Weekend work

Quick apologies to those disappointed by my absence from the blogosphere last night. My wife and I found a babysitter and actually *went out for dinner* with friends. Hooray!

So now I've got some catch-up blogging for you:

Saturday a.m.

Pulled the car out into the sunshine to check the fuse panel. #7 was blown (yup, the radio) and I couldn't find any spares, so I added that to the shopping list. I also pulled the rubber plugs from the wiper fascia to get to the bolts holding it down, because it has to come off to get to the wiper arm pivot point. That's about when I realized that this project wasn't going to get very far without a decent ratchet & socket set. I also discovered that the idle speed would not adjust down well, even after a warm-up period. A thread I've found on Buick Forums hinted that the likeliest cause for this is a clogged throttle body. That's probably something for a later weekend.

Saturday p.m.

Quick trip to Pep Boys...bought fuses, new wiper blades, replacement bulbs for the license plate lamps, and a socket set. $55.59 all together, but I think I took a bath on the socket set. Sunday's paper had an ad for a similar set for $12.99, and I paid almost twice that. The parts guy also spent some time looking for a replacement wiper arm for me. The closest he got was an arm for a '77 - '78 Riv, but I told them to put that on hold, because it just didn't look the same.

Once I got back home, I unbolted the wiper fascia, and found enough pine needles, acorns and dried leaves to re-stock a small forest, or at least stock the winter lairs of a half dozen squirrels.

I then set about removing the sheared-off wiper arm. Took about 20 minutes and two choice vocabulary words. And I'm even more convinced that the '77 - '78 arm is of a different design.


Sunday a.m.

Took the family up to Sawnee Mountain Preserve for a 2 mile hike and a good view. Forgot the camera.

Sunday p.m.

Before





After



Decided against a second trip to Pep Boys in favor of working on the paint job. As with my 528e, I'll be using Meguiar's 3 step Deep Crystal system with separate paint cleaner, polish, and wax compounds. I had time to apply paint cleaner on the front right quarter-panel, the grille-headlight surround, and the hood. The photos don't do it justice, but the extra gloss was really gratifying (yes, that's the wiper fascia propped up against the windshield, waiting on the correct wiper arm).