You Know You Buy A Lot On eBay When...

With three projects going, I buy and sell a fair amount on eBay, so it isn't uncommon to come home to find a package or two on the porch. That is, unless I haven't purchased anything, and then it's really odd.

In the past week that has happened twice from people that I have never purchased from, nor have I sold to. I didn't realize the first package was sent in error as I hadn't had a chance to open it and it sat for several days before I did. What gave me concern was when I had everything I had ordered, or so I thought, and two more packages showed up. Very strange!

So I did the honest thing and contacted eBay. Their customer service rep listened to my story carefully, and then asked to put me on hold. When he returned I was informed that he could neither confirm who the seller was, nor the buyer. Further, they had no policy on record to address this scenario as they have "never had anyone call to say they received something they didn't pay for," so their position was this: I could keep the items, or I could try to figure out who the sellers were and talk to them.

Morally, I can't (and won't) keep them, but now the burden of finding where these belong has fallen on me. Fortunately there were enough clues for me to locate the original auctions and sellers without having to chase them down via their return addresses. I have contacted both. The problem with this is this only gets me half way there. The items are no longer legally theirs. They belong to the buyers.

Further, I have to hope that both items were purchased by the same person, that they weren't using my name and address intentionally to commit fraud, or in an attempt to defraud me, and convince them that my shipping address is showing up in their account through no action on my part.

Fun.

And if it's two different buyers, I now have a whole host of potential issues to worry about.

On the bright side, at least I don't have to worry about eBay coming after me. They could care less.

Many happy returns!

P.S. More on wagon progress soon (now that I finished redoing my daughters bedroom set!)

Replaced the Rear Springs...

Got a little time out in the garage today, so I replaced the rear springs. I bought them over 6 months ago, but they haven't been a priority. While cleaning the office today I had to keep moving them, so they moved up the list. Easy project to take from start to finish and the car sits level again.

A Little Interior Work...

Been a little while since my last update, but in my defense, I have been non-stop around the house getting the Spring cleaning done early. Anyhow, on to the updates!

Today I was able to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather (we hit 60s in early March!) and do some work on interior trim. I need to get it all pulled, painted or reupholstered so I can pull the dash pad and replace it with the new one, and I need to paint the lower dash. I'm hoping to do that one without removing it, but we will have to see if I can pull that on off.

First off, the pillar trim is padded. I stripped the old covers off and this is what I had left (note original cover still on lower pad):

Unfortunately, the vinyl they used to cover the pad is quite thin, while I had to use the same material as I did for the seats. This made it much more challenging. Hopefully everything fits when done. Spray-mount, press, trim, and work it into place trying to get the adhesive to stick and you get this (original still below):

Much better, but I have some wrinkles I will need to try to work out. The thicker material really makes this a challenge, but it looks a thousand times better and it will match the rest of the interior.

I also redid the spare tire access cover. Resisting instinct to do it my way, I applied adhesive the same way as the factory did. The net result is I ended up with a couple bubbles that will be difficult to do. Hopefully I can get them, but in the meantime, what a difference!

I still need to reinstall the bar at the bottom, and the hook on the inside by the handle hole, but much better.

I also sprayed about a half dozen pieces of trim and then ordered more SEM Super White (which is really an off white, and sorry, no pic yet) because I am going to at a minimum do the door panels as well, and may spray the last two larger interior panels that go in the back of the vehicle. Plus, I need to do ALL of the third row seat assemblies, minus the upholstery. The big panels are upholstered, but it is just going to be way to much work to have new ones sewn up.

Once the trim and dash are set, I can reassemble the interior, and add the console back in. I still need to redo the seat tracks, but I bought a 5 gallon bucket of EvapoRust to soak them, rather than trying to disassemble them and blast them. If my gamble pays off, I can eliminate the rust, paint them and put them back into service while saving myself a ton of added labor, and ultimately end up with a better product.

I found one picture I have of the windlace from the driver's door. It looked rough, but after cleaning with Simple Green and then lacquer thinner and them a fairly heavy couple of coats of SEM Color Coat, and they look almost new!

That's all for now. I'll try to get a pic of the trim for my next post, but there won't be much to tell other than it worked and it was easy, or otherwise.Now to pull all of the third row seats so I can have them soda blasted...

Pulling Door Panels...

Just a quick post on pulling door panels. I picked up some spare doors (for the glass) and needed to remove the door panels first. Getting the old Ford panels off can easily result in damage if you aren't careful due to the substrate being a low-density fiberboard that is prone to tearing and readily absorbs water which weakens it.

This picture shows a technique you can use to pop the spring clips without tearing out the mounting holes. You get the putty knife (or similar) as close to the clip as you can, and pry against the PUTTY KNIFE ONLY with a wide, flat-bladed screwdriver as close to the clip as you can.

I personally like to start at a lower corner and work my way across the bottom, and then up either side for the best results. One last note ... be sure any fasteners, door pulls, window cranks, or any other item that will prevent remove of the panel has been removed first or you can stress or crack the panel.

Finally Found A Correct Roof Rack!

After much searching, I have finally located (and procured) a correct Mercury roof rack! It isn't quite as nice a s the Ford roof rack I had picked up previously, but the mounting holes are all the same meaning no new holes in the roof, and all of the rubber gaskets and insulators are in outstanding condition.

It may seem a little odd, but I would rather stay with an original, correct roof rack that isn't quite as pretty rather than go with the nicer one that just won't look right. At least not to me since I know better.

I also picked up a full set of glass (minus the windshield, but that will come soon), and all of the trim off the back around the tailgate. Nice to have spares, and I will probably even replace a few pieces since these are so nice.

Pictures to come soon!