Project Eclipse: May 19th, The Big Finish!

Today marked the celebration of a project two years in the making!

At Bishop Reding's School Carnival, all eyes were on the unveiling of our new BR Spirit Car, a tired old Mitsubishi Eclipse, not unlike Paul Walker's first Fast and Furious ride, transformed into a powerful sound machine with broadcast capabilities!

Hundreds of students throughout the school crowded around the car and took turns sitting in the front seats, snapping up photos with the cool ride, and quietly giving Mr. Da Silva and his hard working Car Club team the smile of approval!

After a very special official start up by Josh, we took a few photos before zipping over to the football field...

For three hours, the lowered eclipse sat by the football field with its doors lifted and sound system cranking tunes to grab attention and raise school spirit!
Even the threat of a miniature tornado circling hundreds of feet above the car this afternoon didn't disappoint the mood of our students!

Everyone enjoyed our school carnival and had a great time, playing games in friendly competition, while sponsors of the vehicle dropped by and snapped up photos and exchanged technical conversation with our hard working students.

The BR Spirit Car is here to stay, and will serve for many years to come as a focal point or broadcast medium for our on-site sporting and charity events.

Mr. Da Silva would like to thank all of the supporters, staff and students who have helped make this dream come true for everyone at BR! Well done, and credit well deserved!

Feel free to check out a feature article on the BR Spirit Car in the Milton Champion newspaper!
As always, welcome to BR, and see you soon!!!

http://www.insidehalton.com/news-story/6562184-from-tired-old-sports-coupe-to-school-s-spirit-centerpiece/

Project Eclipse: May 10 Update

The BR Spirit Car Unveil is only a week away!!!

Car Club students are putting together the final preparations for the grand unveiling of The Spirit of BR!
With the car polished up and commemorative water bottles ordered, we hope to have a huge turnout for the special event.
The BR Spirit Car will be parked out back of the school, near the football field and will be shown to everyone at approx. 11:15 am. Mr. Da Silva and the Car Club members will then be on hand to answer questions and demonstrate the usefulness of the newly rebuilt Mitsubishi Eclipse.

Here are a few pics of the vehicle for anyone wishing to have a sneak peek:

















Also, here is a comprehensive list of what has been rebuilt, modified and added in the rebuild:

Chassis modifications:

·         Lambo-door vertical door modification

·         Midnight black paint job

·         Two inch Lotec suspension drop

·         2.0L DOHC refreshed engine

·         Power steering and air conditioning elimination for presentation, weight reduction and parasitic horsepower reduction

·         New disc brake installation with cross-drilled rotors

·         Exterior underglows installed

·         Racing seat installation with rear seat elimination

·         Full chrome header and exhaust pipe with sport muffler

Audio-video modifications:

·         1500 watt Kicker audio system

·         In-dash DVD player receiver with Bluetooth phone connectivity

·         Twin outboard amplifiers powering two tweeters, two mid-bass drivers, two extended-range rear speakers and four 10 inch dual voice coil subwoofers

·         Custom molded 10 inch Android tablet

·         Wi-fi enabled Miracast system for screen casting from cell phones and tablets

·         On-board wireless diagnostic system

·         Twin Absorbed Glass Mat deep cycle batteries for extra power and vehicle boosting

·         Push-button start conversion

·         Twin digital power cell voltage monitors

·         Motorized in-trunk retracting 32 inch high-definition monitor

·         Compact Android computer with wireless keyboard and track pad

·         Front and rear high-def web cams for onboard photo and video capture

·         Full interior underglows

·         Digital scrolling sign in windshield

The vehicle can be used on school grounds in the following ways:

·         Boosting dead vehicle batteries.

·         Displaying videos and screen casting on location

·         Portable kiosk for special events to play music or sell t-shirts

·         Drive-up vehicle scanning to diagnose Check Engine lights

·         Drive-up preliminary emission test checks on school premises

·         Broadcast station, for capturing in car interview videos, video production, and uploading to the school’s closed circuit TVs

·         Scrolling sign and lighting offers visual cue at special events, like Parent Teacher night, Trivia night, or other sporting or charity events…

To finish off our post, you can watch a short slideshow that showcases the Spirit of BR's technical features here. 

See you at the unveil! 

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Project Eclipse: May 3 Update

WE DID IT!

Today, Car Club relaxes, while we soak in the fruits of our labour. It has been almost two years and a lot of hard work and dedication on the part of the Bishop Reding Students, staff and sponsors involved in the creation of our School Spirit Car.

After commemorative shirts were handed out, Car Club members posed outside with the Spirit of BR. What a great moment!



A few members are missing in our picture, but all will be in attendance on May 19th at the official unveiling.

Mr. Da Silva would like to thank all students involved for their amazing hard work in the construction of an amazing piece of technology that represents the success of our students here at Bishop Reding.

We would also like to take a moment to issue a HUGE thank-you to our community sponsors, who helped make the car the dream it is today! We would like to thank:
First Professional Collision and Paint
Gemsen, Distributors of Kicker Audio
Halton Automotive
Crave Computer Systems
Atlantic Towing
the former Future Shop

We'd also like to recognize the support of:
the Halton Catholic District School Board and its Pathways Program
the Specialist High Skills Major Initiative in Ontario

Feel free to drop by the school to see the Spirit of BR up close, take a selfie, and ask the students about their work.

