A minor facelift

In some spare time this evening I decided to rummage around in the box of parts that was given to me along with the car when I purchased it. I’m still wrapping my head around what all of it means (in the case of several sets of fuel injectors) and what some of it is (heaps of gromets and bushings for who really knows). One thing I can certainly identify though is a set of unopened aftermarket clear corner lights (above, with amber marker bulbs).

I have yet to stop being amazed at just how easy this car is to work on. At this point I’d almost bet that with a single screwdriver and a 10mm socket you could perform a full engine swap. A series of short phillips screws stare you right in the face when you open the hood, allowing you to remove all 5 housings of the car’s front lighting fascia in about 60 seconds. At 2 screws a piece, including the unlit center portion which has to come out first, it really couldn’t get any easier.

I finally found the blinker fluid reservoir. Pulling these slimy, foggy enclosures out was wildly satisfying. After installing new corner and marker bulbs and attaching a set of metal clips that allow the headlight/signal lenses to hook onto these on the outside edge, they went back in. It became painfully apparent though once the headlights were back in that they were far far brighter in appearance than the still cloudy original headlight lenses. A single use refinishing kit sorted this out mostly, however the driver side housing has several bad seals in it which has let dirt accumulate inside it for quite some time. I filled the housing with dilute simple green and left it to soak for a while before spilling it out and leaving it to dry which loosened some of the junk but far from all of it. After dropping in new turn signal bulbs this work was over.