Finishing Up

Either Anthony or the owner prior to him had bombarded this car with solar tint film about 10 times as dark as is allowed by California law.  It would be nice to have something on the windows to shade the sun a bit, but good grief....at night it was like driving an army tank down the freeway.  "Everyone move....I'm driving blind!!!" In addition, it was peeling off everywhere, so I just took it all off.  The film itself came off relatively easy, but the glue was something else again.  I tried to use a razor blade, but that was really a pain....it worked, but would have taken a long time....maybe a day per window.  So, I tried solvent.  It worked, by softening the glue for about 5 minutes, then I could scrape it off with the razor blade, and take about a minute or two per window.

Here I'm scraping the glue off the back window.  You can see where I have gotten it, and where I haven't.  The wagon is easy to see, but the houses across the court are fuzzy.  It wound up taking about half an hour to do all four windows.  The quarters were already out, and the back window was also removed, with a brand new one waiting to go in.

While I was cleaning the windows, I was holding onto the door using whatever I could grab, and I inadvertently grabbed the scissors, the part of the door riser mechanism that keeps the window level as it goes up and down.  There were no moldings or other hindrances on the window, so when I lowered it to get a better angle of attack on the upper edges, the scissors closed, and snatched the end of my left index finger.  That felt REALLY good.  I mentioned it at the time on SHOTimes. Owwwww!!! It healed fine....I've about cut each finger off sometime in my life at least once per finger.

In our part of the country, I normally wouldn't worry about weather sealing the doors under the door panels.  But there was a nice roll of carpet protector left over from when our house was built, so I used a bit of it to seal off the lower doors from the insulation and door panels.  As long as I hope this car lasts, it might make a difference down the road in the durability of the interior.

So now, the left side is ...FINALLY...done.  The panels are a bit dusty....I haven't taken the "Son-Of-A-Gun" to them yet.  But these are the new panels I got from a guy in NW SHO, about 4 years ago.  They've been languishing in storage, and I'm glad I didn't lose them.  There is a small problem with the mirror adjust switch....the wiring must be a bit glitchy for the right side mirror...it goes upper left to lower right, no matter which switch I use.  Sometime when I get close to finishing, I'll check that switch out and maybe swap it.  I have several others here.

The right side is done, too, except for the front door needing its panel after I finish troubleshooting the outside mirror.  The problem exists with two different mirrors, so it is the switch, rather than the mirror itself.  No problem, I can live with it if I need to.

It's getting to be really nice looking now.  The new windshield really adds...or maybe it was the old cracked one that took away...the class that a black or almost black car exudes.  With its black slicers, or chromed Zinic Adrian wheels, it will definitely be an eye catcher on the road.

This picture was taken before the new windshield was installed, but I call this shot "In The Womb".  It's being reborn in that garage....from a clunker-junker, to a really classy example of a really classy car.

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