Girl, Fix it Yourself! Replacing a tail light

Like I said, I had a busy morning.

A friend alerted me a few days ago that my left brake light was not working.  Brake lights are a safety issue, so this morning I decided to finally get on that and fix it. The same concepts here apply for any lights in the tail light assembly and for headlights-but headlights are a lot trickier.

You need:
1. A new replacement bulb
2. Screwdriver
3. Something to place between your hand and the bulb-glove, rag, paper towel, old sock, etc.

To fix it:
1. Determine exactly which light is out: brake light, tail light, turn signal, etc.
2.Get thee to the auto parts store and walk straight to the counter.  Project confidence, for Pete's sake.  You're a girl on a mission, you're confident in your abilities, and you don't have time to dink around an aisle reading tiny little product numbers to find the right part.
3.  Tell the person behind the counter what you need and what kind of car you drive.  He or she find the part for you and you're on your way.
4. Open the trunk and move aside the carpet (there are usually two little plastic things that hold it in), or if you drive a truck, open the tailgate.
5.  There are two screws holding in the tail light assembly.  Remove them and set aside.

6. Gently lift up and out...the whole assembly should just fall right out.

7. Find the bulb you needed to replace.  Push in slightly and turn the socket to remove it.

8.  Usually, you pull straight out on the bulb to remove it.  If you're not sure whether you got the right one, use your sock/glove/rag to handle the bulb just in case.  Oils from your hands will cause a good bulb to burn out prematurely.  It's pretty easy to tell a good bulb from a bad one (see the difference?)  Obviously, if you got the wrong one, try door number two.

9.  Open the package and grab the new bulb with your gloved/socked hand.  Push it straight into the socket the same way you pulled the old one out.

10.  Twist the socket back in, replace the assembly, and put the screws back in.

11.  Test the lights.  If it's a brake light and you don't have a buddy around to push the brake, put something heavy on it and walk to the back of the vehicle to see if it works.  A music history text works well...notice I said the BRAKE, not the gas.  This is a critical distinction.

12.  If it works, congratulations, your'e done!  If it doesn't work you might have a bad fuse, or you might have the problem that I have, which is that the socket is bad:

Cue sad trombone music.  These are both topics for another post....but let's just say that nobody seems to carry the replacement socket, so I'm probably stuck going to the dealer anyway.  BOO.  But congratulations if your car is better behaved than mine.

Girl, Fix it Yourself! Mind the Gap

I realized that lately I've been fixing a lot of things myself and thought it might make a fun series.  For those of you who are single and living alone, this might be handy.  For those of you whose husbands or boyfriends are out of town/deployed/mechanically inept this might come in handy. Or if your cat doesn't have thumbs and therefore can't help you, or if your cat does have thumbs but is too dumb anyway. None of it is novel information, but it proves that girls can fix things, too!

Now that we have that out of the way, I had a busy morning.  I've had problems with my dishwasher's air gap for awhile now, but today it really went crazy with my first load of dishes in the dishwasher.

This is the air gap:

This is designed to prevent sewage and gross water from backing up again onto your clean dishes.  The dishwasher drains UP into it and then the water flows back DOWN into the disposal.  If water is constantly pouring out of that little hole in the front, you have a clog somewhere.  A few little trickles, fine...but a gushing waterfall...no way!  Here's how to fix it.

First of all, watch this video, which has a lot of great tips.  I'll run it down for you just in case you don't want to watch...but if you're a visual learner, go for it!

You need:

1. A flathead screwdriver

2. A bucket

3. Hot water

4. Vinegar

5. Baking soda

6. Some kind of long brush or stick

7. Flashlight

1. Open up the cabinet under the sink.  You will see the garbage disposal with the air gap hose attached:

2. Clear a space (you know, all those 5 year old cleaning products you forgot you had) and put the bucket underneath the hose and disposal.

3. If the garbage disposal's electrical cord is in the way, unplug it and move it.

4. On the air gap hose right where it attaches to the disposal is a metal ring with a screw in it.  Loosen the screw and pull off the hose.  Some icky water will probably drain into the bucket.

5.  Shine your flashlight into the disposal from where you just pulled off the hose.  Is it blocked?  If so, whoever installed your garbage disposal forgot to knock out the knockout plug!  Using your flathead screwdriver, punch it into the disposal, then reach in and remove it.  Reconnect all of the hoses and you're good to go!

6.  Knockout plug is already knocked out?  Bummer.  Leave everything disconnected.  You're now going to have to flush out what probably looks and smells like the spawn of Chtulhu.  

7.  Head back up to the thing on top of the sink.  The chrome part will slide right off-set it aside. 

8.  There's a plastic part under the chrome.  The top (cap) will either screw off, or you have one that you can either pry up or squeeze it with your fingers and pull straight up.

