LeafGT

Before more weight saving  we have exciting news. We've now sourced a rubber bung to fill the gap where the rear wiper motor was. The job this time is to replace the glass window pain in the offside rear door with a plastic replacement.  So we start by removing the glass and the piece of wood holding it up. Then, a conversation to decide if we should do the small window segment. Out it comes. The reflection in the glass is truly haunting. You can remove the strut but we were to find to create a single opening but it would become apparent that things get tricky with the seal so for now at least it's staying in. The small segment of glass can be teased out of the surround and as usual everything is getting weighed as we go. Time to cut some plastic to replace the glass. We're not using the interior door handles so those have come off.  In goes the pretend glass. Nobody is going to tell the difference. Repeating the process for the little segment. . So far, so surprisingly e...

Our quest to 'lightweight' the car continues. In our world ''lightweight' is a verb.  This time it's the tailgate.  Time to get this trim off.  No screws to be seen so where do we start? There are a couple of caps we can pop off to hopefully reveal some screws that'll get us started. Nope. So there's this other cover that's going to pop off and hopefully show us how to undo this thing. Turn's out it's just access to the lock/latch.  Interesting but not helpful. Time to get brave.  Turns out that if you prise the trim away from the metal it will come off, it's a bunch of poppers like the door card and you have to work your way around.  But it's really unpleasant pulling it off because it takes a lot of effort or leverage to pull it apart and flexes and feels as though it's going to break.  In this case it came apart with a series of loud cracks but miraculously nothing was damaged. There are actually two parts to this.  The thinner...

It's a big day today. 1st of March, otherwise known as the feast day of Saint David.  But the big news is work continues on the Leaf.      This time we are going to loose some weight from the nearside rear door.   We'll start this adventure with the handle cover.   Pulling it off reveals an M10 screw. After removing the screw, we can now turn our attention to the window switch.  The switch bezel can easily be popped out. You can see how the actual window switch is clipped into the back of the bezel. Beneath where the bezel was, we have this M10 Philips head screw that along with the previous screw holds the door card on. As implied, take the screw off and sure enough, as expected, the door card pops off.  Almost. There are a few poppers holding the thing on.  Gently pulling on the poppers releases them without breaking anything.  The door card is now completely free of the door.  Nearly. The door handle is still fixed to t...