well, I haven't driven *any* of my personal vehicles any appreciable
distance at all for months; but that's more due to a combination of bad
luck, stupidity, and a lack of free time.

car #1 (listed in order of acquisition) '62 Studebaker hardtop: Blew up
clutch in a "burnout contest" leaving a car show last year.  Have not
fixed yet due to large number of "while you're in theres" that need to
be addressed.

car #2: '88 Porsche 944: previous daily hawler, was hit 'n' run in the
LR quarter panel while parked in front of my house only weeks after
getting a company car.  After a long stint in the body shop, noticed a
severe vibration from the rear end.  Has been in and out of shops since;
is currently at the third shop where at least the mechanic was correctly
able to reproduce the symptoms I was describing, which is more than I
can say about the first two.  He's had it for almost a week now,
hopefully he will be able to identify and fix the problem.  Porsche
withdrawal is approaching "need methadone NOW" stage.

car #3: '55 Studebaker coupe, with a badly done '63 289/Flightomatic
transplant.  Still waiting on various pieces parts to be done before it
can be considered roadworthy.  A guy in Florida is supposed to be
polishing a timing cover for me and making me an adapter plate so that I
can run an early water outlet on the late water pump housing.  (right
now it has an ugly flex hose with two different sized ends, I want to
use the correct molded hose, because I like a tidy engine compartment.)
 I need those two pieces before I can address the massive oil leaks
from the engine, which appear to be in the front seal (in timing cover)
and oil pan (which would be stupid to R&R if I'm going to do the timing
cover later.)  Also waiting on a local machine shop to true up the
aftermarket aluminum intake I bought and stupidly had polished before I
test fit it. (hey, a Stude engine needs all the weight savings it can
get.  It's strong, but strength comes at a price...)  Also waiting on a
guy in CA to send me various pieces of glass that I need, notably the
front vent windows.  (want to stop the massive water leaks, but both of
my vent windows are busted, and not worth putting new gaskets on.)  Same
guy is supposed to send me the correct linkages for my current
motor/tranny/body combination to replace the kludged together mess I
whipped up to replace the even more incorrect mess that the previous
owner hacked into the car.  (engine/trans apparently came out of a Lark
body, not a Hawk (later iteration of the "Loewy coupe" body style,) and
when the gas pedal linkage didn't line up, he simply cut the hole in the
floor bigger with a muffler chisel.  Yeeesh.)

But that said, the '55 is intended to be a daily-driver type car.  I'm
not actually going to use it as such, but I plan it to be capable of
such duty when I'm through with it.  The heater is already fully
functional, and as I said in another post, I plan on adding Cibies and a
relay harness to it.  It's running electronic ignition, a Delco
alternator, and I've got 15x7" wheels with modern radials.  I've also
added gas shocks and late model (well, 63-64) "Super Hawk" sway bars
front and rear, heavy duty springs, and completely gone through the
suspension.   I've already taken a good stab at sealing up the leaky
trunk; we will see when my NOS trunk hinge arrives if it's truly
watertight now.  Future plans include a 60's vintage under dash A/C unit
if I can make a Sanden compressor clear the hood, and also maybe a set
of disc brakes and a dual circuit master cylinder.  Windshield washers
are another item for which I'm keeping my eyes open.

So the short answer is, not at all lately, but if I can manage to
reverse my current trend of automotive nonfunctionality, probably more
than you'd think.

nate

It is a 1999 Van den Plas.  The lenses are round glass units, approximately
6 inches in diameter (I would estimate).

And made only in a handful (10 or less) STANDARDIZED form factors used
by all carmakers so that when it comes time to replace them, its cheap
and easy regardless of the car's brand or age... rather than so
expensive that owners tend to leave them broken until absolutely forced
to fix them by a failed inspection.

Yep yep yep.

Now I have a question: Is it just my imagination, or do the lights
surrounding the headlight, and also made of clear plastic, NOT turn
yellow in the same manner as the headlamps? And if it's NOT my
imagination, why is this so and why can't they make headlight lenses
the same way?

It is a 99 Van den Plas.  Any clues for the owner?

In fact, we used to buy a handful of the things and replace them whenever
they got dirty.  They were only a couple of bucks each.

Police here are very unlikely to notice a minor infraction like this.  Heck,
they don't even notice major infractions unless their 'Boss Hogg'
nature comes out.