This is Not About Knitting

I am currently driving my second Voyager/Caravan. In case you don't know, they're 
identical except for the emblem on the steering wheel. And the wheels may be different sizes on some models but overall, they're the same. My old Caravan had a sliding door on the passenger side only while my Voyager has a sliding door on both sides - I love this by the way. Sure makes my life easier for loading when the passenger side is parked against the fence, next to a wall or too close to other autos.

Now my cars are always old even when new to me. I've never been able to stomach the depreciation you get in the first year of owning a new car. Must be the bookkeeper in me! And I never cared enough to want another monthly payment or to triple my insurance either. I take good care of the working parts but I don't really care what the outside looks like. If I won a huge amount of money??? I'd still drive an old junque car.

My current Baby developed a problem with the driver's window in the summer. It just wouldn't go down without a fight any more & told me so with a squeal. The headlights were already  sandblasted when I got it & recently, I broke the driver's seat back adjustment switch when it jammed & I tried to make it work.  With a really wide tire behind the seat to hold the back upright like I wanted, I put out the call to my Scrapper friends about a new seat.

I was so excited when I got a call about a van going to the crusher with good seats inside. My buddy said my seat was held in with only four bolts & he could change it out in 10 minutes. So, while he was doing that, I checked out the lovely clear headlight assemblies on the front of it. Oh yeah!!! I was quoted $500 for new ones. And after I eyeballed them - same lights. One bolt, two screws. Everything matched nicely. Except the side wouldn't snap in. Mine had a round hole & the new ones had a slot. Well, dammit all anyway.  Apparently this is what grinders are for. A little trim here & a little trim there - why lookee here, it fits. And just because we were there, we took off the master window module - two screws & a plug - Holy Picture Window Batman, we have windows that work without a complaint.

All in all, not a bad couple of hours of scrounging. I probably saved myself $1000 in parts - you almost always have to buy headlight assemblies & window master modules new 'cause they're worn out in scrap cars too - the labor was already paid for by a previous favor. I smiled all the way home. No knitting got done. I didn't even think abut knitting. But my Baby's back & everything works again. Wooohooo