9.  Look down into the air gap.  There's a small hose off to one side that you're not worried about.  Look into the deep, dark recesses of the large space.  Is there water in it?  Does it smell weird?  Then you have a clog. 

10.  Get a paper towel or toilet paper roll and place it over the air gap.  Blow hard into it, using your hand if necessary to create a better seal.  If there's a clog, you'll feel it.  It's a lot like blowing into an oboe (which for those of you who have never taken a woodwinds course, is a lot like blowing into a potato). If  the clog comes out, you'll feel it "pop."  Look in the bucket to see if a seed or something popped out.  

11.  Snake the air gap.  A dryer vent brush works well for this because it's long and flexible.  Just put it in (which may require some force) and pull it back out.  I considered posting a picture of the gunk that mine pulled out and left in the bucket, but I thought you might like to eat today.  If you don't have a dryer vent brush (which is worth the investment...dryer safety is important!) then consider some of the extra long zip ties you can get at the hardware store.  (As a bonus, these have great sewing applications as stays or boning...and they're cheaper than the "real" stuff at the fabric store).

12. Dump some baking soda down the air gap and follow with vinegar.  You'll get a volcano, and possibly a volcano of gunk.  Gross.  If you do this at the bottom end of the hose, too, it's more effective.  You might have to break up baking soda clumps with your "snake" while doing this.

13.  Follow by pouring in the hot water.  Everything should be flowing very freely now.

14.  Reconnect the hose, tighten the screw, and find a suitable place to dump that nasty soup of gunk...eww. Rinse off your brush if you used one. 

15.  Replace the cap and chrome portion of the air gap. 

16.  Run and clean your disposal.  

Good luck!  This created a vast improvement for my dishwasher.  If it didn't work for you, then you have bigger problems.  Call a plumber, and perhaps an old priest and a young priest and Mulder and Scully and see what they say.

How to Reupholster Anything

Last year, I posted about my summer reupholstering project but I never told you how I did it.  I took an old chair from our district warehouse that had good structure but nasty, dusty fabric.  I'm not going to lie and say it was easy, but it was inexpensive and the results are great.  I now have the best office chair EVER.  This isn't an exact science-details will vary depending on the project, but this is the basic idea.  Good luck!

Before-icky!

You'll need:

1. The item you're reupholstering

2. Scissors

3. A seam ripper

4. A permanent marker

5. Water soluble marking pen/dressmaker's pencil/chalk

6. Disinfectant spray

7. Screwdrivers

8. New fabric of your choice

9. A sewing machine and thread

10. A staple gun.

11. Trash bags.

12. Optional: ribbon and fabric glue.

Time to upgrade!

1. Remove any hardware from your piece that you aren't going to be working with.  For me, it was the base of the chair with the wheels.  It came off pretty easily with a screwdriver-and was surprisingly heavy!

2. Label EVERY SINGLE PIECE of fabric on your current upholstery with a  permanent marker in a way you will remember and understand.  When I say every single piece, I mean if there's a seam separating two pieces you need to label both.  Trust me. 

3. Get out your screwdriver and seam ripper and start ripping!  Make sure that as you do this you're careful not to rip pieces of fabric too much (they'll be your pattern pieces later).  Initially, you'll use your flathead screwdriver to pry up the edges of the fabric.  BE CAREFUL as they're likely held on with heavy duty staples and/or upholstery nails.  You don't want to stab yourself.  If you're extra cautious you might consider gloves or eye protection. This is by far the hardest part.

4. Remember the order in which you take everything apart (take photos-it makes things easier later).  Set your pieces aside as you go.

5. You should now be stripped down to the frame.  If you had stuffing anywhere that isn't attached to the frame (for example, in that back cushion), you might want to save it in a trash bag.  If it's not too gross, that is.  Otherwise you'll have to go buy more.  Vacuum up any dirt and spray this whole thing down with disinfectant spray (careful not to spray the cat...seriously, that spray is toxic to cats).

6. Prepare your fabric as you usually would-wash, iron, etc.

7. Lay out all of those pieces you cut apart on top of your new fabric and trace using your water soluble marker.  Then label all of those pieces on the new fabric using the labels you had for the old fabric.

8. Cut out your pieces.  Sew together anything that was sewn together on the original (the cushion in the back, the seat cushion.)  As always, make sure you're sewing right sides together.

8. Get out your staple gun and start reassembling in reverse order of the way you deconstructed.  This takes patience.  Make sure you're stretching the fabric taut as you go, and be careful with that staple gun!  Eye protection is a fabulous idea.

9. Re-stuff anything that needs to be stuffed and close up seams.

10.  If you have edges where you can tell that you've stapled (for example, the original had cording or piping and yours doesn't), you can either use fabric glue and piping to cover it up or you can do what I did and use fabric glue and a flat ribbon in a coordinating color.  

11.  If you want to paint any hardware that you removed, do so and then put it all back together.

Voila!  You're done!