Secretary, Sam
Auerbach
A day in the life of a noob With the door jamb lights fixed it was on to a full engine rebuild. Before that, I stopped in at my license plate lights. They were both out. I removed the light housings and noticed the plastic window on the casing was melted. Lights were burnt out. That’s interesting. The car is from the 80’s. Maybe it was modified to time travel with a DeLorean? What else could account for a melted casing besides excessive power from a flux capacitor? Grabbing my brand new volt meter I checked that the wires had power. Eureka! Maybe I could clean, scrape, and sand the melted casing window? Clean off the rust. I realized that can’t be done when it disintegrated in my hand. Fortunately, new ones were $40 including the lights! Now a master crimper, I crimped new female connectors where needed and connected the lights. That star shone bright!
While I was messing around in the trunk, I noticed a rear tail light was out. I remembered the PO, that’s Previous Owner for anyone not in the know, had glued the passenger side taillight housing in place apparently to try and address a known issue with the car; water can get into the housing and rust things. Grabbing my trusty owners manual and some heißes Wasser to hopefully loosen the glue, I set about taking off the tail light. On my daily driver, a 2013 Hyundai, I had to remove numerous parts and screws to access the lights. Porsche, for once, was a single bolt. With the bolt removed there was just the threaded peg popping through the inside of the trunk. Presumably, you push this peg to pop out the housing. Easy right? Wrong. Getting this thing out though. Hercules himself woulda hadda time. I used a flathead screwdriver to gently work my way around the outside of the casing to break the glue. Once that was done it came out easily and I changed the light. Best way to solve a water issue like this? Drill a few tiny holes into the bumper inside the casing. Water just drains right out instead of pooling there. Gluing it doesn’t make it watertight. With my electrical issues fixed, it’s time to go for a long drive through Cowichan.
Sam VANCOUVER ISLAND — PORSCHER
March 2022 Page 11
