Repair 2: Give up on the antenna, rust repair

Warm weather and sun means lots of time to spend with the car. Sadly, the mosquitos and black flies have the same idea.

I continued looking at my broken antenna, and it looks like a lot more work than I want to dedicate at this time. Remember, the first goal is to get the car registered and inspected, and a working antenna isn't part of the requirements for a car to be street-legal. I'll get to it later this summer. So I just put the kick panels under the dashboard back together.

While I was looking at the roof, I noticed some rust bubbling under the paint at the point where the windshield meets the sheetmetal on the roof. Oh fun. I started searching under the headliner, and sure enough, there was rust. That would explain the wet driver's seat on rainy days.

I began by scrubbing away the rust using a wire brush. I'll spray it with rust converter when I spin by the auto parts store - I ran out the other day. Then I started on the exterior, pulling of the sealing goo from the windshield seal, then chipping away the rust, and going at it with the wire brush. Trust me, nothing feels worse than using that thing on my paint job. But rust doesn't sleep, so I'd rather take care of it now before it attacks my whole roof.

I need to find our drill sander bits to better prepare the roof for rust converter, body filler, sanding, and eventually painting. One of these days, I'm going to get a quote from Maaco for spot painting - mainly because I don't think I can match the paint color on my own. It's the factory paint job, called "Super Red" by Toyota, and it's like a very vibrant red/orange. It looks so sharp when waxed, but most red paint is too dark. I'd rather have professionals mix, paint, and blend with the original since they have tools and experience that I lack. When I'm in Nashua, I'll be sure to do that.

I also need to get a quote from the Toyota dealer if I can't fix the speedometer cable myself. Tom, my mechanic, already said that he doesn't have the tools to work on my transmission (where the speedo gear broke) so I'd have to take it to a dealer. Ouch - that sounds expensive, and complicated, since that would require trailering my car over there since it's not street legal. Fun stuff. But remember, all this will still come out cheaper than a car payment.

Remember, if it weren't for my engine running so well, I wouldn't even bother with all this. But that engine still has abour 15o,000 miles of life on it, as does the frame (rust-free, by the way), so I want to get my full use out of this little ride. Plus, it's gonna make a mean track-car one day.