BIG NEWS!!!!

Ha ha...thought I had something to announce, didn't you? Well, I do actually, but it's probably not exciting for most of you. The car windows are fixed! Glory, glory, hallelujah.

For those of you who may not know the saga of our car windows, well, take a seat. Long, long ago- before I came home from Iraq in 2004 long- our rear driver's side window went out. And by went out, I mean it wouldn't go up. So we taped it up, since we figured it would be a short term thing until we got it fixed. Well, when I took it in not long after I got back, they quoted the price of the repair to be about $400. That's FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS for one window. Uh, no thanks, I'll find a better price. Only there was no better price- that was pretty much everyone's price. So we drove around with the tape. Then, when we were at Randy and Jamie's wedding in September 2005, the rear passenger window went out, same deal. So I was looking at around $800 to repair two stupid windows that wouldn't stay up, much less work. Suffice it to say we kept a fresh roll of tape in the car from then on.

Well, time wore on and a combination of laziness, circumstances, and cheapness kept me from getting them fixed. Until now...I did an internet search about a week ago and found the part, and I wanted to knock it out while Steve was here. So we trekked out this afternoon, and voila! We actually did it. I told him I had a huge sense of satisfaction in knowing I didn't pay some shmuck 800 bucks to do what we did in two hours and a total cost of about $325 bucks (both regulators and the door panel tool I bought). So, eat it all you car mechanics.



You can see the tape in this one. We got quite good at taping, and every few months we'd need a fresh set. The most annoying thing was driving with it on there and flapping...you could sometimes barely hear the radio.




We had to pop off the door panel, peel off the dust cover, and then unbolt everything off the door frame. The first one took us a while to figure out, but we rocked the second one.


These were the parts I bought last week. They make you buy the whole assembly. I must have got it just in time too- I payed $150 for each one, then a few days later I saw them listed at $200 each. Yes, I am a huge cheapskate.

Doing a little testing...the tape residue was causing it to shudder when it hit the rubber. The only thing left to do is clean all the gunk off, and we're good to go.

Luke wanted to help out.

Hopefully he gets his car knowledge from grandpa. Daddy is not so good.

So to anyone who needs some help fixing their car windows, I'm your man. But just to warn you, I charge about $400...