The past few weeks I spent some time fixing up some non-mechanical parts of the car. 1989 Camry LE Sedan (3SFE)
Here is a summary of my repairs to a broken center console piece and rusty windshield wiper arms.
I had been noticing that the center console armrest was not firm. It would flex slightly and that bugged me.
I took it all apart to find several cracks and breaks. I think it broke as someone climbed between the front seats. Knowing that could
potentially happen again, I wanted to give it a hefty repair.
First I superglued things in place just to act as a short term bond while I worked on something more serious.
I fashioned this piece of metal from a medium gauge piece of furnace duct. The large holes are the allow for the plastic spacer circles
you see. Those help hold the gap between this top piece and the inner plastic piece which you can see later. The numerous small holes are
just to allow resin to pass through a make a firmer repair.
By this point I've applied a bottom coat of fiberglass pieces and resin, the metal plate, and a top coat of fiberglass and resin. It was
all done at the same time, no hardening in between.
By now the resin has hardened and it is ready for the next step. I was deliberate to keep all of these materials shallow enough so as not
to interfere with the inner plastic piece that appears in the next step.
The lid of the console is now assembled. In this photo you can see that my striker plate (latch) is broken. A replacement is on my list
of things to do but those little things are kind of expensive.
Everything is reassembled and put back into place in the car. It's quite firm and rigid now!
Inside the console I didn't like how noisy things were as they slid and rolled around. I carefully cut a piece of foam core to fit exactly
in place and then glued a layer of speaker box carpet to the foam core. Much less noise from there now and it looks nice. It can be
removed if necessary.
Next, my windshield wiper arms have become rusty. This has been going on for months and this kind of thing really bothers me. I priced
replacement wiper arms from the dealer and they were around $170 each. Yeow!
I didn't find any aftermarket sources I guess owing to the age of the car.
Everybody and their brother suggests looking at junkyards. As far as I am concerned, it is no use. In my experience everything I've
brought home from a junkyard is JUNK! The cars I find there are never in as good of condition as my own vehicles and I have to put a lot
of energy into fixing the crap I bought before it's usable.
A few months ago I learned about rust removal by electrolysis and even tested it on some steel parts. I figure I could employ that
technique here.
Both wiper arms were in similar condition with this one being slightly worse.
After removing the wiper assembly, I brought it inside and began dismantling it.
I used a tiny grinder to grind off the ends of the pin that secure the outer arm to the inner arm mount piece.
Here is the process of electrolysis. The explanation of how to do this is beyond the scope of this post, but it is well documented on the
internet. It is ridiculously easy to do and it's amazing how it cleans old steel.
After 24-48 hours I have done each end of the arm. I sanded off any of the thin layer of black oxide (whatever that stuff is) that forms.
I wasn't concerned about removing all of the paint. Had the piece been more rusty I would have left it in to get it 100% bare steel. Of
course exposed steel begins to rust immediately so it is wise to paint it right away. I dried the water with a heat gun and hit it with
primer straight away. Within 3 minutes out of the solution the primer was on its way to drying.
I am no expert about paint, but from what I understand primer is permeable to air and moisture, so it only makes sense to complete the
project with a finish coat. I suppose a person could use a top coat to begin with, but I am a big fan of primers.
Here is a side by side comparison of the driver side arm and the passenger side arm.
Having cut away and destroyed the original pin, I had to fashion a new way to attach the arm. I picked up this nylon bushing and some
stainless steel screws from the hardware store. I couldn't get this bushing in a metric diameter, so it is going to take some tweaking to
make it fit. Thinking ahead, I bought this extra long screw. I held the screw at an angle so it would spin but still shave off material.
This ended up being quite slow going so it makes a lot more sense to use a grinding wheel, and that is what I did. Guess & check.
The diameter is now correct. Next I cut it to length slowly and carefully with an X-Acto razor.
A preview of the fit. As you can see in this image, the two sections have different sized holes. The outer arm part has very small holes.
The inner part has a larger hole, thus the need for the nylon bushing. It was kind of by chance that the inner diameter of that bushing
was nearly an exact fit to the metric screw that fit the outer arm holes. As you may imagine, the two holes mean that you can't push out
the original pin. You have to bend the outer arm part until you can make the pin clear, then try to gently bend it back to the perfect
spot. (Unless you are a machinist and you can drill out each end of the pin without damaging the outer arm section)
Here is my new "pin." Everything is stainless steel. I chose double nuts instead of a lock nut. It spends a lot of time outdoors, I
think the nylon of a stop nut might deteriorate. On many projects I will cut off the bolt to the exact length of the nut, but I left this
one alone. I may opt to make it prettier sometime later.
Another view of the same. I could have used washers too if I wanted to be more cautious not to marr the paint as I tightened the screw.
The arm is rejuvenated and reinstalled. I purchased new wiper blades in the midst of all this. I previously did not know, but learned
that the driver side blade is not supposed to be the same length as the passenger side. 19" versus 18"
As for the rust spot on the hood, I hope to remedy that some day.
The passenger side completed. The white powder on the window is snow.
Again, a before-and-after comparison.
Linear Mode
