Monday, October 08, 2007

APD Auto


My company was closed on the 25th of Sept... So I decided to service the Satria myself for half the price even thought i had to buy an oil filter wrench. The best part is i was able to buy the black oil with a better grade then what is used by the garages. Changing the black oil and oil filter was easy enough but i did have an issue of filling in too much of oil.... which was over the max line by about 5mm... got a little messy after that cos i had to go back under the car and drain it again ...slowly little by little ... but other then that it turned out ok... i even gave the car a wash.

Had to stop over at work that afternoon but then after lunch i made my way to a vw workshop in kayu ara (The shop i wrote about in one of my very first post in this blog) which is not too far from my office. To my shock the whole place has been flattened and there is going to be an apartment built there.... Alamak!!! not where am i going to get a 'radio delete plate' for my bug before its painted...... i had heard that if you continue driving through kayu ara you will land up in taman megah or the old lim kok wing building... so i though i will just give it a try since i had the time.......... i found myself near the Projet Petrol Station near Atria..... imagine my surprise and delight when i drove by another VW workshop called APD Auto which is run by an elderly chap named Francis Lai...... he is a pleasant guy who has run the shop for the past 15 years... and guess what? he has the radio delete plate that im looking for ........but he doesnt have the chrome trim that goes with it... no matter..... i will get it anyway.... but he has a few plates which are from beetles and ghias of a few model years.... unfortunately he and I cant seem to different shade which is from which year because the differences are so small... so i will be taking the whole bunch tomorrow to match it with my car in Klang and picking the one that looks best on it...... i cant wait lah...

The 5th of October came quickly enough... took half day off and made my way to APD after lunch at Devi's Corner TTDI... picked up the Radio Delete Plate then when over to Klang to check if it will fit... It did fit but unfortunately the former owners had made the Radio Void bigger by cutting it about 3 or 4 mm at the bottom lip... sign!!... to all vw beetle owners... if it does not fit... then look for one that will fit... dont just shove a radio in there by cutting it or bending it till it fit... im sure there are many radio players out there which are slim enough to fit the original gap..

Here is the radio gap unlawfully cut out of shape... also note the two switches (I took out one) in the middle drilled into the dash without a care..... not even place squarely in the middle... sign... will have to get that sorted out too...

Here's the radio delete plate... its in perfect condition... i think it belonged in a 66...

It fit perfectly too... but as you can see... the bottom lip and the left top corner has been cut...highlighted below in red..... why!! why!! why do you people do these things to your cars.... :(

Oh well... hopefully the metal beaters can fix that..... Anyway the three holes in the delete plate are for the chrome trimmings which i will need to find....

Well im sure you guys are wondering how come my car is still not painted.... the Indonesian workers who are working on my car had gone back to Indonesia to get their paper work sorted out and are also on Hari Raya Holidays... so they will only be back after Raya .... so there hasn't been any work done on my car in the past 5 weeks....sigh!!...

the saga continues...

btw:

APD Auto

1069 Jalan Jejarom
Kampung Sungai Kayu Ara
47400 Petaling Jaya
Tel/Fax 03-78052185
(Not opened on Weekends)