Changes, Changes...

Well, I was driving the car home yesterday and a huge thunderstorm hit us - probably one of the top 10 downpours I've ever witnessed. The previous owners stressed that the sunroof of the car leaked sometimes when I was buying the car, and I have noticed some dripping from time to time. Last night, I would have had less rain on me if I had the thing open! I had to take my wallet out of my pants pocket for fear of it being ruined, and I was soaking wet when I got home (the rain had just stopped) and got out of the car. First things first: Today, I had to fix the Monsoon brand sunroof. I popped it out and used some 3M Windo-Weld (from the roll) that I had left over from a buddy replacing some window glass. The stuff is really easy to use, and stays pliable and sticky for a long time. I just use my hands - I don't know that the warning on the label is about. Hopefully the sunroof will leak no more.

I had some spare time this morning, and I was in the mood to change the car. Low-hanging fruit, as many of the guys on ecomodder say, were the roof racks, passenger mirror, and passenger wiper. I started with the wiper, then decided to adjust the drivers' side wiper to rest in the lowest possible position:

Above: Before (pass wiper already deleted) Below: After

Next to go was the passenger side mirror. I need to go get a small convex mirror to mount inside.. will do that this afternoon. I replaced the mirror with a piece of coroplast.

I didn't like how the top was sticking out away from the car a bit (see above) - for drag and for rain purposes, so I fixed it with the ever-handy Windo-Weld!

Next came the roof rack. I'd been delaying this because I didn't want to re-do it later for official testing, then take it off again. I was also concerned with filling the big gaps in the roof trim for the mounts:

I decided to use some pieces of scrap Coroplast (that stuff is handy too!!) and duct tape over the top. If I like this method, I'll use some high quality duct tape when I make my permanent version.