I went down a rabbit hole last night and stayed up too long. I slept through church.
Around noon, my Mom called and woke me up and we talked for a while.
I noticed my headlight went out on the busted side of my car. I put a new one in. I also found where the radar unit had dropped to and put it back in the harness, so I’m not getting an error message anymore.
Modern cars… amiright?
Anyway, I taped it all up with packing tape, which I will argue is of equal value to duck/duct tape. I have “fixed” so many things with packing tape. Especially if you have that good 3m stuff.
We used to use it in Portland to shrinkwrap our windows for the winter. Kept the house all toasty warm.
So I taped all my car’s plastic body parts together, and made an ersatz headlight lens, to at least keep the new headlight bulb out of the elements.
Once I did that, I realized I should have used some plastic or something on the inside, so that dirt won’t stick to the exposed adhesive. but….
No problem, just cut it open with a pocket knife and put some more tape on the sticky side to cover the adhesive. and then taped it all closed again!!
Doesn’t look as bad, now that the parts are more in place. The front clip was kinda sagging, but I put it back in its guide holes and taped it down, so it looks less trashed.
it’s weird how most modern cars don’t have bumpers anymore. There’s nothing on the outside that can help prevent damage in a collision.
When I was a cabbie, the Checker Marathon I drove had front and back bumpers rated for 25 MPH! Amazing!!!
Those were an option though. If you happened to buy a Marathon as a civilian car, it would have normal chrome bumpers on it, not so highly rated.
I recall that NY Mayor Ed Kotch’s car was a Marathon. Something very Americana about that.
The classic marathon is configured like a Limousine, in that it has full sized doors in the back, and the seats are completely behind them, so there’s actually plenty of room inside to add amenities that a Limo would have.
dv8 -- looks like you did a good job with the plastic repair. Cars do have bumpers, but they’re behind the plastic and are meant to absorb the collision. The downside is that even a minor fender-bender is very costly to repair.
I remember when head lights were sealed beam units that took about two minutes to replace, assuming you had to go get the screwdriver. Now you might have to remove the battery and/or the skirting in the wheel well just to be able to reach the headlight.
yup. fortunately, these lights are not hard to replace. the tiny side light is out as well as the fog light on that side, but I never really use them, and the little running light is no big deal. I couldn’t actually see where that light was accessed from. and the fog light would be a pain to reach if I do decide to fix it.
My plan at the present time, is to order all the parts from that one online company, whose name escapes me at the moment and replace them all myself. All the damage appears to be cosmetic.
So I made a Rock Auto Account. Very nice interface. They don’t have absolutely everything, but they really do have almost everything. It’s an amazing site.
A blessed Sabbath, Gerbil Nation!
It’s cold and damp outside, with a 50% chance of rain running through some time tomorrow.
I’m off to church in a few minutes. When I get back it will be time to pack up for Teh Older’s wedding -- Southeast edition!
I’d lost track of when Teh Older was to marry -- congratulations and safe travels, Paddy!
Happy Sunday.
I went down a rabbit hole last night and stayed up too long. I slept through church.
Around noon, my Mom called and woke me up and we talked for a while.
I noticed my headlight went out on the busted side of my car. I put a new one in. I also found where the radar unit had dropped to and put it back in the harness, so I’m not getting an error message anymore.
Modern cars… amiright?
Anyway, I taped it all up with packing tape, which I will argue is of equal value to duck/duct tape. I have “fixed” so many things with packing tape. Especially if you have that good 3m stuff.
We used to use it in Portland to shrinkwrap our windows for the winter. Kept the house all toasty warm.
So I taped all my car’s plastic body parts together, and made an ersatz headlight lens, to at least keep the new headlight bulb out of the elements.
Once I did that, I realized I should have used some plastic or something on the inside, so that dirt won’t stick to the exposed adhesive. but….
No problem, just cut it open with a pocket knife and put some more tape on the sticky side to cover the adhesive. and then taped it all closed again!!
So now, it’s “Like New.”
Doesn’t look as bad, now that the parts are more in place. The front clip was kinda sagging, but I put it back in its guide holes and taped it down, so it looks less trashed.
it’s weird how most modern cars don’t have bumpers anymore. There’s nothing on the outside that can help prevent damage in a collision.
When I was a cabbie, the Checker Marathon I drove had front and back bumpers rated for 25 MPH! Amazing!!!
Those were an option though. If you happened to buy a Marathon as a civilian car, it would have normal chrome bumpers on it, not so highly rated.
I recall that NY Mayor Ed Kotch’s car was a Marathon. Something very Americana about that.
The classic marathon is configured like a Limousine, in that it has full sized doors in the back, and the seats are completely behind them, so there’s actually plenty of room inside to add amenities that a Limo would have.
Hai, dv8 (and Harper!), and Sven!
dv8 -- looks like you did a good job with the plastic repair. Cars do have bumpers, but they’re behind the plastic and are meant to absorb the collision. The downside is that even a minor fender-bender is very costly to repair.
I remember when head lights were sealed beam units that took about two minutes to replace, assuming you had to go get the screwdriver. Now you might have to remove the battery and/or the skirting in the wheel well just to be able to reach the headlight.
yup. fortunately, these lights are not hard to replace. the tiny side light is out as well as the fog light on that side, but I never really use them, and the little running light is no big deal. I couldn’t actually see where that light was accessed from. and the fog light would be a pain to reach if I do decide to fix it.
My plan at the present time, is to order all the parts from that one online company, whose name escapes me at the moment and replace them all myself. All the damage appears to be cosmetic.
Rock Auto. that’s the place.
So I made a Rock Auto Account. Very nice interface. They don’t have absolutely everything, but they really do have almost everything. It’s an amazing site.