Wednesday, February 11, 2004
I helped becca move a desk from the house of the Daly and whoever else lives there to her place. It was odd, they don't lock their door when they are out and tell people to just come over. So we went over and no one was there, the front door was wide open. We went in, took the desk and left. It felt so weird. Also they have some cables across their drive that have been there aparently since the storm two weeks ago... Also sticks and leaves and branches all over the drive... two weeks after the fact. Odd, odd guys, eh!
Tomorrow I get to work 8-1, Friday I work 6-12. Fun fun! :)
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Oh, in other news: Mom and my little sisters arrived last night around 7 or so. They are staying until Friday. It's nice to have them around for a while. they come down about once a month to visit our grandmothers, so I'll get to see them a good bit :)
hoto
Today was spent working on the Beccasister's car. She decided she wasn't happy with the way the rear ended looked so she smashed it on a truck bumper in an attmept to make it look somehow better. The impact shattered the lenses on the passengerside tail light and made it so that the hatchback would not latch and the lock was bent down and inaccessible.
I decided it would be a fairly simple matter to fix, provided that I could actualy find a tail light for an 89 honda accord hatchback. I got out there this afternoon and banged on it a few times with a rubber mallet and lo and behold, the hatchback closed! I pulled off the piece of plastic that was in front of the lock and found out that with a couple more blows from the rubber hammer (Otherwise known as a "Skoter-bopper") fixed the angle of the lock and I was able to use it with the plastic cover and lisence plate back on. The lock still worked and opened the hatchback. So far so good, and I havn't even broken a sweat!
I called a junkyard dad told me to call, neither of us thought they would actually HAVE this rare part (The hatchback model isn't so comon. To buy the part new costs over $300), but they said they had one that was cracked. I decided to go take a look at it because even a large crack would be better than the tiny fragments becca had left. I got to the junk yard and the guy went to get the part. The computer record on the part had been wrong, it was NOT scratched, it was in excellent condition for being 15 years old! (Read: As "like new" as the tail light of an 89 honda accord could be, actually better than like new because if you stuck a brand new tail light on a car with one old tail light still on it it would look a bit odd, ya know?) I asked the man how much it would be and he told me $25. I was able to hide my shock and amazement and hand him the payment and go on my (very) merry way.
I got some 1 ton epoxy to glew some bolts onto a piece of plastic they had been pulled from in order to make it stay on the car. Upon returning I glued. and then I replaced the tail light. The one I got from the junk yard had all but one bulb in tact, so I didn't even have to put in bulbs, just take off the old one, put on the new one and plug it in! I sent becca to buy a bulb to replace the one that was missing (and the one from the other side which was blown) and I got to work putting on the now dry part. The 1 ton eposy did not hold, it shattered. Oh well. The part stays on just fine without those two bolts, so I could hae completed this job in even LESS time.
I re-assembled her car and now it just needs some touch up paint to cover some spots (one was already rusting out, behind the LXi emblem, and the other just needs to be kept from rusting. There is still evidence of her accident, as I didn't make much attempt to straighten the bent body, just to hammer the bent frame back into shape so the hatchback would close. But it's nothing major and her driverside door is green on a brown car afterall so I don't think she cars.
Total cost of repairs: $30 ($2 of which could have been saved, as the epoxy was not effective!).
That's in comparison to the $350 or so the bodyshop quoted her just for the light. They siad $50-$500 for the hatchback depending ont he damage. Of course, that was with a NEW light which retails at over $300. We got a great deal, thanks to God. :)
Klasinc&Loncar Duo (Just trying to help it get picked up by Google spiders, I maintain it for them)