With the unveil only two weeks away, check out our teaser video HERE, on Project Eclipse!

Project Eclipse: April 26 Update

With less than one month to go, Car Club is putting the final touches on Project Eclipse, now dubbed the Bishop Reding School Spirit Car!

During the last week, we focussed on a few maintenance and repair bits as well as installing a few end pieces in the vehicle.

First, we struggled to keep the Eclipse's hood back to a new car shine. Our prior hand polishing of a few scratches yielded some hazy spots. But with careful use of a random orbital polisher, a Senior Car Club student applied some compound, polish and wax, to give the hood a new shine. Here's an AFTER/BEFORE pic of the difference one of these polishers make!



A couple of our grade 9 Car Club members helped to paint some finishing touches on the bottoms of the doors, which have some very light rust that was not reworked before the paint job. Our car is not perfect, but the odd mark of valour gives any machine character!



Moving onto the interior, we wanted to trick out the center console with a few toys. First, we converted the Eclipse to a push starter, wiring the relay necessary to start the car with a push of a button!



In this next pic, you can see the push starter installed in the factory cigarette lighter hole. As well, we wanted to be able to monitor the voltage in the primary cell unit (that starts the car) as well as the secondary cell unit (that powers the stereo, underglows and TV). This way, we can tell when the batteries run low and are in need of charging. We marked two cut outs in the console beside the push starter, and then cut them out and installed twin voltmeters with a digital display.



Now we have the ability to start the vehicle Formula One style, and can also keep an eye on the vehicle's electrical system while on location!



We then moved onto the floors and midsection of the vehicle, where we assembled four more LED strips to add accent lighting to the foot wells and amplifiers.







As the lighting system was connected onto the main switch panel, other students also tested the duplicate screen feature of the tablet onto the rear TV, and its working great!



Our dedication plaque came in, and it was installed into the rear of the trunk, and it will now act as a battery cover as well as a lid for a small box that houses the keyboard and remote for the TV. Most of the students who participated in Project Eclipse have signed the plaque as a symbol of pride in their hard work and accomplishment over the last two years.



Any students who graduated last year and worked on the car are encouraged to drop by the school and sign the plaque any time!

Now, with the vehicle 99% complete (other than a few cosmetic details), we found it fitting to take a lap around the premises to show the BR Car its new home, and pose for a few pics!



The Spirit Car even caught the eye of several grade 7 students this week as they took in a tour of our school, and they loved it! The tech students loves seeing the smiles on the kids faces, knowing this is one example of student potential and success!



We are just DAYS away from unveiling a custom built machine, created by the hard work and dedication of many BR students, with over 1000 hours logged over two years!
Drop by on the 19th of May and see WHO WE ARE, and WHAT WE BUILT!

Project Eclipse: April 19 Update

It is now officially one month until we unveil our wonderful masterpiece to the world, and all of us in Car Club are very excited to show off our hard work, having transformed an old coupe into a cool new lowrider!



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!

Project Eclipse: April 12 Update

BR's Car Club is officially in the home stretch to completing and unveiling it's Spirit Car!
Yes, the tired old 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse has been given new life, thanks to the passion
and dedication of the Bishop Reding students in Car Club and the automotive department!

Let's see what the last seven days have encompassed:

The underglows are in, and in order to install them under the car, two senior Transportation students traced and cut out three bumper plates which will form a recessed lip under the front and rear bumpers. These bumper plates will allow for the LED light strips to be installed without making them the lowest point on the vehicle's body. This is important so that the lights don't break off when we drive this low rider over a speed bump.

And so, with the jigsaw, some sandpaper, paint, and a hot glue gun, the underglows are soon installed...









We also had two students help wire up the underglows through the firewall and into our main
switch panel, to have them turn on at the touch of a button, alongside the amp rack Reding Royals sign behind the seats...





A few more graphics went on the car...







We then focussed on other small details. A junior student worked on carving a small piece of wood that would later be used to cover an ugly gap just below the faux intercooler. It will then be painted and installed to complete the fit.



We also gave the rear license plate our pride treatment!



To further our attention to detail, we also had Car Club students remove the wheels and touch up the inner fender panels with some flat black paint, to cover old over spray from prior work...





We also closed the ugly gap between the TV and the subs with a thin carpeted flexible panel. It allows the TV to raise and retract without displaying the inner workings of the actuator and wires.



A few senior car club students worked painstakingly on our rear hatch cover trim. As mentioned before, we had to flatten the large hump that existed before, when it covered the rear wiper motor assembly. Since ditching the motor, we flushed the panel with MDF and fibreglass, sanded it, painted it, and applied some graphics, drawing some attention to our upcoming new website for the Spirit Car's new job: On Site Special Events Vehicle!









Now, other than a few minor installations and touch ups, like the webcast system, some interior trim, and a few final graphics, our special vehicle is ready to roll!!! With the lights shut off in the room, we enjoy the warm glow of the LED strips under the car.
Once away from the hoist, the BR CAR will be itching to take a low stance at all kinds of events around the school for years to come!

See you next week!!