Okay, so folks were asking about this little project I did, the pole thing, kinda like you see at the NASCAR races, you know, the pylon? Let me walk you through how that went down.
Getting the Idea Rolling
It started pretty simply. I was watching a race one Sunday, couple of beers in, and just thought it’d be neat to have something like that big pole they show with the running order. Not for anything official, mind you, just for kicks in the backyard. Maybe stick some flags on it during race day, make things a bit more fun when friends are over.
Scrounging and Building
First thing, I needed materials. Didn’t want to spend much, so I went digging in the garage and shed. Found some old PVC pipes left over from a plumbing fix. Perfect! Lightweight, easy to cut.
Here’s basically what I did:
- Grabbed a long piece of that white PVC pipe, maybe 1.5 or 2 inches thick? Can’t remember exactly.
- Cut it to the height I wanted. Used a simple handsaw, nothing fancy. Made a mess with the plastic shavings.
- Needed a base so it wouldn’t just fall over. Found an old bucket. Mixed up some quick-set concrete I had lying around – probably too much, made it real heavy. Plonked the pipe right in the middle and tried to get it straight while the concrete set. Took a few tries, had to prop it up with some wood scraps.
- Waited for that concrete to cure. Seemed like forever. Tapped it a few times to check.
- Once the base was solid, I wanted it to look less like plumbing. Found some leftover spray paint – gloss black. Sprayed the whole pipe. Got paint everywhere, of course. Had to put down newspaper after I started spraying. Rookie mistake.
- Let the paint dry. It looked… okay. A bit streaky in places where I sprayed too close. Good enough for the backyard.
The Finished (Sort Of) Product
So, there it was. My NASCAR-ish pole. Stood up straight, mostly. The concrete base was heavy as heck, but stable. The black paint made it look a bit more serious than plain white PVC.
Did I add numbers or anything? Nah, got lazy at that point. Maybe I’ll stick some old race number decals on it someday if I find them. For now, it just stands there in the corner of the patio. Sometimes I hang a garden flag from it, sometimes it just chills.
It wasn’t a masterpiece, definitely rough around the edges. The concrete base is kinda lumpy, the paint isn’t perfect. But hey, I built it myself with junk I had around. Took an afternoon, kept me busy. And it kinda does the job I wanted it for – a silly little piece of race day decoration. That’s the story of the pole.
