Well, to say the least, I'm extremely happy with my purchase of my X. Saying that, there are some imperfections on it that I had to fix, and I had to make my first actual repair. Yay.

First off, the fabric was pulling away from my A-pillars and that is not acceptable (the dealer said that they were going to fix this, but didn't, and over the course of the buying process, I lost any faith in their body/mechanic shops). So I purchased some 3m upholstery spray on glue and got to it. I blue taped off the windshield, sprayed the adhesive on both surfaces, let the glue set for about 10 min. as the instructions said to do, and then used a credit card to push the fabric on and stretch it into place. It turned out pretty well considering it was my first attempt at upholstery work.

 

Not bad at all ! I'm starting to see the headliner loosen up and start drooping on the rear and wondering if I should pull the whole headliner off or simply use the 3M stuff and carefully glue it back ....

 

myexcursion, my headliner started doing the same as yours. I did the edge of the headliner and all was good for about 3 years or so. Then, the headliner started pulling away again, but this time starting where I stopped with the 3M glue and continued to the center of the car. So, while you can buy some time making the initial repair, atleast from my experience, once the fabric starts falling, you are going to end up redoing the whole thing. If you do pull the headliner out of the car, let me know. You can pull the headliner out without having to pull the windshield or the like. I did it.

 

I didn't pull the whole liner for the A pillars back and I didn't notice any creases, but it might be much more evident with a large piece of headliner, maybe someone else on this forum with more experience than myself would be able to direct you more aptly. Or... If you're like me, I would just try the easier way (3m) and take my time, see how it works. If it doesn't, only like an hour of time lost, as you would still need the adhesive if you removed the entire piece.

 

Well, on to the next item. I found that the side skirt was drooping at the rear of the driver's side. (I asked for the dealer to fix this as well, I asked the service manager at the shop to take a look as I thought one of the clips was missing. I told him that I would purchase the clip, and do the work, I just wanted him to look at it. He told me that there was no clip missing and that they just sag over time, and that what he wanted to do was drill a hole in the skirt and the frame below to install a bolt and a nut. I said that I would look at it and make judgement for myself. Good thing I did.) When I pulled the skirt back, low and behold, the last rear clip was missing. Shocker. So, what I did was to carefully remove the next clip on the line (I didn't have a clip removal tool - which are very handy and I have since purchased - so I used two butter knives in a cross fashion to pry it out without breaking any of the tabs). I then proceeded to clean the sill above the skirt that the top edge of the skirt sat on. I installed the removed clip in the last clip hole and sealed the skirt to the sill with 3m two sided foam tape (if you can't already tell, I'm a big fan of 3m products). It looks perfect now and although there was only a little sag, it is little things like this that will drive me nuts. Sorry about the lack of pics, I didn't take as many as I wanted.

 

Now on the the actual first functionality repair that I've had to do. So, I had driven to my parents and driven back to my house. When I shut the car off, my fans were staying on, it wasn't particularly hot that day and the fans had never stayed on before. So, I checked under the hood and had seen that my coolant reservoir was empty and there was coolant all over the engine bay. Damn. So I looked around and saw that one of my return hoses to the reservoir was leaking. I just figured the clamp had worn out and I needed a new one. I then made a trip to my local O'Reilys to pick up a clamp. When I did, I wanted to guy there to take a look at it for me, just to get a second opinion, I showed him the hose, and as i touched it, the nipple that the hose fits over broke off in my hand. Crap. So upon his recommendation, I purchased some plastic weld, he said that he had used it before for similar applications and that when it hardens, it is as strong as the original plastic or stronger. Sweet. I took the car home, cleaned the plastic, scuffed up the mating areas, and proceeded to glue it together. I had to hold it in place for about 5 min, then it said to let it set for 24 hrs. to fully harden. I did this, the next day, when I went to re-attach the hose, the nipple broke off. Sonofa.... So, Plan B. Apparently, this is a common problem because the ears of the clamp, if placed upward will hit the hood lining and put pressure on the nipple. I once again love being a part of this forum as I got the idea for this repair here (thanks to whoever it was-I also thanked them on their post). This member had purchased a brass 3/8 Male x insert fitting and used a tap and dye to tap out the hole in the reservoir and reconnect. I made the trip to Lowes with my father (a great guy to have fun fixing things with!) and purchased the brass fitting, but I couldn't find a Tap and Dye of the right size (air fittings have weird thread sizes) and I didn't want to purchase a whole large set $$$$$$$. So, Plan B.2. What I ended up doing, is using a drill bit that was just a little smaller than the male threaded end of the fitting and drilled out the inlet hole. I then put the fitting on a screw driver with a socket between the handle and fitting, and heated up the fitting with my torch and carefully (very carefully, plastic becomes malleable quickly under heat). I then stuck the fitting against the plastic with minor force and threaded it in (there by creating the threads in the plastic) and quickly threaded it out. I then let the plastic cool down and cooled the fitting down with some water. All that was left to do was teflon the fitting, apply a dab of pipe dope, and screw the fitting in to it's new home. I then re-attached the hose (ears of the clamp sideways so there would be no undue pressure) and filled my reservoir back up. Testing, I drove up the highway and back, enough to heat up the engine, and checked the bay. NO LEAKS AND NO FANS REMAINED ON! WINNING!