cost of t30 torx bit: $0.84. treating dad to kimball's as a thank you for his help: $7.05. saving $280 while getting 3 hours of quality time together? priceless.

I've been needing a new car for a while now (the subaru forester is currently in first place), but it won't work quite yet. Vivian, my 10 yr old jetta, is hanging in there, but barely. While driving to work last week, the window fell into the door. Annoying. After taking the outside panel off, my dad and i managed to yank the glass up and duct tape it shut until i could get the parts to fix it.

This was good because it poured the next day. After calling, i showed up at the VW dealership to pick up the $57 regulator repair kit. I'd found step-by-step instructions (complete with photos!) online detailing how to fix the clips, and considering it would run $280 in labor alone to have the dealership fix it, thought i'd head out to my parents' house and have some quality time with my dad. Quality time we had! After removing the glass from the door, we disconnected wiring and removed the inside panel.

Then came the fun part- replacing the clips and trying to get the very tight wire to go back where it was supposed to. That took forever and left both of us bleeding, but was very satisfying after the fact. It was super neat to see (thus understand) how the whole thing worked. This picture shows the clips (at the bottom) that hold the glass, and the wires (covered by black plastic in some places) that roll the window up and down when the motor turns.

After getting that back in place, we reinserted the glass, reconnected the wires, and reattached the outside panel.

Good as new! And $280 dollars that can now go towards the new one. Merci dad!