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January 21, 2003
Well, it's been a nice 4 months off! But if I want to have the car completely done for Spring, it's time to get back to work...Began restifying the stainless drip rail molding. The piece that is forward of the driver's door was bent. I didn't bend it taking it off; it was bent long, long ago.
Spent 90 minutes straightening it. It was moderately bent up; not doubled over or anything, but also not just a "ding". Using nothing but regular tools (screw drivers, trim hammer, vise, etc), I got it fairly straight. Definitely not perfect; once you get within a couple feet you'll be able to tell it was bent at some point, but it looks relatively good.
January 22, 2003
Finished straightening the stainless trim. I tried to pound out the dings a little bit more. A couple of them are still apparent, but I managed to completely remove a couple others.Then it was time to shine it up. Same old process: 60 grit, 150 grit, 600 grit, steel wool, rough wheel, buffing wheel, rouge wheel. Got everything done but the final rouge wheel before calling it a night.
January 23, 2003
Finished buffing the chunk of stainless. It looks good, but probably not as nice as the windshield/rear window pieces I did last fall. That's ok, because the stainless that runs below the driver's window was not buffed at all before I put it back on the car. I don't want the drip rail pieces to be perfect, as that would only make the pieces below the windows look worse!Then I did the sanding process on the same piece for the passenger side. It's ready for the buffing process.
January 28, 2003
Buffed the passenger side stainless. Here's a shot of both pieces. You can see how I wasn't able to get piece that had been bent perfectly straight:
January 29, 2003
Removed the front seat (with Dawn's help). Got it in the basement to begin the reupholstering process.The rest of the night was spent cataloging and troubleshooting my lighting problems. I think it's a bad turn signal, but I want to be sure that's what it is, because replacing it involves removing the steering wheel, which I'd rather not do!
January 30, 2003
Solved my right turn signal problem!Turns out there were 2 problems. First of all, the right taillight socket is a bit "iffy". If you wiggle the bulb in the socket, the light will go on/off. In fact, one bulb wouldn't work at all, and another one works only if inserted in a certain way.
That's what was causing the bright filament to not light (the bright filament is used for brakes and turn signal). That was also causing the dark right rear marker light.
But even after I discovered that, the lights still weren't blinking. All I had at this point was solidly lit lights front and back.
The dim right parking lamp then got my attention. The dark taillight had made me think the problem was back there, but it wasn't. The core problem was a bad ground for the right parking lamp. Not at the body, but at the housing itself.
I must've never removed that ground wire from the housing when I was cleaning them up, because there was a bunch of rust in there. I cleaned up the male tab on the housing, and the female connector on the wire, and the problem was solved.