Jacksonville and Do-It-Yourself Projects with the Saturn

Well, we've made it to Jacksonville! Actually, we arrived a week ago, but I guess I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. It's been a great week for us here. The Benson's (our host family here and friends of my parents in Shreveport when I was a kid) have been extremely hospitable and welcoming, so we've had fun! Chris started his Internal Medicine rotation at Shands Jacksonville Medical Center on Monday. He's enjoying the hospital and the rotation so far. One week down, three more to go! This picture below is of us moving our stuff from Fort Lauderdale to here. So much, it's amazing it all fit in our two cars! (That's not even all of it)


Since I've had some free time on my hands (still no sign of a temp job here), I decided to do some work on my 99' Saturn. I didn't take any before pictures, kicking myself for that, but here are some during and after pictures. The most important thing to do was to repair the headliner (that was hanging down on our heads, it was so bad). Taking some confidence from a friend of mine that had done his successfully, I decided I'd try it. After many online tutorials, I managed to get the steps right. First, as shown below, I took out the dash board.


Next, I took apart all the pieces that held it to the ceiling, the door liners, sun visors, and handles. Chris helped me wiggle it out, and as you can see, it's a mess.

After easily peeling the old fabric off, I took that small broom and swept all the old glue/foam off. I even used a shop vac to make sure all the little particles were gone.


After that was done, I just got the fabric from JoAnn Fabrics and some 3M 90 Spray adhesive and went to work.


After the top was glued down, I went to work to trim the edges to get it on. It's very similar to wrapping a cake in fondant, so I liked it :) I also took an exacto knife to the little holes in the top to cut them out.


And this is the final product! Now, to just get it back into the car...


Thankfully, my loving husband helping me, and we got it in in a jiffy. I simply snapped everything back into place and we were ready to go!


Well, of course except for the fact that that was only one thing I wanted to get done on the car. Then, I washed, clay bricked, and waxed for a gorgeous, like new finish! As you might not be able to see, I also took off my windshield wipers and refinished them. Mrs. Ellen helped me by sanding the rust off, then I painted them with black spray paint. Looking pretty good!

But that's not all! THEN, I restored the headlights to their original sheen, or should I say, the plastic casing. It was old and yellow and cloudy on the left headlight (still not perfect, but looking good) and just cloudy on the other one. The kit involves sanding with different grits then polishing, then buffing, but it's worth it! They look great and should greatly improve the vision at night.



And that's it for now! It was a great project, and I look forward to making the Nissan as good as new as well. Thanks for reading, and I'll keep you posted on any adventures to come!