Replaced: dented front fender, hood latch, headlights
In order to replace the fender, the following needed to be removed: front bumper cover, one headlight, and the right rocker panel. Here was a "kill 3 birds with one stone" situation.
Old parts off, ready for new
Fender
When I bought this car, it had a dented front, right fender. It had always been my plan to replace it. So I finally bought a new, primed fender from Ebay for $57. It showed up with a few small dents in it. I complained to the seller, and since they did not have another in stock, they refunded my money, and said "keep it"...not asking for it back. I decided to still use it, as they were small dents, and it was an improvement over what was on the car. I painted it with rattle-can, gloss black rustoleum ($7) and it looked fine. I also painted the grill, satin black. Which after 20 years, was simply faded, unpainted plastic.
Dented fender, before and after
Hood Latch
Since the bumper cover was coming off, I replaced the hood latch, ($28) which has a contact switch, and electrical connector. This tells the computer that the hood is closed, and allows the car alarm to be armed. Since the old one was very dirty, and gummed up, it was not telling the computer that the hood was closed, So I could lock the car with my fob, but not set the alarm. The latch was easy enough to access, with the bumper cover off. The new part fixed it. Now... when locking/unlocking with the fob, the parking lights flash, indicating that the alarm is working.
New and old hood latch
Headlights
Since I had to remove one headlight anyway, I decided to get a new aftermarket set from Ebay for $75. I had originally restored my headlights, but even so.... these looked better, being new. I also added a bead of silicone caulk ($4) around the housing/lens union, as this was chinese made, and I decided to take charge of quality control, to prevent the occurrence of condensation.
The brand new headlights, seen with the patina paint, contrast nicely IMO
Total cost of parts in this post - $121
Coming up next: Oil pan and flexpipe
No comments:
Post a Comment