The Window Sweep Saga...

I need to warn everyone first, this post might get a little boring if you don't like hearing about hard to find car parts and the great lengths to obtain them.

Back on August 29, 2009, I placed an order for a few things that I wanted to get for the Trans Am.  I ordered new "4 Wheel Disc" stickers for the door handles, seat back cover chrome piping, the entire part and illustration catalog on CD-ROM, and a set of inner (2) and outer (2) window sweeps.  The company I ordered the parts from is owned by the same person who is considered to be the ultimate authority on second generation Trans Am's and also runs the Trans Am website/forum I frequent quite often. 

What is a window sweep (pictured below)?  It is the piece of rubber/felt that mounts to the top of the door and against the window glass.  It squeegees water from the window and prevents water from getting inside the door.  This is a pretty common part to go bad on older cars because the rubber gets brittle and cracks, which is what happened with mine.  The problem in buying this part is the only "totally correct" window sweeps produced (at least when I placed my original order) are made by GM.

After I placed the order, I hadn't seen the order yet and hadn't heard from the company I ordered from.  I sent him and e-mail and he told me the window sweeps are on backorder from his distributor and he was waiting to ship everything at once.  He then offered to ship all the other items and keep me posted on the status of the window sweeps.

Over the next few months, yes months, I had been in e-mail communication with the company and the part was still on back order.  While waiting for this part I had learned that GM stopped producing this part, which left many distributors and dealers with orders to fill and not enough product to fill them.  I had also learned that another company was now correctly reproducing the window sweep to GM specifications.  The main reason I went with this company was because the price was VERY competitive, $184 shipped, for the entire set of GM window sweeps.  I couldn't find any other company within $50 of this price.  Even though I felt I was paying a fair price, I didn't want to be waiting forever for an item that might not show up.  I wrote one more e-mail to the company, asking for my money back on the window sweeps (since I got the rest of the and was totally happy with it) and we would call the order done.  He responded saying they just got the window sweeps in and will UPS them to me the same day if I still wanted them.  I agreed.  I was to be expecting my window sweeps on Christmas Eve, 2009, almost 4 months after I ordered them!

On Christmas Eve, Shannon and I went and saw a movie.  I had been tracking the package and knew it would arrive at my house while we were at the movie.  When we got home, I saw the package (tube) leaning up against the front door.  When I walked over to it and picked it up, my hear sank.  It was completely empty!  One of the ends had come off the shipping tube and everything was missing.  I contacted both UPS and the company I bought the parts from and told them what happened.  UPS started a damage claims and the company I ordered the parts from told me that when he ordered the sweeps for me, he ordered an additional set to have on hand since it took so long to get them from his distributor.  He said he would send this second set out after the holidays and that he would deal with UPS.  He replacement set was still in the original shipping tube and he hadn't even opened it.

About three weeks later, I got the replacement set.  I was happy to see that the package was still sealed and not damaged.  When I opened it up, I was happy and sad at the same time.  Yes, the package had parts in it, No, they were not the correct ones.  Yep, totally true, in the replacement package, I had two outside driver's side window sweeps and no inside ones at all!  ARE YOU KIDDING ME!  We are now into February, almost six months from when I ordered these parts and I still don't have them.  I contacted the company again and explained what happened.  We both agreed to parts ways with no hard feelings.  I returned the incorrect parts to him and he refunded my entire purchase amount.  Now, I needed to see if I could find them somewhere else!

I figured the easiest thing to do would be to call my local Pontiac dealer.  Since I had the original part numbers, I could just give the parts person those and not have to explain over the phone, what I was looking for.  I was shocked when they told me that they had three out of the four pieces at their warehouse!  I decided to just pursue the outer window sweeps through the Pontiac dealer, since the inner sweeps are reproduced.  The price was a little steep; basically I would be paying the same amount for just the outer sweeps as I did for the entire set before.  I did some thinking and realized that I had a friend that used to work at the GM warehouse and might be able to get me these parts at cost.  I gave him a call, and sure enough I could get them at cost, which was about 40% off!

