For my birthday, my brother bought me a paint job. A nearby shop put in a $1400 estimate to eliminate all the dents and dings, then paint everything but the trim in the original color.

This weekend, I tried to remove all the trim, so there wouldn't be any ugly lines where old paint transitioned to new paint. Like everything else in the world, it turned out to be many times more difficult than my initial estimates. I worked part of Saturday and all of Sunday, but I got all the door molding off, as well as the fender trim and bottom edge moldings.

Removing the clips that hold the moldings on leaves a piece inside the doors, so I also wound up removing the inner door panels and vapor barriers. I've never understood the purpose of vapor barriers, so that little bit of plastic stayed off. But since everything was open, I figured I should take that opportunity to vacuum up all the dust and dirt of 21 years. I didn't get the chance; I'm saving that for tonight.

I also used the opportunity to try and fix the front passenger's window regulator. Again. The little plastic dealie at the rear that's supposed to grab the window and pull it down... well, isn't. So the whole window kinda tips forward as you roll it down, then crashes down into the door. It's happened so many times now that the front... let's call it a clip until someone sets me straight... the front clip isn't grabbing very well any more, either.

I first tried to fix it with window gasket sealant, and when that didn't work I tried 90-second epoxy. The gasket stuff didn't work at all; the epoxy worked once. Sigh. This time I'm trying CP-7, and I've got Gorilla Glue standing by for my next attempt. I wish the window had a hole in it; I'd be happy to use a pin or screw and resolve this permanently. If I knew how to drill a hole in glass I'd do it myself, but I have a feeling that making any such attempt would result in a somewhat humorous and poignant blog entry.

Schedules being what they are, I'll be vacuuming tonight, then I'll have an extra day for additional work before I take it to the paint shop. Hopefully I'll get to put the interior back together. It'll be there for a week; during that time, I need to get a new rear driver's side door molding and four blue passenger side molding clips (or the little pins that hold them in). I also need to refresh all the trim so it's nice and black and satiny. I intend to use reflective yellow tape to make it look like a caution tape with high voltage warnings.

Work, work, work!