Thread: Gasman's Car Deal and Repair's

Gotcha Steve. I did what ya said and it looks like You were correct Tim.

I don't plan on changing it.

Joshua, I have an appointment with my glass guy this morning. By noon both should be replaced. Then I'm going to have to get out a big bottle of "Goof off" and work on getting the duct tape off around that side window.

Tom, I didnt pry the sweep out with my casted hand. Just took the picuture thay way to show that was all that is needed. I have no stength and no grip at all. Thank god I recently bought one of those under the cabinet bottle/jar openers.

I have ordered door panel clips twice now and both times they were the wrong ones. A few of mine are missing and I'm going to be taking the door apart to replace the latch and switch as the locking part doesn't work. After sending this second order of clips back for a refund I went to the Junk Yard. pulled 30 clips out of door panels. Exactly the ones I needed. I took them up to the cashier and she said" Show me inside your tool bag" so I did. I guess people try to walk out with stuff that way. I asked her what I owed her and she pointed at the door and said "Have a nice day". After all the trouble of ordering and having to return I ended up getting more than I needed for free. The parts gods are smiling on me.

Another thing I did today...
When you have an SUV or Hatch Back and you buy stuff too long to close the back door you have to find a way to tie down/secure the back door. I've found that most of the time they don't put any tie-down hooks on the door. This Equinox is the same way. There are tie-down hooks all over the back inside but nothing to secure the door. So I went to Ace Hardware and made my own.

Before, when I showed replacing the Licence Plate light bulbs I showed the two screws that are located by the handles on the door. I put clips that holds wires under those bolts that are rubberized and added welded D rings to them. They fold up and stay out of the way. And when you want them they fold down so you can tie the door down.



I Did get both pieces of glass replaced today. That went really well. It took these guys 20 minutes to do both. I always use these guys as they have great prices and do the work well and fast.

If all goes well tomorrow I might tear the driver's door apart and do the work to it. I also plan on hitting a couple of Pawn Shops for stereo parts or at least to see what's available. I normally buy at Crutchfield but I need to try to cut down the costs a little now.

How about this, Jerry? Pretty sure it's good to go.



Also a double-din pioneer I bought a backup camera for and never did anything with it...
New GPS antenna as well..

I'm not much into Amps nowadays with decent car stereos putting out 30 to 50 watts RMS per channel. That seems to be enough power for me. Plus a 100W Powered Sub in the back is all I need.

You never know./ Make me a deal I cant refuse Tom. PM sent.

I started today by working on the driver's door. Took all the parts out of the insides and put in a new Latch Mechanism, New Door Stop, and new Lock Switch. After the third time putting the guts back in I finally got it right. The linkages were just fighting me. I finally figured out that the manufacturer of the new latch put a bushing for one linkage in the wrong hole. That just threw me off. But in the end, I won and the door latches and locks properly.

Here is a shot of the oor open and I'm working on getting parts out.






This is just the biggest part. The latch, Exterior door handle, and door-stop are small and in another pile.


Latch mechanism


Lock switch


Door Stop


I was getting pretty tired at this point trying to do all this with one hand. Of course, I couldn't and did a bit more than I should have. So after an hour break, I came back and finished putting it all back. That's is when all hell broke loose and it took me 3 tries.

I started getting too stressed for pics by this time. Here I took the antenna mount apart to replace the black plastic mount in the fender. Then I figured out I had to remove the inner fender to do the job. PITA working with those plastic pop-in clips. I got it done is the main thing and now the antenna doesn't wiggle back and forth and make noise in the cab.





That's all the pics I took. But just as I was cleaning up all my tools my stepson showed up.
So I told him what to do and handed him tools and he replaced the struts, shocks, and swaybar link pins. Again, dealing with both rear inner fenders and plastic pop-in clips. When I thought we were all done and we took the car for a test ride, (the car rides great now) he tells me he wants me to help him replace a mirror on the driver's side of his Nissan. The car that used to be mine. I knew it wouldn't take him long to start destroying it. He says he smashed the mirror into a sign in a Cone Zone. So back at the tools and pointing and giving directions again. It went easy as I had taken that door apart working on window controls a couple of years ago.

So I did find I need to replace the rear brakes on this Equinox as the shoes and worn extremely thin. An easy job that I think I can do myself. Maybe next week.

BTW, Tom did make me an offer I cant refuse on that stereo and amp. But, then a friend locally said he had a stereo in his garage that he dont want. So free is even better.
Thanks Tom.

I did find this morning a picture of the new Struts, Shocks, and Swaybar link pins.



And here is the old ones. Proof it was done.

Great progress Jerry!
Only saw this thread last night..
Glad you posted it up as it’s a far cry newer and more relevant to what most of us work on these days.
Look at the absence of wood in its design,, tsk tsk.. that’s an automobil? Hehe.

One of the Piller moldings was missing when I got the car. I ordered a new one and it came in today. One tiny screw on the inside edge of the door and two push clips and it's installed. I have a feeling the old one might have blown off because the lower edge of this molding is held in by being in the window channel and the window sweep holds it tight. With the Now installed new sweeps, it should stay on.



Thanks, Mike. My car is about finished. Only a few more things to do before it's complete. And you are right. Not one single piece of wood. I bet I could customize something with wood. Or fake wood. lol.

Yesterday I spent about an hour working with"Goof Off" to get what was left of the tape off from around the quarter window I had replaced. I had to use a razor blade also but I managed to get it all off without damaging the paint. There was about 2" of duct tape and residue all the way around.

Then I took the car down the street to the "Wash-it-yourself "place. I sprayed down the engine with a degreaser and then washed the car. After the car was clean I blasted off the Engine and it came out pretty clean. Then went back to the house and dabbed some white paint on the Plastic engine cover like it was originally.



By then I had time to install the car stereo I got from A friend. It was covered in dust from sitting in his garage but after a wipe down it looked new. Nice! It has Blue-tooth where the old one didn't. That was the main reason to replace the one in the car as I enjoy listening to my own music more than the radio stations. Plus having hands-free phone abilities.
After I took the dash apart I found that whoever installed the first aftermarket radio had done a proper job. They bought the adaptor so that the original harness was still in tack. After unplugging the old stereo I got to looking at the Molex connector and it look identical to the new one I was going to replace it with. Wire colors were a perfect match and locations in the pins. The size and clip were perfect. I thought this can not go this easy. So I tried to plug it in and it wouldn't go in. Dammit! There are two raised lines on both sides of both connectors. And the lines were not a match.


I could have taken a file to the sides of the new connector but figured I had everything I needed without having to buy anything so I just started cutting wires and installed the new connector. All the colors were a perfect match so I didn't even need to make a cheat sheet. I was able to unplug and take it into the garage and work on the bench. Nice! It all went back together smoothly and looks good.

Old


New


As you can see my buddy even had the correct aftermarket adaptor plate on his stereo that fit my car. He took this out of a Malibu. I thought I would have to reuse my old plate but nope.

I'm waiting for the speakers to show up next week as this car still has the factory speakers in it. This means the front doors have cheap 6" subs and Tweeters, and the back doors have the same cheap-ass subs. So the quality of the sound is muffled and not much in any mid-range. I ordered some JBL Concert Series Speakers to replace all plus a nice little under the seat 8" Powered Sub to fill out the sound without rattling the car to death.


Today I think I will replace the rear brakes and lugnuts. Plus scrub the rims clean from years of no attention.