I've owned Quiksilver since February of 2014. When I first came across her my roommate and I were at an auction in Ardmore. I was broke, and the only reason I was there was because he needed a second driver. When we got to the last row I saw this car sitting on half-flat completely bald tires and dripping coolant. I opened the door; it reeked of cigarettes and was filled with trash- the car lot that had towed it to the auction lot hadn't even cleaned it out. Normally I'd just pass on a car in its condition... But something about it grabbed my attention. I found my roommate and offered a deal... I'd trade him a classic 1979 Dodge St Regis that I had been working on- all he had to do was buy the sad looking car with the mismatched hood in the last row. He tentatively agreed, and got it for $550. The only other bidder had been a salvage yard buyer. After the auction, we met up in the parking lot, and I questioned my choice... It barely made the long trip home, lurching in and out of gear and making the strangest howling noise.
I set to work. I had to replace almost every single rubber coolant hose on it. I couldn't figure out why it was lurching- it gave no trouble codes and there were no visible wiring issues. However, once I got all the coolant leaks fixed, the transmission issues stopped. It still made the howling noise. I didn't know what it was, and several people told me that it was my transmission going out. I didn't believe that. I ended up taking it to a front wheel drive specialist who told me that it was for sure a wheel bearing. Those are $100 a pop. I took a gamble, did both sides on the front.
That fixed that problem. Next was the hood. I decided, rather than to replace it, to just OWN that silver hood. So naturally I added silver door handles...
Eventually I decided I wanted a spoiler and some more trim so months later I went to pull-a-part and picked up a few bits and pieces:
After that, she really lived up to her name. I came across a Grand Am with the ram air intake, so I got that as well- it was a simple enough installation. The air box fit right on, as did the scoop. The decorative cover with the ram air emblem was easy- I made a cutout on the front of it so it would clear the hood release lever which is slightly different than a GA, and drilled a few holes in the plastic so that I could use trim pins to snap it on to the pre-existing holes in the header panel/bumper.
The radio worked, but the cd player didn't... That kinda bugged me, so I decided to fix it. I went and got 3 stock radios from the junkyard- two for practice and one for the real deal- and took them all apart on my kitchen table. I put all the good pieces together to make one good radio with a cd and cassette player... I plugged it up and turned on the key and the radio played for two seconds before it shut off and displayed "LOCKED." I did my research... The ones that say LOC could be opened with a code, mine couldn't. Everyone said it would have to be programmed by a dealer, who wanted to charge me $250 for that. No way. So I took it apart again and did some snooping on the internet and heard of a chip which contains the theftlock information. I desoldered it from the board and put it all back together without the chip- it worked, but the radio would reset all the sound settings and presets after turning off the car. I ended up getting a blank eeprom to solder in and that allowed the radio to remain unlocked and still save settings. (I can do a write-up on that with pictures if anyone needs it, by the way.)
Now she's still a work in progress, but that's my Alero, Quiksilver.
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