1/31/08

Ugh, I ate too much at lunch today. It is Thursday so they had the pasta stir-fry thingy which is always good but they also had the fire roasted corn soup. I got both. So with the soup, saucy pasta, and 32 ounces of Dr. Pepper in my belly, I'm quite miserable. I think there’s a fart up in there that will relieve some of the pressure, but I'm not going to force it and drop a nugget into my britches. So, having said all that, here’s the taillight story. I decided to do the work in the driveway rather than go to the shop. I began by having a look at the taillights to see how they mounted. I wish I'd studied the spatial relationship of the bolts a little better though because I got to work pulling the inner panel of the car apart. I removed the rubber gasket for the hatch and started prying the panel away. Oh, I popped the three plastic rivets out first then began prying out the clips. It was going well until I got to the front of the hatch area near the seat. Cuh-RACK! The plastic popped and cracked a nice big line across the face. Interestingly, I didn’t get mad. I just stopped prying and had a look to see if it was far enough out of the way to get to the nuts on the light housing. It was. Of course it was then that I noticed that I could have accessed the nuts through the little plastic covers I removed right at the beginning of the process. I removed the nuts and pulled the red housings out. I twisted and removed the lamp modules and set the housing aside. I grabbed the bitchin’ black housing for that side and tried to insert the modules. Of course they didn’t fit. Either Nissan changed the module design between the ’07 and ’08 models or the housings were manufactured wrong and won’t work on any Versa. I was a tad annoyed. Had I not taken half the interior apart to get it out, I might have reinstalled the red housings and put this off for another day. No, I was determined to make them fit. I trimmed the holes in the housings and the lamp modules until they fit and installed the bastard. Damn, did it look good too! I reinstalled the interior of the car and moved to the other side. This time I did use the little access ports to remove the housing. I cut and trimmed until the modules fit and installed that housing. Now it was time to test it. I asked mom to step on the brakes for me. The lights lit. I had her do a left then a right turn signal. The lights lit. I think we even tested the reverse lights but I honestly don’t remember that. Where we had problems was with the park lights. The right side lit but not the left. I excused her and got back to work removing that housing. I pulled the module and had a look at the bulb. It looked fine. I turned on the headlights but it didn’t light. I wiggled the wires to no effect. I pulled the lamp and tried it backwards. The brake filament lit up. Now, looking back this should have told me the park light filament was burned out, but it didn’t. I started second guessing where the problem could lie. It finally hit me that it was the park filament and I began to think of how I could test it. I wound up stealing a park/brake double filament bulb from Mr. Wiggly’s taillight and giving it a try. Woo hoo! The park light lit up! I reinstalled it all and had a look at the car. Those lights totally transform the car. Not so much from the rear, but the side is a totally different beast from a “normal” Versa. I must get into those spare headlights and paint the chrome! My sister came by in the middle of the job and asked what I was tearing up. I said, “Nuffin’!” When I had the first taillight in she walked by again and said they did look better. I felt vindicated. Monday my cold air intake kit arrived and I made a run to the shop with it. About halfway there I realized the jack and stands were at the house so I couldn’t install the thing if I wanted to. I went ahead and dropped it off at the shop and went back home. Mom was out at a church thing so I could have moved her car and done the install but I didn’t really feel like it. Besides, I just said I left it at the shop. The other reason for going to the shop was to fill Darth Versa with gas and run through the car wash. Hoo-doggies does that car look awesome clean? You better bet your sweet bippy it does! I have to turn around and look at it several times when I'm walking away from it. I regret not one iota the decision to buy that car. I'm hooked on the XM satellite radio too. In the Pimpmobile, when the Sirius satellite radio was working, I listened almost exclusively to the Reggae station. In this car I'm hooked on the “oom-tss-oom-tss-oom-tss” trance/house/dance music stations. I'm not sure why. I listened to what amounted to one eight hour song all the way to and from Houston. At times it kind of felt like an action movie soundtrack for my life, sort of like the whole trip was a big chase sequence in a film. Yeah, perhaps that is why I'm digging those stations. I do jump to the disco channel or one of the decade specific stations from time to time, but most of my driving has been to the dance beat. It’s odd that I'd be into that because I tend to agree with Maddox of The Best Page in the Universe in that, “Dancing makes me envy cripples.” That is a direct quote by the way. I might not have put it so politically incorrect. Aw, who am I kidding? I would definitely have put it that politically incorrect had I thought of it first. Well, I think I've just about said all I have to say about this, and any other, subject for the day. I'll try to think of something to keep y'all entertained tomorrow. Toodles.