Broken driver side mirror

So the street I live on is bound and determined to make my vehicle-owning life a living hell. First, my CRV was rear ended and then my Grand Caravan driver-side mirror was sideswiped. I don't see other cars on the block or along the street having this problem but it happened to me within a few months time for both my vehicles.

I have a two-car drive way but sometimes my wife's family stops by while I'm at work. I come home and one of my vehicles and an in-laws' vehicle is in my driveway so I have to park my second vehicle at curb of the street. The in-laws leave and I end up leaving my vehicle parked at the curb for whatever reason like laziness or I'm already in bed. Then some idiot comes by and hits my vehicle(s) and doesn't own up to it because they're probably some stupid drunk assholes!

I looked all over the world wide web and local auto parts shops like O'Reilly's or Pep Boys for a cheaply priced replacement mirror. I didn't want to buy from a dealership because of dealership pricing. I almost had to because my particular model seems to be rare for some damn reason. It seems my mirror is in-between the two models that are widely offered from various vendors and dealerships. Either, I can find a replacement manual mirror or mirror with remote and heat. My mirror is remote with no heat. I have no problem having a manual mirror as I hardly adjust my van mirrors but I didn't want to order online and then the damn thing not fit/work like I thought. Then I'd have to go through the process of returning and probably getting screwed out of some of my money that I thought I was saving. Since I couldn't find my particular model on the Internet or in retail auto parts stores and surely didn't want to go to a dealership, I had an epiphany and thought of looking at a junkyard.

Hell, I haven't been to a junkyard in something like twenty five years! I didn't even know if they still existed...for pulling parts, anyway. I figured there were ones around where they just crushed, stacked and stored cars for scrap metal but what the hell do I know these days. I don't work on my own vehicle much at all these days since I'm busy and they have all these new technologies and shit that only "smart mechanics" know how to fix. Anyway, I googled 'junkyard' and found a few in my general vicinity. The closest was about fifteen minutes away. It closed at 6 p.m. and I get off of work at 5 p.m. but with rush-hour traffic happening at that time AND going the direction I'd need to go, I'd have to either leave work early or wait for the weekend. The weekend timing won.

I made my first trip towards the junkyard and got about three quarters of the way before I realized that I did not bring ANY tools for removing the mirror if I found a replacement. I went ahead and drove the rest of the way to know for sure the location and to be sure it actually existed. I mean it did have a website and all but I just wanted to be doubly sure.

It took me a couple of more weeks before I was able to head to the junkyard again. This time I was prepared. I brought the old mirror as well as my tool box of which I really only needed a couple of tools.

I walked all over this junkyard. It was much bigger than I imagined. The area where most of the vehicles that would contain my mirror was the farthest distance in the farthest corner of the junkyard from the entrance. It was a hot, dry day with a slight breeze and this place was very dusty. After about fifteen minutes, my eyes were watering from the dirt, my nose was running from the dust and I think I was getting a farmer's tan from the sunshine.

So long story completed, I finally got my driver-side mirror replaced.

compared to

Turtle Wax T-240KT Headlight Lens Restorer Kit

This weekend I had the chance to purchase and test out a headlight restoration kit. I've looked into doing this before but I'm cheap and don't want to pay too much for a kit as well as I don't have a lot of time to spare these days in my daily routine. I saw somewhere on the Internet that said to try toothpaste. About a month after reading that, I finally got to try it. I didn't know if it was a specific kind but I just grabbed what I had. At first, it looked like it did an okay job. The headlight was more clear than it had been but not like I was expecting or wanting. After 24 hours, it the headlight returned to its original hazy state. I don't know why. I just know my toothpaste didn't work.

So, a few weeks later, I get the bug to checkout kits online again. I also saw the commercial for Fast Brite Lens Restorer and it peaked my interest. I doubted the Fast Brite claim of not having to use any sandpaper or such but what did I know. Hence, my research for more information and reviews. After seeing the commercial, I was talking to a friend of mine that mentioned looking into getting his headlights cleaned. I told him about he commercial and some other research I found online but didn't know if it was really worth it. He said if you could get something under $50 and it worked that it was worth it. He said the dealership quoted him $175 and he just laughed. My thought is you are paying for the labor more than the product they use.