We drove out to the GM warehouse and picked them up.  Both parts were in factory sealed packaging and had the correct part numbers on both pieces.  The condition was very good, so we paid for them and headed home.  When I got home, I took both parts out of their packaging and looked them over.  My heart sank AGAIN.  It turns out GM put the wrong inventory sticker on one of the parts (I'm thinking YEARS ago) so now I have two passenger side outer window sweeps!  The EXACT OPPOSITE of what I had two weeks earlier!  The only problem with buying parts from the GM warehouse is that there are no refunds at all.  No matter what.  I also didn't want to get my friend in trouble for doing me a favor by calling them up and complaining.

So, I had an idea.  What if I e-mail the company I originally bought my parts from, who now has two driver's side window sweeps and propose a trade?!  The owner was very excited about the trade idea, since he had two driver's side window sweeps that he needed to sell, and they are much easier to sell as a set!  So, I sent my passenger side sweep to him, he sent his driver's side sweep to me, and a little over six months from my original order, I have a complete set of GM outer window sweeps for my Trans Am!

The next step was getting the inner window sweep set.  Since this was being reproduced and only $44 for the set, I used another part company that I have had great luck with in the past and placed my order.  It should arrive soon and I will then have the entire set!  I really hope that nothing happens to this order in transit, but with my luck on these parts, anything is possible!

I just need to say that considering the horrible luck I have had with ordering these parts, all of the people involved have been very nice, apologetic and understanding, and this post is in no way intended to "bash" any of them.  This was the main reason I left all the names of the companies involved out of the post.  I am just glad to finally have my parts and I hope to get them installed on the Trans Am as soon as the weather is nice!

That Darn Window...

To be totally honest, we don't spend a ton of time in our basement.  We use the computer in the office and do laundry in the laundry room, but we hardly ever hang out or watch TV down there.  I'm sure as the kids get older and start having friends over, they will retreat to the basement to get away from Shannon and I, so maybe this room will see more use in a few years, but I also think us not spending time down there has a little to do with the fact that it is kind of not finished.  We haven't painted, arranged furniture, set up the surround sound system for the TV, or decorated.  I also still have a few light construction projects that need to be finished, which brings me to this post.

We replaced the window in the basement family almost two years ago (HERE).  Nothing really changed with the status of this window until about a year ago, almost exactly, when I finally hung the sheetrock on the inside of the window (HERE).  I am still making very slow progress, but I did get a little more done recently.  I have been putting it off for a long time, but I got the sheetrock taped and the first coat of mud applied!  I really should give my sheetrocking skills more credit, because for as much as I HATE sheetrocking, the mudding actually turned out pretty good!

I think I did a nice job of smoothing and blending the mud from the new sheetrock to the existing wall!  The next step is the messy one, sanding.  I am going to try and use a special grated sheetrock sander my brother has and keep a shop vac running the entire time I'm sanding to try and minimize the mess.  I'm sure I will have to mud, sand, and repeat at least one, if not two, more times before it is paintable.  My goal is to get this window totally done before it gets nice outside and I start doing outside projects.  Let's hope I am not doing my next update on this project in March 2011!

The Melting Pot...

I know, the last month hasn't been my best as far as updating my journal goes.  I am seriously on a one update a week mental schedule, but work and family things don't always make that as easy as it seems.

The last few posts I planned on doing were pretty much about the snow, so I figured I would combine them all into one for a better visual effect!  Since my last post where we got a pretty good dumping of snow, we haven't had any more since.  In fact the temperatures have been warming up and the past two weeks, we have been averaging high temperatures above freezing.  In fact, this past week we even hit 64 degrees, setting a new record high.  With these warmer temperatures, the snow didn't stick around long.  As of yesterday, we have only trace amounts of snow left in yard.  Here are some back and front yard shots over the last month:

03/07/10

03/12/10

03/16/10

I am a little sad to see the snow all melt so fast and so early, but since this hasn't been the best winter for me snowmobiling, I am pretty much ready for spring and getting the Trans Am on the road!  Since we have had such nice weather, Shannon, Maeve, Will, and I have gone on a couple walks and even went to the park once!  I also spent about an hour in the back yard with Maeve on a nice Saturday afternoon and picked up after Bear for the winter.  TEN GALLONS of dog poop later, and my yard was finally clean!

With that said, since the snowmobile trails officially close at the end of March, if we get any measurable snow event between now and the end of the month, I will be riding my snowmobile.  I will even take a day off work to ride if I have to, but I need to log more than 1.5 miles of riding for the season!