Proton designers are idiots. When they first came up with the Waja, they went for the European inspired driver-centric front dash. Which looks pretty cool, until the driver realizes he's permanently stuck in an Alaskan blizzard, where else the poor passenger is forever experiencing the merciless Sahara desert heat. Simply because the passenger side aircon vent is practically useless due to it's angle on the dash.

I attempted to rectify this problem; with mixed results. I used a roll of aluminium sheet to try and fabricate a part.

I ended up creating this.

Which is sorta a home-made remedy to help divert some cold airflow to the left of the car. Which works suprisingly well.

Unfortunately, when you have a look at the final product, it's pretty much an eyesore. Which sucks donkeyballs. And if you're not too careful, you'll just smack the thing off since it's not secured by any adhesive of any kind.

So I did some digging on the net and found this fella selling at lelong.com for approx. 70 bucks.

This is Proton's solution for the aircon vent problem. And it comes with the latest batch of Wajas. The one I got here is an imitation part, which probably is made in Taiwan or something. The seller assured me that this part is 'Plug and Play'. I should have known better than believe some bangla I've never seen before who operates via the net. Biotch personified.

But more on that later.

Armed with a Phillips screwdriver, I set off to tear my dashboard apart. There weren't any intructions of any kind with the package so I had to just fiddle my way around.

First of all, locate the tiny screw just in front of the gear shift lever. This holds the whole assembly together.

Next, you'll need some brute force to yank out the front plastic panel, since it's held together by like a gazzilion plastic tabs. Once it's out, set it aside.

Yes... I know I hav beautifool hands... now quit staring oreidi... :P

Next, remove the screws which holds the 2 DIN radio to the front fascia. There're 4 , so make sure  they're all gone before you pull the thing out.

Once that's out, take a look at the plastic panel coverivg the 5 buttons above the radio console. Yank this out. I broke 2 pins in the process, so be gentle if you're planning to do so.

Once that's out, you'll see 2 screws holding the button assembly to the dashboard. Remove this. Now the hard part starts.

You'll have to pull out the button assembly, which is easier said than done, since there's hardly any space between the dash and the console. I used a flathead screwdriver to pry the damn thing out, which took me about 15 minutes. Farker.

Once that's out, I proceeded to pull out the aircon vent to replace it with the new unit. I then went... FUCK. This ain't right? It's a 2 piece assembly, meaning that I'll have to do more work. I'm beginning to think it isn't that Plug and Play anymore.

So I had to remove the fins. Then I had to find someway to remove the center control lever which controls the airflow.

Some more prying and the damn thing finally came off.

With that outta the way... I can proceed. Then I realize things were flapping loose like some limp dick without the control lever.

So I had to secure the valve which controls the airflow to the top of the assembly with a piece of cable tie. No biggie.

At this point, I should be able to pluck in the new aircon vent into the blank void I created, be done with it and go have a nice cold can of Coke while sitting back to enjoy my handy work. But nooooooooooooo. It didn't. Curses of a thousand homo monkeys, the damn thing just won't go in. Banging the thing with my fists doesn't help either. I definitely felt something is seriously wrong with the new vent.

Upon closer inspection, I found the problem. The new vent has additional brackets and reinforcements, which doesn't exist on my original vent. That aside, the vent was also crudely fabricated, meaning that the edges were roughly finished and the tabs on the top and bottom weren't properly punched, thus the whole thing wouldn't click together.

I felt like throwing the damn thing into the dustbin as there's no way the thing would fit now. But after looking at the vent again, I decided to try and rework the tabs by shaving off some plastic to make the tabs and brackets a little flatter, thus should theorethically be able to fit when all the parts are assembled back.

I pulled out a metal file and started filling off layer after layer of plastic. Then returning to the car to see if it fits. After 5 attempts, I'm still going no where.

The filing was taking forever, and the thing still won't fit. Given enough time, I'm sure I'll get it done. Unfortunately, my patience was running thin this weekend, so I got pissed, pulled out a metal hacksaw and decided to whack the whole bracket off. Then, I shifted my attention to reshaping the holes on the tabs using a boxcutter and cleaned the whole thing up using some sandpaper.

With the damn extra brackets outta the way, and the mis-shaped panels filed to size, I tried again. Finally the thing fits. It took me close to 3 hours just to rework the damn vent using the tools I had. I'm pretty sure it'll take less than half the time if I had a powered dremel tool. Then I started screwing the panels back into place.

Come evening, everything is completed. And seems to work well.

So, the next time some damn online merchant tells me not to worry and that his product is completely Plug and Play... I'll ask him to go eat shit and fuck some filthy lorong belakang in-bred mogrel. Cause it ain't no fun paying for something which require 2 afternoons of my bloody time to fix defects that shouldn't been there in the first place.

Fuckin asshole.

Listening to : Marilyn Manson - Irresponsible Hate Anthem