Truck finally ready for the paint shop!

[mattadams]

Well I finished up my windshield wiper squirter mod tonight, of course it didn't go at ALL like I'd hoped, but its done none the less!
As it turns out, the Buick nozzles I bought are worthless. Let me summarize my conversation two days ago with the parts counter at the buick dealership:
"I need the windshield wiper fluid squirter attachments for a 97 Park Avenue"
"ok, those are $14.50 a piece and I'll have to special order them"
"Does that include any hose and does it include the clippy part that clips to the arm?"
"I'm not sure"
"Can you tell"
"unfortunately without seeing the part no..."
So I mosy in today, find that its just the nozzles. Literally, the little plastic piece about 1/4"x1/2" with a hole in one end, another hole in the other end.
"this isnt what I wanted I want the entire clip assembly"
"sorry thats not what this is"
"well how much does it cost for the entire assembly"
looks on computer... writes down a few numbers...
"$67.50 per side"
"$67.50 PER SIDE!!! THATS REDICULOUS!!!"
"sorry thats what it costs"
'well I dont want these nozzles, there not what I need at all"
"sorry, no returns on special order items"
"ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
So I went out fuming, $30 right down the toilet, with two nozzles that are of absolutely zero worth to me.

Decide to route the nozzles into the wiper cowl instead. Figure it will be no big deal, others have done it, no sweat! So I find a good approximate spot, based on pictures of others who had done the same mod and where I figured would be most beneficial. Started cutting the holes with my dremel tool. Long story short, neither of teh two holes came out perfect, but they'll do. Start figuring out how I'll have to run my hoses (one trip to Ace to buy extensions for the hose and adapters) and find that both squirters are conveniently located directly above one of the braces for the wiper arms, in other words, they wont work without being pushed out or kinking/breaking the hose. So I figure, rather then buy a new wiper cowl, I'll just drill some holes in those stupid braces so that things line up right. Long story short, about 4 hours later and hte project is "basically" complete. So I'm going to try to drop the truck off tomorrow so they can start painting it, I've got the bed of the truck loaded up with the grill shell, front and rear bumpers, bumper caps, and fender flares. Still sitting in my garage are the wiper parts, the rollbar, prerunner, toolbox, tonneau cover, PIAA Airdam, and some other various parts that wouldn't fit in the bed that I will have to take on a seperate trip. Also sitting in the garage is my lift kit. Woohoo! :)

[Tray]

That sucks. I still think you should have just gone and snagged the whole setup off something in the pull yard. But glad to hear you got it done anyway.

Any idea when you can use the help getting the hood off yet?

[mattadams]

I might just leave it on there until the body shop takes it off, with all this rain I'm not sure if the truck is going to be garaged or not and I'd rather the engine compartment remain as weatherproof as possible, at least for the time being.
I thought of going to a pull yard but I was running out of time and sick of waiting so I went ahead and just got it done.

[Tray]

Cool, yeah if you don't know for sure, don't take any chances. That's the last thing you need is a brand new painted truck with new tranny, and an engine bay soaked with rain.

So did you find out how involved they're going to let you be with taking pictures and such?

[mattadams]

Im sure I'll be fairly involved. I'm kind of anal liek that. I'm already nervous enough letting someone else work on my truck! :)

[mattadams]

Man, what a trip to the paint shop!
First things first I started it up and pulled it out of the garage (first time in a month or two its been out of the garage), engine is sputtering like crazy and the check engine light comes on, only about the millionth time I've seen that int he last few months, LOL... I had started it after the spark plug job a week or two ago, and no check engine light, so I didnt think it could be that. After some thourough exams, found out I had unplugged one of the coils and hadnt plugged it back in, so plugged that back in... started driving and about 5 blocks later, I hear a "poof" followed by a lot of wind noise. Every time I come to a stop sign or stop light, the engine just about dies, I have to rev it to keep it from stalling (it even stalls once!). So I'm freaking out thinking I blew a spark plug and just did $3000 worth of damage to my engine (from horror stories i've heard), so I pull it over into the first parking lot I can find, check it out, long story short, the hose somehow came off the PCV Valve (I had disconnected it while doing my spark plugs and apparently it wasn't on tight enough!), so plugged that back in and was on my way again.

The guy thats doing the work is Precision Auto Works. He's going to have a booth at truckfest this weekend so stop by and say hi! :)

[Tray]

I'm sure the entire time you were calm and collected too right? Glad to hear the problem was an oversight, rather than a true problem.

[mattadams]

yeah, I was pretty calm, I was pretty sure that anything wasnt working was probably just because of something I had done, LOL!

[Walking Eagle]

Sounds like an uneventful trip. :lol:

[mattadams]

Im going to be working on the truck again tomorrow, I'll be sure to bring the truck with me. Apparently its almost ready for a final sanding and painting. Woohoo! :).
(FYI, that doesnt mean its anywhere near done, LOL)