"Hey, there's a semi outside. I think it's for you." (Door part 1)

Probably the most excitement my street has seen in quite awhile was the semi truck that pulled up out front of my house to unload a shipping crate onto my front porch.

Inside was a passenger rear door from a 1993 Saab 900 sedan, blue.

It was gorgeous. Except for the Digimon sticker on the window.

The door was purchased on eBay from A & C Auto Parts and Wrecking Co, Cleveland, OH for $50, plus $160 freight shipped. They were parting out the whole car, and I had hoped to buy some other parts from them, but I didn't have the extra cash at the time. To be funny, I almost had the door shipped to my girlfriend at her campus post office. If it didn't have to be signed for, I would have, but...no such luck. This is the first of many eBay purchases for Ulla.

I went out right after it showed up and bought high gloss black spray paint and taped off the door with painter's tape and newspapers, took it outside, put it over a couple of saw horses and painted it, and left it to dry over night.

The next morning, I painted it again and then moved it into the sun to "bake."

After the door dried, I went for it...I cut the wires leading into the badly smashed up door on Ulla, unbolted the hinges, and yanked it off...my poor car, so sad. The two doors next to each other was bitter-sweet since the old door was smashed and rusted out, but the paint was still glossy and the trims were chrome. The new door was mostly rust free and had not a single dent, but the paint obviously didn't have the shine to it that the rest of the car had, and the trims were black. Oh well...that can all be fixed.

With the old door out of the way, I held the door off the ground with a floor jack, and used that to help get the door in place, but of course it can't be that easy. I hit the lower hinge and closed it.

Do you know how hard it is to open a strong hinge with no weight on it? It's hard. And it hurts when your hand gets snapped back in it...twice.

After getting the hinge back open, I moved the door into place and with the luck to end all luck, I was able to line everything up to get the bolts started into the hinges. Then it was just a matter of adjusting the hinges so the latch plate would catch without bashing into anything.

As soon as the door would open and close, I remembered there was no wiring hooked up, so I hooked up the old wires to the new simply by matching colors. As it turns out, this didn't work as I had hoped...but mostly. Everything worked just fine except for one thing.

The window switch was backwards.

Aside from the fact that it's different from every other window, it's really only a minor annoyance, not something that's actually a problem. I have yet to fix it.

Cost of Paint: $5

Cost of door: $50 (plus$160 shipping...)