My friend and I also recalled that we NEVER got oxidization on headlights when they were made of GLASS! I had a 1974 Chevy Luv pickup and in 1989 the headlights were just as clear as they were brand new. Why? Because the entire piece was replaced and the lights were made of glass. Granted these plastic headlights cut down on costs but to the manufacturer. To the owner, it will cost them more if they get the dealer and any auto repair place to do it.

Anyway, I've been looking into restoring my headlights on my 1999 Grand Caravan. They were pretty foggy and occasionally I felt like the high beams were the low beams and the low beams were just..scary.

I Googled up some research and found this website (here) that compared many products and ranked them by their (the website's) tests as well as reviews across the web from sites like Amazon and other online retailers...I think. I looked at their top four to compare price and ranking. For my 1999 vehicle, I could give up a half or even full star for a better cost benefit. I then weighed in the time it would take to get something (all their product links go to the product listing on Amazon) and the cost of shipping for a "grand total cost" of the product. Looking at the 3 of the top four (#1, #2 and #4 because I thought #3 was the same product as #2) I found that I could get #2-3M 39008 and #4-Turtle Wax T-240KT at Walmart. There are a few Walmarts withing a 5-10 mile radius of my house so that helped decide against purchasing through Amazon. The 3M product was showing at my local Walmart as 'limited supply' which means it could or could not be in stock. The Turtle Wax was the same. I had to make a Walmart run for other things so it wasn't really out of my way to check on the store stock.

On Friday, January 13, 2012, I ended up getting the Turtle Wax T-240KT Headlight Lens Restorer Kit (online at Amazon or at Walmart w/no price) because the 3M 39008 was not in stock. In fact, they had at least six boxes of the T-240KT. That in itself made me a little leery about getting it but with the 4 1/2 stars and costing like $8.97, I thought 10 bucks was worth a test.

I made a point to try this out on Monday the 16th before the weather changed for the worst. The picture below is of my right headlight (left side in the photo) after I did the restoration and the left headlight before restoration. Both headlights were about the same in level of haze. I didn't realize the picture was little dark upon taking it but it was like 11am with overcast skies. I think it still captures the difference.
.

In my opinion, it was well worth the $8.97+tax! Many of the reviews said it took them about 45 minutes per light. I don't know if it would have made much of a difference but I did mine in about 30 minutes. The second one always goes faster because you're reading the directions while doing the first one. I don't know if 15 minutes of hand sanding would have made a difference but maybe with drill torque it could. I just don't know. I think it turned out well.

So, a few things I noticed from my project.

• There is a plastic glove in the box for the T-240KT. Not a big deal, it's not shown in any of the pictures on the Internet but it's there. It's recommended or instructed to use only for the last step when applying the lens protectorant.
• It's slightly messy. The spray lubricant will run no matter what you do. You can see that I taped off the area around the headlight. They probably say to tape the surrounding area for protection from an errant stroke of the sandpaper pads. I never had that issue. The liquids just liked to run a bit and got past the taped area. The spray lubricant doesn't have much of a 'lube' feel as it does just plain old water. Luckily, all areas were able to be cleaned without issue after the process was completed.
• After all the work on the right headlight and before applying the lens protectorant/sealant, I was disappointed. Initially, the headlight didn't look much different than when I started. I could definitely feel grime on the headlight while sanding but it just wasn't that initial shine and luster when I applied and wiped off the final application of the lens clarifying compound. Not until I applied the handy dandy secret lens protectorant/sealant did the headlight look like I expected. Which is what you see as the final product in the photo.

I guess that's about it. My thoughts are if you could find out what grade of sandpaper each is, then you could get an 8x11 sheet at Home Depot of each. Then get some cheap plastic polisher and some kind of sealant, both similar to the products listed, a person could have a longer supply of the headlight restoring kit for close to the same cost.

You can see a decent How-To video of the Turtle Wax T-240KT product here.

Honda CR-Z and Crosstour

Saturday, I had a long day. I played tennis in the morning and then went to lunch with my tennis buds. I didn't need to go and really didn't want to go, initially, but I did. That's the kind of friend I am. I didn't want to go (to tennis or even lunch) because I had honey-do things to do as well as studying for a test on Monday—today.

I got back into my area about 2pm. I had to get the CRV oil changed and then an inspection because it expires the end of this month. I had a coupon for the dealership oil change for $24.95. I think it's like a $8-$10 savings. That's why I wanted to see how backed up the dealership "express" service was. I pulled into the bay and a service guy, Lamont, approached my vehicle. I asked how long for an oil change. He said about an hour. Damn! I told him that I am going to need an inspection, either there or somewhere else, but I wanted to see what they thought about my tires. They looked center-bald.

