Chesnut Wildcat update
 

Hello Everyone,

You see from the thread title that I'm using the name "Wildcat". I had applied for it as a Trademark for my car. It had been denied but my attorney thinks we have a good shot of reversing that decision. He filed the appeal for free for me. I should know shortly if I'll get the go ahead or not.

I completed and sent in the NY State application packet several weeks ago. This week I received a letter from the Inspector telling me that I needed to supply a Manufacturers Statement of Origin for the kit and a Title or Transferable registration for the donor car. In my cover letter I had explained that this was a scratch built car. I called the inspector. He asked me to resubmit the application with additional pictures of my frame construction and body work. I have done that.

During this waiting time I've suffered a couple of foot injuries. Neither of them were at my shop. I'm a fragile diabetic and I don't have any feeling in my feet.
I woke up one morning with my left foot very swollen and bright red. At the DR we discovered a puncture wound on the bottom of my foot. I went on antibiotics and the foot healed well.

On the 4th of July I was wearing sneakers at a beach on Lake Champlain. When I took the shoes off I found blood in my right shoe. Ends up a large, triangle shaped piece of ragged and rusty metal and embedded itself in my shoe. I walked around for hours not knowing that it was digging a hole in the middle toe of my right foot.

I'm now under the care of a Wound Care Specialist. I'm in a special cast and boot designed for diabetic foot injuries. We're trying to prevent an infection that would cause the amputation of my toe or foot. Hopefully I will heal. They Wound Center says that it could take a long time.

In the mean time I've had a few inquiries from people wanting to buy a body and a body/frame. I'm having a body done in Red Gel Coat for a customer. The nose is out of the mold. The seams are being prepped and then sprayed with the Gel Coat. Then the nose will get sanded and buffed out. The finish will not be paint quality but I think that it will look reasonably good.

Getting bodies made is easy as a Fiberglass company has my molds and will deliver them to order. I'm currently talking to few fabrication shops about building frames. I don't want to build them.

I'm suppose to be resting with my foot up. I'm going to take this time to work on a website for my car. I wanted to be able to show the body in different colors. I used a freelance graphic artist website to hire a person to photo shop 4 views into different colors. The Yellow that I'm posting here looked the best. I don't think the results are great. I was hoping to get good looking colors that were consistent. What i got was mostly dull colors that looked mottled. It might be because of the lighting of the original pictures. The windshield frame and mirrors that I used are aluminum. I wanted those to be left aluminum. They ended being the body color.

My plan is to go to some car shows and see if there's any interest in my car. I'm hoping to go out west for the winter and do some shows there. This is my hobby. I want to do this for fun in my retirement. To facilitate this I just purchased a new left over 2018 RAM 3/4 ton Cumming Diesel to tow my car trailer. I should have made this move earlier. Its such a difference towing with it than the previous 1/2 tons that I've had. Empty I'm averaging 24.7MPG. I think that's pretty good.

Having fun.

Buzz, I'm sending you a PM

https://i.ibb.co/pQGHKg5/wildcat-red...ut-of-mold.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/wBZmzsb/wildcat3-4f...rge-YELLOW.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/t8fd8tN/wildcatlowf...rge-Yellow.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/P4BsywG/wildcat3-4rearlarge-Yellow.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/PhqTQ4T/wildcatsidelowlarge-yellow.jpg

All the best in your recovery John, hopefully you can keep doing what you do so well! Car is very cool

John,

Sorry to hear about the medical issues and wish you a quick and successful recovery. Hopefully by the time that your foot is healed the title and registration will be set for your car. As well as the appeal.

Jim

Thx you.

I heard from NY DMV today. They have scheduled my inspection for August 6. That's my birthday. Hopefully it will be a great day with an assigned vin and approval for registration.

A few moments later I received notice that my appeal for the Trademark "Wildcat". Has been approved. Until it's actually issued I'm not assuming anything. It's a positive sign though.

I'm hoping that my Toe will heal quicker than the DRs are telling me and that I'll have my cast off before the 6th. Otherwise I'll need the help of my son at the DMV.

Have a great day everyone.

I was playing around with some black duct tape and a few stripe ideas. I didn't want to duplicate the COBRA stripes. I like this one. I'm leaning towards painting the car in Viper Stryker Red with Silver stripe.

I think I'm going to take the car to the Corvette's at Carlisle, PA show this Aug 22-25. I want to see what peoples reaction to it is.

I've been driving it around a dirt road loop at my shop. I can tell that it's going to be a good driving car. Compliant suspension, easy steering, good throttle response,
comfortable seating position and leg room.

Sorry that the car in yellow pictures are so large. I didn't know how to resize them.

https://i.ibb.co/QMvWcXR/wcmed3-4-Rblkstripes.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/dt3x47J/wcmed3-4frontblkstripes.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/K9XYmCc/wcmedsideblkstripes.jpg

The stripe looks good. You might try tapering the rear too. Without a straight on rear photo, it's hard to tell.