditions, I would never actually do it. I’m going to try parking in a place not so close to the sidewalk from now on to see if that stops the vandalism (at least until I’ve got more than 1/5 of the car done.)

Trunk day two

I couldn't do much today because I couldn't find any eyes that weren't all black to keep the ratio the same as the rest of the trunk. I spent maybe 10 minutes gluing today.

more eyes

I'm going to need a few more small eyes to finish the trunk top.

102 10mm
96 12mm
72 15mm oval
30 20 mm oval
18 15mm wink
24 15mm multi-color
96 15mm

Total eyes this entry: 438

Total eyes for project: 2,684

First day's work

Below is after two hours of work. It's almost exactly half the top of the trunk done.


Below is when the 2.8 oz of glue ran out.


Below is where I stopped for the day. It was a total of 4 hours actually gluing.