When creating a mega opus, one must acquiescence to the bundled hidden bonus feels

Not just the pain when you press the soldering iron to the work you are holding for too long and...
I mean the emotional roller-coaster that goes along for the ride
At some point in the beginning of the build, I lost the volume control knob off of the radio
The missing volume control knob was the fist of the nightmares
I have this tendency to see something interesting and have it take over what i'm doing...
So the most dangerous and time consuming thing is for me to do is look for something small and lost in my messy garage
I often had to stop myself from looking for it, and just hope that I would run across it (unharmed) before the end of the build
(never mount the radio first became the build chant for a while), all part of the emotional stew that creativity makes

I was always so hesitant to install something else, worrying about prodding fingers and serviceability
My very first jeep build was a nightmare to service, and the lessons learned would not leave my head
I often had to force myself to continue, to just "get it done", and stop over engineering it
That's not to say it wasn't fun,
I found it fun, but not everyone likes to put puzzles together with no instructions...
Often once I got started, things just fell into place,
like the spacing of the screw holes on the white distribution block I found matching the existing mounting holes in the molded plastic...
I didn't plan that, it just happened
What I can't share with you of course is how it sounds, it actually sounded really full and nice
Of course it down't have thumping bass like a show car, but sounds full and hopefully will not create hearing loss in the younglings

It all went together very nicely and all the complicated wiring is safely hidden away inside the dash
I really like this shot through the passenger door showing how clean it is under there
The LED fuel gauge gets washed out in the sun and is hard to see, but I really like the location as it fits the factory gauge style and layout

another perfect fit was the 18Ah battery fitting in the front between the factory motor mounts
it's bolted down with a plate below the plastic engine bay for strength
I really like the design of the barbie jeep and would love to do another one,
but I have my commando jeep to do and the red car for my friend
I really hope you like the build, writing this was more difficult that installing the radio, but just as fun in another way

Questions / comments = feel free to tweet at me @MacroscopePilot

who put the game of life on the 'hard' difficulty setting?
remember, the first self aware AI will be a battery charger, you heard it here first