My Mr. Fix-it

One thing I love about Everette is that he is absolutely not afraid of things. He is very smart and very cautious, thus making him a good risk assessor. He is also very stubborn and will not leave a problem until he can fix it or at the very least diagnose exactly what the problem is and research a solution.
Wednesday evening as Everette attempted to get a delicious meal from Taco Bell on his way to a Young Life meeting his window broke. Of course, if you remember, Wednesday marked the end of a LONG dry spell for most of Indiana (this is irony people). He managed-with my help and after it sat in the rain for several hours--to get the window back up.
After discussing it with my dad-our resident auto expert-we planned to take it to the dealers next week when Everette was out of town and our need for two cars would be unnecessary (dad said it wasn't worth ripping apart the door). However Friday evening we decided to stop at Sonic for a limeade, forgetting about our ghetto window. It made it halfway down and would not go up or down. Even once we got home and spent some time wiggling, and banging and finagling the window, it refused to budge. SO we put Jonathan to bed and here is how our evening progresses.
Everette, I don't think, ever intends to begin a project of massive undertaking. It always starts out small. Remember at this point we are just trying to get the window up.
He pops the plate off around the door handle, hoping to get a peek inside to see if there is something jamming the actual window; unable to see anything he begins to pull back around the window seal; noticing that the plastic covering for the door is snapped onto a track in the door he begins to slide it off the track at the top-simply to get a better view. Still unable to see the window he begins to wiggle the entire case off of the door. Progress is stop and go. Each pull reveals more wires or plates connecting the plastic to the metal door. After removing the handle, the lock, the inside door light, the power lock wires, the power window wires (not a big deal since they weren't working anyway), the power mirrors and two screw we successfully removed the door. At this point we were pretty much committed. The view of the window is still limited and he briefly considers trying to remove the inner metal frame. Thankfully he quickly abandoned this idea once he realized that it was welded to the outer metal frame. Using a flashlight and a dental mouth mirror he peers through the frame and discovers glass shards in the bottom of the door (explains the crackling glass sounds we hear when we were banging on the door earlier). Momentarily our breath gets caught as we consider the possibility that the window might be busted. After more flashlight searching we discover that it is still in one complete piece, leading us to realize that a Carfax report doesn't tell you everything. Everette then discovers two things. 1. the cable that moves the window carts up and down has frayed and jammed the track. (he also realizes that it will most likely mean replacing the entire track since the cable is threaded through both sides and a tube in the middle). and 2. the LCD on the camera makes for a laproscopic camera of sorts and this paired with a flashlight makes for a better view than the tiny mirror. He is quite proud of himself, and I am sure we will use this technique later--you know whenever we need to perform surgery.
We also take comfort in the fact that at this point even if we can't fix it ourselves-we have significantly reduced the cost of having the dealer fix it.
For now we are stuck. Everette heads up to the computer for the research phase of the project. He finds that the track is in stock at Auto Zone and Lafayette Auto Supply and cost $100. Not the cheapest part-but if he can fix we come out at least $3o0 ahead.
Cut to Saturday: Everette gets up at 7:15 and heads to the store. Returns by8:30with the part. Installs the track and reassembles the door by 9:30 and we sit down to a breakfast of bicuits and gravy.
I am impressed and quite proud, this was actually once of the shorter and more successful projects!


Smart and sensible Everette had me take pictures of the wires we were removing so that we could put them back-this is the power windows, locks, and mirrors panel.

Everette, was considerate enough to remove his brand new Lands End polo before he got in too deep. This is the inside of the truck door.

This is the only point we could see up inside the door where the window was.. here is a picture of the track.

This is the point that Everette realized he could use the digital camera as a video and screen. This is down inside the door and here you can see the busted/frayed wire that was jamming the whole thing up.