Sixty degrees today, last chance to work on car for a while.
Follow-up on 2000 Toyota Solara convertible miscellaneous
Headlights: Hey, they do go on with the switch when the car is not running. I should have thought of that. (I normally never turn them off, only the car.)
Taillights: Hey, they're not on when the light switch is off but the engine is running, only the daytime running lights, headlights on low-brightness. (I guess it's good that I rarely turn the switch off.)
Antenna: Used 10w-30. 6 sections. Even today, a warm day, 3rd section didn't come out of 4th. Turned on the radio and rushed to the antenna, got there in time to pull on the tip but it didn't budge. I will use Liquid Wrench for this section only, on a later day. Reception still good but on a trip through rural areas, sixth section might help. I oiled the other sections so it should retract all the way even when very cold.
Buzzer: when keys left in ignition. I had a hard time finding this 4 years ago, but disconnected it. Last year, found it, reconnected to train key fob. Couldn't find it today!! My back took 3 minutes to recover.
Rear Window: Lexan didn't fit 16 months ago so used vinyl. A friend who has an upholstery shop lent me a big needle and gave me a bunch of heavy white thread. I think it's the kind you see on the bottom of some sofa cushions, etc. This winter, 30" of snow. I expected the thread to rip through to the edge of the clear vinyl, or through the black cloth/vinyl. Or the thread to break in one place and get pulled out as the window itself fell down. But no, the thread broke in 16 places!!!!. At every stitch along the top and most of one side, every stitch broke. Clearly, I used the wrong product. Not meant for wet weather.
So today I went back to my favorite: buttonhole thread. Much thinner (but thicker than normal thread) but I'm thinking it's like most of my thread, cotton-covered polyester (figuring the polyester will do well in wet weather). Only when I'm done do I look at the spool. No mention of material. I had weeks to plan and I should have looked for buttonhole thread with a polyester core**.
Vinyl window is getting cloudy, but strangely, not everywhere. It's not cloudy at the top 3 or 4", and there's a diagonal strip 3 or 4" wide where it's not cloudy. The window isn't perfectly flat, so there are small shadows, but not during the middle of the day when the sun is brightest, only at the very ends of the day when the sun is the weakest. Very strange. I hope to see what one more year will show.
** (Checking online, they have all nylon upholstery thread for less than $3 a large spool. And Outdoor Living Thread Article # D71 UV Resistant thread for about $5. Jo-Anne Fabrics has nothing called Buttonhole Thread. I don't know how that can be. I bought this spool only 46 years ago. They have Dual Duty, made of polyester, $3 synthetic. I should have bought one of these I think. (I also should have looked in my mother's big box of thread. I had that in mind for rare colors and didn't think of it here.) The next time, two years from now, I will, if I still have the car. )