Well I’m proud of myself! On the center console of my Celica’s dashboard, for the longest time, I’ve had this big spot of dried superglue and an old cell phone magnet/mount. So after the gym tonight, I pulled the center shifter surround/cigaretter lighter adapter off, and then unscrewed the two hidden screws that keep the center console/stereo surround in place. I pulled the piece away, and disconnected it from the digital clock and the hazard lights button. So far so good.

I bring it inside, and as I’m watching a movie (”Mystic River,” good flick by the way), I get to work on cleaning up that piece of plastic. The cell phone holder came off in two pieces and pried right off. Then, I tried some Simple Green and Goo Gone. Neither worked real well, though it loosened the adhesive residue left over under the cell phone holder, but no such luck on the super glue. I tried some rubbing alcohol and still no luck.

So I Googled and found a site about tactics for removing super glue. It suggested several things, including nail polish remover and fine sand paper. I used fine sand paper (the finest I had) and that did the trick! It’s not perfect, but it’s a hell of a lot better before. After I got the majority of the glue off, there was just a little discoloration, and three little blemishes left behind by the glue. I took some Novus plastic polish (which I use for the pinball machine) and then used some Armor All protectant.

Plus, I think I’m going to get a brushed aluminum kit for the dash, or possibly a carbon fiber one. So now, that piece is prepped and ready for that.

I’ve still got the passenger side air conditioning vent to do the same thing too, though I might buy some nail polish remover and see if that works.

Anyway, I reassembled everything in the car and it all works! I was afraid the cigaretter lighter adapter wouldn’t work, or the clock or hazard light wouldn’t work. But it all worked! Woo hoo! I’m not real handy, so was proud of myself. I guess a lot of the credit has to be given to Toyota for making an idiot proof interior.

I don’t think Net32 sells this with its other dental supplies:

Dental Shocker

Seven generations of Celicas and that’s it. First Toyota killed the Supra in lieu of more SUVs, and now it looks like the Celica and MR2 are being dropped for crap like the Scion. Well, it was a good run with the Celica. I love my 6th gen Celica and really liked the 4th and 5th, as well as the awesome 180HP 7th gen GT-S.

Toyota To Discontinue Production Of The Celica And MR2 Sports Cars By The End Of 2005 Model Year

It’s time for another installment of post some more recent articles about my all-time favorite band, Van Halen:

Sammy Hagar’s Back, and Van Halen’s Got Him

Van Halen and the Love Doctor

My bud from Carolina, Quincy Monk, gets a mention in this article that has been posted on several Giants-related sites as of late:

Giants are Off to Summer Camp

I hadn’t heard anything about this. I’ll have to ask Jef and Jeff (both with series 1 DirecTiVos) whether they have any issues with their boxes:

DirecTiVo Bug Shuts Out Many Series 1 TiVo Owners