Anyway after all the back-and-forth chatter and making a longer story shorter, I was at the dearlship "express" service for a little over three hours. I got oil changed, tire changed, tire rotationed/balanced, and inspected. All for the low price of $948.

While I was waiting during my hour that turned to three hours, I got some studying done for my test which I probably wouldn't have done otherwise, especially with the decent albeit windy weather. During my breaks fro study, I walked around the outside near the dealership and saw a few vehicles that were pretty interesting.

The first I saw was the CR-Z. I saw this one from the side-rear view. It reminded me of a Prius but somewhate sportier, to me anyway. I really liked the way the CR-Z looked in comparison. The wife was talking about a Prius as our next vehicle or something similar in the hybrid option. Funny that I should see this the day after we talked about it. I asked the service guy, Lamont, to compare the CR-Z to the Prius. The main thing I got out of his babbling was that the CR-Z has three different driving modes: sport, economy and something else. I could be wrong on the first two. I guess that's why Lamont is the service guy and not the sales guy but they really should give the service guy more knowledge on the vehicles to help start a sale or whatever. Know what I mean?

Anyway, it might be something worth looking into when we decided to get a new vehicle down road. You can find Google images here.

The 2^nd vehicle I saw ws the Crosstour. It caught my eye from its rear end. I thought it was similar to that of a type of BMW—I don't remember exactly what model. I looked inside to see what the interior was like. It was pretty nice and it has wood-grain dash and such. It looked pretty "luxurious" as well as somewhat sporty. To me, it was eye-catching and I had to know more about. Once again, asking the service guy, Lamont, wasn't much help other than, "Your oil changes in the CRZ-Z or Crosstour will most definitely not have a couple of $24.95. The oil is zero weight and the change is $55." Helpful but not the help for which I was looking.

I found a pretty decent write up here. Of course, it turns out to be written by a dealership but it gives you the gist of the vehicle with some images. You can find other images by Googling or click here since I've already done it.

The Crosstour seems like a pretty nice vehicle. I think the price tag is around $34k and I'm sure that goes up or down with whatever package is chosen.

Neither is in my immediate (or even distant) future but it's nice to see different...new...vehicles and dream.

Failure of a supposed universal symbol

Is this a rendering of the lower area of a man...you know a penis and rectum?

Is this a rendering of a woman with a very large vagina and rectum?

Okay, that's all I got in the dirty-minded section of my brain.

There was a story the other day on the home/main page of Yahoo! Link to it here while it lasts. Apparently this is a required thing that started with 2008 models...before I got my 2010 (or is it 2009?) Honda CRV, I had/still have a 2000 (or is it 1999?) Dodge Grand Caravan...so when I saw this symbol on my CRV instrument panel my first thought was, "WTF? I just got this damn vehicle and now there is something majorly wrong with it?" It seems like a major problem because of the exclamation point! I mean that's even more scary looking than seeing the engine/emissions light come on. The engine light seemed more like a warning whereas this symbol says, "Get the hell out of the vehicle to avoid a catastrophic event!"

Okay, that's a little over the top but you get the point.

So, a quote from the article:

The issue here seems to be that the public hasn’t been properly educated on the warning symbol, which is supposed to be “idiot proof” and understandable across a wide variety of cultures and languages. Yet 46% of drivers couldn’t figure out that the icon represents a tire and 14% thought the symbol represented another problem with the vehicle entirely...

When I saw the warning, I couldn't remember where I put my vehicle manual so I had to Google for one to find out what the symbol meant. I'm sure you "smart" people, or those who can afford new cars every couple of years, figured it out or are familiar with it by now but if not, it's is the low tire pressure warning. That's right! This frightful symbol is just to warn you that your tire has gone 25% below the recommended tire pressure.

So, adding the statistics from the quote, we can proudly say that 60% (46% + 14%) of people surveyed are idiots. I like them odds!

Symbolic or just dumb luck

City Garage sign...maybe this was a premonition as three days later my serpentine belt fell off in the flooding rains just down the block from my house. I had to spend two hours trying to figure out how to put it back on in 36 degree rainy, windy weather. It was not a fun way to spend my Friday night.