Friday, March 6, 2026

The weather has certainly turned very Spring-like here in the Ohio Valley — and for that, I’m quite grateful. I still need to get to work on the driver’s door (mainly drill out the screws that attached the window to the regulator). I’ll get to that soon enough.

Today I finished up my installation of two additional quad power boxes above my new Yukon tool box. When I wired the garage several years ago, I decided to skip placing an outlet there, but with my new toolbox in place, I had room (and the need) for some power outlets.

The work didn’t take a lot of time, but its done and everything works fine again. I considered shooting video of the work, but figured one of YouTube’s “experts” would spot flaws in my wiring or my discussion about wiring up the new boxes.

I actually bought a total of four boxes and related supplies. I have an electric door opener for the west side overhead door, but i need a place to plug it in for power. I would like to add one for the opener and the second one on the other side of the door at regular height. It would come in handy when I need to run an extension cord out that door.

55 CHEVY WAGON DRIVERS DOOR. I think on the door I’m going to spring for a new regulator. In addition to the stripped out screws securing the window, I’m having a hell of a time getting the door handles off. They seem to be stuck on the shafts thanks to corrosion, superglue or something else.

This door isn’t going to be as easy as the passenger side, me thinks.

YOUTUBE VIDEO IDEA. I’ve decided I’m going to revisit a product I used nine months go on the rear seat of the wagon — Weystom Re-coloring Balm. Its designed to restore leather, but works pretty well on vinyl too. In my case, I used it to restore the original color on the wagon’s rear seat. The vinyl showed considerable wear, and I decided to give it a try.

The balm works 100 percent as advertised. It restored the rear seat in fine fashion. The material on the seat has small recessed squares, and I think that I likely missed recoloring a number of those squares.

The update video I’m going to shoot will give me a chance to apply more balm on the seat and ensure good coverage on all the material.

One of the viewers commented that he would bet that the dye would come off on pants and clothing. While I have not given the rear seat the kind of wear-and-tear that it would get from having two kids, two car seats and all their gear riding in the back set, the fact that we DID have suitcases, coolers and various paraphernalia back there is proof to me that the dye would hold up to moderate wear.

JEEP PATRIOT HOOD. With the weather improving, I’ll be shifting to work on the hood and finish prepping it for paint. I have the materials, but have some prep work to complete. I’m hoping to shoot it on a day when it won’t be raining outside. I plan to wind up painting the entire hood, then clearing it. I’ll probably video that work as well.

Enough for now. I have a political event to attend tomorrow. Once that’s done I’ll come home and stir up something in the garage.