I received another part of my order from Blunttech- the driver's window weatherstrip, S54 timing chain tensioner, and a new power antenna.
Ellie went down for a nap and I was able to get my real estate shoots edited early so I said to myself "Oh lets go replace that antenna real quick." Yeah that was not real quick.
First I removed all the trunk carpeting that needed to come out. No biggie. Then I tried to remove the antenna cap. And that didn't want to budge. So I unhooked the wires and removed the power base. This was when I realized the problem. The top part of the old antenna was plastic, and had partially disintegrated. This was where the problem reared its ugly head. I literally had to continue to destroy the plastic bits left to separate the part of the antenna that came out of the top of the car with the retaining parts on the bottom. It was a real headache and a slow process because I wanted to be very careful of the paint on the car.
So after I had it all out I realized that not only had I heavily scraped up #11 in the diagram but it also still had a bunch of plastic in it.
So I tried my best to get it out but only continued to destroy the part. So there's still a ring of plastic in it and its pretty much toast. I was only hoping to use it as a placeholder until I made my next order but there was no way it was even going to do that. So I called our local dealer, MAG, and they are getting the part tomorrow for me!
The plastic also broke off in the connector for the radio signal and I tried to extract that but it broke apart. Thankfully I didn't destroy the inner part of the connector so I was able to put that back in the new antenna and secure it with a little electrical tape.
Less the broken part I installed the antenna and tested it and I now have a working antenna! Woo-hoo! But I won't be able to drive the car until after I get the replacement nut hopefully tomorrow.
I want to work on the window seal tonight but am not sure I have the stamina after the ordeal that was the antenna debacle.