Eventually, as that requires unloading all the ish I keep in the cargo area. Most of my tools, car-care products, climbing gear, etc.
My room is literally buried in boat gear, and I've got mountain bikes in the dining room :roll:
I will say this- for the cost of the metal to make the hitch, I could have ordered one manufactured by Curt. If I hadn't been on a time crunch to tow my brothers boat home I would have done just that. Hell, I still might as this has been a royal bitch without a drill press.
The windshield seal was leaking so badly I had inch-deep puddles on the floorboards during each monsoon-style rainstorm we've had in the past couple weeks. It's been a constant battle of wet-vaccing the carpet and keeping the windows down whenever possible to air things out. I got extra hours at work and finally had the money to do something about this.
Shop #1 quoted me $300 to have the windshield pulled, fix all the rust, paint the repaired areas and have the windshield put back in. Typically (for me), that was the last time I could get hold of the dumbass. How does someone run a shop when they can't answer a phone or return a message in less than 3 days?
Shop #2 quoted me $500 to do essentially the same thing only leave it in primer. I talked to him on Monday and dropped the car off Tuesday morning at 9am. He called early in the afternoon to tell me the auto-glass company was having trouble removing the windshield and their was a fairly good chance it would be destroyed. I can't hold that against him- I knew the odds were against me going into this (when it comes to body-work, they always are). It'll be ~$300 for new glass, and I won't have that for at least a week, maybe a month.
When I got back from dropping the car off at the shop, there was a code enforcement violation warning on my truck in the driveway. The tag is expired, it's inoperable, and basically being used for storage. I don't have the $1,000 to fix it. I'm going to empty it, clean it up and the area around it, try to reinstall the steering so I can push it around, and generally make it look as operable as possible.
Talked to the autobody shop and he said the windshield came out with most of the windshield frame still attached to it! The worst case of this he has ever seen- just my luck.... He did take some pictures of the mess with his cell-phone at least, so maybe he can send them to me. There is a new windshield being delivered and I'm expecting the car to be ready either tomorrow or early next week (most likely the latter).
The rest of the week and the weekend I expect to spend under my truck... wish me luck.
The only "bright" side to this is that my last paycheck was pretty large, and my next one (tomorrow) is just as big. The following paycheck may even be as good, too. This mess may not entirely set me back, but it's certainly keeping me from moving forwards on anything but the car. I've only got until the end of May to be making decent money and then a three-month spell of barely scraping by. I usually have one or two thousand in savings so I can do something with my summer, but not this year....
So... $785 dollars later, the new windshield is in and the rust is all gone. I'll have pictures to put up soon.
Next step is to remove most of the interior and clean the hell out of it. Then I think I'll dye the bottom half of the interior black and replace the blue carpet with black. The upper half of the interior will get wrapped in white vinyl, including the headliner.
I still need to either finish building a proper hitch, or just buy one. I am really leaning towards buying one since I don't have a drill press, which makes drilling all those bolt-holes by hand a royal bitch.
Work on the truck also progresses. The back end is all bolted together, so now I get to start on the front end. Once it is mobile I need to save up and have the gears and lockers installed. I might toss up a picture or two of it as well.
I just had the head gasket replaced, as well as most of the exhaust.
I'm still getting leaks from around the windshield and there are more small holes rusted through various places.
The rear doors won't open and one of the hatch hinges is broken. I have a pair of replacement hinges but I can't get them to move either. I am thinking about taking them to a machinist friend and having him make me some new ones with a grease-able bolt, or at least making a grease-able bolt and removing the one that is currently in the hinges. The mounting location of the busted hinge is pretty rusty as well. Got some work to do there for certain.
The AC got charged up and is working for the tiny sum of $30!
Comments
Eventually, as that requires unloading all the ish I keep in the cargo area. Most of my tools, car-care products, climbing gear, etc.
My room is literally buried in boat gear, and I've got mountain bikes in the dining room :roll:
I will say this- for the cost of the metal to make the hitch, I could have ordered one manufactured by Curt. If I hadn't been on a time crunch to tow my brothers boat home I would have done just that. Hell, I still might as this has been a royal bitch without a drill press.
Shop #1 quoted me $300 to have the windshield pulled, fix all the rust, paint the repaired areas and have the windshield put back in. Typically (for me), that was the last time I could get hold of the dumbass. How does someone run a shop when they can't answer a phone or return a message in less than 3 days?
Shop #2 quoted me $500 to do essentially the same thing only leave it in primer. I talked to him on Monday and dropped the car off Tuesday morning at 9am. He called early in the afternoon to tell me the auto-glass company was having trouble removing the windshield and their was a fairly good chance it would be destroyed. I can't hold that against him- I knew the odds were against me going into this (when it comes to body-work, they always are). It'll be ~$300 for new glass, and I won't have that for at least a week, maybe a month.
When I got back from dropping the car off at the shop, there was a code enforcement violation warning on my truck in the driveway. The tag is expired, it's inoperable, and basically being used for storage. I don't have the $1,000 to fix it. I'm going to empty it, clean it up and the area around it, try to reinstall the steering so I can push it around, and generally make it look as operable as possible.
The rest of the week and the weekend I expect to spend under my truck... wish me luck.
The only "bright" side to this is that my last paycheck was pretty large, and my next one (tomorrow) is just as big. The following paycheck may even be as good, too. This mess may not entirely set me back, but it's certainly keeping me from moving forwards on anything but the car. I've only got until the end of May to be making decent money and then a three-month spell of barely scraping by. I usually have one or two thousand in savings so I can do something with my summer, but not this year....
Next step is to remove most of the interior and clean the hell out of it. Then I think I'll dye the bottom half of the interior black and replace the blue carpet with black. The upper half of the interior will get wrapped in white vinyl, including the headliner.
I still need to either finish building a proper hitch, or just buy one. I am really leaning towards buying one since I don't have a drill press, which makes drilling all those bolt-holes by hand a royal bitch.
Work on the truck also progresses. The back end is all bolted together, so now I get to start on the front end. Once it is mobile I need to save up and have the gears and lockers installed. I might toss up a picture or two of it as well.
I just had the head gasket replaced, as well as most of the exhaust.
I'm still getting leaks from around the windshield and there are more small holes rusted through various places.
The rear doors won't open and one of the hatch hinges is broken. I have a pair of replacement hinges but I can't get them to move either. I am thinking about taking them to a machinist friend and having him make me some new ones with a grease-able bolt, or at least making a grease-able bolt and removing the one that is currently in the hinges. The mounting location of the busted hinge is pretty rusty as well. Got some work to do there for certain.
The AC got charged up and is working for the tiny sum of $30!