Sunday, July 22, 2012

pre-work

This is the first time blogging from my work laptop. Luckily I sorted, uploaded, and even created the shell of an entry previously. These photos were taken in the middle of the night before I drove the car to work for the first time last month. It was also for a final push to take the car to a small show, cars and coffee charlotte. It turned out to be a bigger small show than anticipated, to the tune of about 4oo cars, and I was very glad I went.

My to-do list has been getting shorter and shorter over the last few months, whittling down to a small post-it the night before, the night before the show.

First attempt.










I have never installed windows before, let alone on a 4o year old car. The first well over an hour, and the second was less than 1o minutes. Go figure.

The window itself had two rail runners to which the inner arm bushes would run in, as seen above. There are another two rail runners on the inside of the door panel for the other two arm bushes. The arm also has a spring and bolts into place near the lever handle. You can unbolt the runners on the door side easily during the install, which ultimately helped the process.

At first I tried to do it without removing the inner arm or lever handle, but after adjusting it too far trying to set the bushes at the best location for installation, the spring liberated and I had to pull the entire arm out, including the lever handle anyways. The handle is held on my a simple c-clip and was removed with some prying with a screw driver. I then dug out the window and arm and started over.

Second attempt.




Spring  was easy to install, and I pulled the arm engaging back over the gearing, adjusting it with the lever handle.



No matter what setting you use, just don't adjust it past the gearing, forcing the gear off it's tract or the spring off it's seat, otherwise, you'll have to start over, again.

The upper door rail holes are visible in this photo, and the lower ones are installed by my hand. It was similar to installing solid suspension bits. It's easier to get all the parts started before tightening any down, otherwise the others won't start and you'll have to undo and take steps in the wrong direction, again and again as the case may be.


Lower the arm in place, placing the lever handle in it's hole. When working to install the bushes in the rail, try to keep the lever handle in it's final location. I placed the handle on it and tried to pull the arm towards the inner door skin as much as possible while fiddeling with everything.

Lower the window into place forward end first, and then rotate it counterclockwise into position, setting it on the rearward vertical seat to hold it in place. You'll also have to constantly support it, and this gets heavy while also adjusting the bushes on the arm to fit the rails, so try to work quickly or get a helper.


Start the two upper bushes, and lower door bushes however you can by adjusting the arm a bit or moving the window in the door.




I'm pretty sure that w/d is going to take off one day, launching into outer space, finally reconnecting with an alien species. Hopefully they don't take out my garage in the process.




In the end, I ended up having to remove the lower door rail in order to fit the arm bushing in it, and then bolt the assembly back into place. The upper rail was already bolted in place, and all the other bushings in their appropriate rails. The window handle was in place without the c-clip, and I had to move the arm around a bit to line up the solitary arm bolt, near the handle.

After testing it, however, I quickly realized something was wrong. the window would pitch forward, almost like it needed another rail to keep it from rotating clockwise while moving it up and down. If I held the window steady, it would run up and down without issue. This was pretty frusterating in the middle of the night before my psuedo "your done and drove her in" party at work. And my party I mean people finally just being able to see it in the parking lot and bug me about it during the day.

I wasn't stopping now though, and grabbed the passenger side window. My heart dropped.


Really?! Don't forget what?! This is one of the issues with putting together something that you didn't take apart yourself. In the previous owner's defense, he made a lot of great notes and was very organized.

My guess is there's another rail or bumper that bolts on to these, samiching to the bumper I now felt on the inside of the door frame near the front.

24o z owners, help would be appreciated - What is the problem and what goes in the above picture on the forward door windows?

At this point I needed a break on the windows, and I moved onto the next line item, the hood latch.



Rockstar. Yes. The hood was latched in place during the move that will go down in the history books by a wire. I didn't have time to sort out the hood latch, couldn't find the car side hardware in time, so I removed the hood side so that it wouldn't simply lock on me without means of opening. Of course, during the move, I found the car side bits. It was too late to install prior to the exodus, but I stored it in a safe place for later.




The car side hardware had all associated mounting bolts and screws already in place.





Both sides of the hood brackets installed easily, including the hood cable, the routing of which was clearly identified by the previous owner. This didn't make up for the DON'T FORGET note, but made me feel a little better.





Cable routing above the master cylinders. I thought I would have to take the inside part of the cable apart and was worried about the cable slipping inside of the housing, but it fed right through the grommet that was still in place, and intact. The T-handle easily bolted to the oem mount inside the car. At this point I did have to take it apart and carefully hold the tensioned cable to keep it from slipping back inside the housing. It reminded me of all those war surgery scenes when they're trying to clamp the retreating vein to save the wayward soldier. I was successful.



Back to the windows. The driver side window looked to have incurred some damage during the traumatic installation process. Maybe it was there before, maybe not, but either way, if the iPhone has trouble picking it up that means it's not really there. 

I was very happy to have one window in place.





And after about 1o minutes, two.



Time for bed.




Warming up outside the morning after.




Out for a stroll to work. What a sense of accomplishment. I didn't even give people a tour, but several commented, "That must be yours out in the parking lot." Indeed.


Showoff.


Dropped by to visit Dendy after work, at his work. Talked with the mechanics a bit, but didn't hang out too long, the 24o was ready to go back home. Her second real outing was great, things were shaking out which I'll get to later, but nothing major to report.


Safe at home again.



No comments:

Post a Comment