Got my Rugby World Cup t-shirt today.... and we're getting free-view installed on Friday so I can get crystal clear reception. All I can say is COME ON THE ALL BLACKS... YOU CAN DO IT. Comon! We're counting on you this year!

This blog is gonna start to get seriously boring with all the pictures of my van. I'm just so dang proud of myself I can't wait to upload what I 've done, even if I'm the only one who keeps coming back to take a look.

Well, I've challenged myself to draw some more pictures next week, and for every blog entry I do about painting my van, I will put a drawing to go with it... just to keep this blog from becoming unbelievably self-serving! Let's hope I can keep to it!

Daffodills

And it's not even Spring! It's knocking on the door though!

And some more photo's of my van, and an unattractive picture of me!

I'm feeling pretty brave though. I'm painting it tomorrow. I just hope I put enough time into the preparation. I've been telling myself I'll look for work as soon as I've done my van.... scary stuff... I keep going through different scenarios in my head of what I may face if I do get that job. But like it said in word for today. When Peter got out of the boat to walk on the sea towards Jesus, and then started to sink... he wasn't the failure. The failures were the ones who didn't even try to get out of the boat at all!

Poor guy!

Well! I've been sick the last couple of days. Bit of a cough since Saturday when I slept in Catherines bed and was FREEZING! Anyhow. I was sposed to paint my van, but maybe I'll start tomorrow if I feel alot better. I went to Rob's house on Saturday afternoon (my panelbeater friend), to borrow his air compressor and gravity fed spray gun... and not only did he lend them, but he SHOWED me what to do! He got out his orbital sander and showed me how to prepare the surface. He showed me on the front of my van, which is kinda funny, so now I have no choice... I'll definitely be giving it a go!

Anyhow. I also helped him shift his tressles which he told me the extentions were a bit tight. Well, I find out from Julia (on Tuesday night going to bible study), that on Saturday, he'd got out the drill to widen the holes and it had caught in his gloves and he'd drilled into his hands!! Man, poor guy. He's had so many accidents. He's even split open his finger before. Anyhow. He's only been at his new job for a week, so he didn't take time off. He's been going with his sore hand. Luckily it didn't get his tendon or anything, just graunched things up a bit.

And finally, the back!

Are these pictures of my van becoming tedious? Well never mind... this is the last window done! So I've done all three without smashing any of them. If anyone is reading this and wants to try it but has heard it can't be done without smashing the window, my panel-beater friend, Rob, said you have to hit the glass pretty hard for it to smash. And when my friend, Teresa, said the panelbeaters can't gaurantee the window won't smash... I'm guessing they are just taking human error into account. Like when an apprentice stuffs up the job, or maybe just someone being a bit rough.

I wouldn't mind doing a You Tube video on how I got it out, because there are none on this method. But you know the stupid comments some of those videos get...

The other side...

Of my van that is. No lengthy explanation this time, I think you get the idea. I just have to do the back window now.BTW I bought another can of paint and while there asked for a quote for 4L of white.... $162!! can you believe it? I could paint my car for $162!! ($80 US).

A resolution and a joke

Well, I often like to go against the grain and make "rest-of-the-year resolutions" instead of new-years, and I've made a couple lately.

1. Stop feeling sorry for yourself!!

2. Stop and think what you need to take with you BEFORE you go out in the car.

I'm hoping both these will help towards getting a job. I'm starting to think seriously about looking for one soon, and I'm trying to physc(?) myself into it.

No. 1 is self explanatory. No. 2 is going to be imperative if I get one. I remember a story a workmate told me where he meticulously tried to remember EVERYTHING he would need for the job, and he left then had to sneak back because he'd forgotten the sign! Anyway, that's not the joke. Here's a good joke I read in the Signgear magazine last night.

Two men, Jim and John, were walking thier dogs when they passed by a restaurant. "Let's go in and get something to eat, " Jim suggested. "We can't" responded John, "don't you see the sign says NO PETS ALLOWED"Aah that sign," said Jim "don't worry about it" and talking out a pair of sunglasses, he walked up to the door. As he tried walking into the restaurant he got stopped at the door, "sorry no pets allowed." "Can't you see?" said Jim "I am blind, this is my seeing eye dog." "But it's a doberman pincher, who uses a doberman pincher as a seeing eye dog?" the man asked. "oh, " Jim responded "you must have not heard, this is the latest type of seeing eye dog, they do a very good job." Seeing that it worked, John tried walking in with his Chihuahua. Even before he could open his mouth, the doorman said "don't tell me that a Chihuahua is the latest type of seeing eye dog."

Thinking quickly John responded in a angry voice "You mean they gave me a chihuahua?".

Removing a Van window.

Well, it's bragging time right now. But first...it's confession time. Last time I showed this on my blog, it looked great!... on my blog that is. Not so great in real life. But this time I think I've really improved! It's not perfect, but it still looks pretty good, considering the state of my van anyhow.
Now... time to bore you with the details.... This was the state of my van. It's due to get a Warrant of fitness soon, and rust was starting to come up around the two side windows and the back window. Now I had a fare idea that although I could just sand back what I could see, like last time, I had an idea that the rust went right under the rubber, which is why it came back again. Now Rob (my panel beater friend), showed me the start of how to get a window out of a car with 2 screw drivers. He's the expert, but Mr. Google told me that it couldn't be done without cracking the window. So it was with great trepidation that I attempted the screwdriver method of removing the window, expecting at any moment to have to call Smith and Smith for a new window.

Now here's the beginning shot of the moulding being levered out using a screw driver. (I can't believe this is working!! think I)

And not knowing what to expect, I taped the window to the van so it wouldn't fall and smash. As you can see here, I've levered the whole top half out, and it just kinda starts to pop out by itself.

And here is the window! All out with the black moulding still attached! I had no idea that it came off with the window itself.

And look... I was right.... the whole inside was covered in rust.

So I spent about 2 hours (yes, coz I didn't know what I was doing), scraping off the rust with a screwdriver, then sanding, then putting rust remover on it.... twice. And then filled the dents with some bog.

Then I masked up the inside and the outside with newspaper.

Then the undercoat!!

And finally the top coat. It actually looks that good in real life!

And finally I put the window back in, doing it the opposite way. Sit the bottom in, tape it to the van, then lever the moulding back inside with a screwdriver.

Now, I don't have any work on at the moment, and I'm totally keen to give re-painting the whole thing a go! But if I don't, I'm definitely doing the other 2 windows for my Warrant.

Please Note: I just showed my friend Teresa this blog post and she said that was the reason she sold her car was it was going to cost around $700 to get the panel beaters to do the same thing on her car... (Score!)... not so good is that they warned her that there is no guarantee that the window wouldn't smash. (She would have had to pay for a new one if it did, and apparently it happens quite often). So I guess i was really lucky then! Im still going to give the other 2 a go, but I'll definetly be keeping that in mind!

You knit me

Did a bible verse for my friends midwife of all people! She was pretty pleased with it and I think it turned out ok.

From trash to treasure!

Remember this manky old chair I got from the inorganic collection? (ie. outside on the side of the road...). Well, I've been having alot of fun with it..

Sanded it all back...

Cut a piece of signply for the seat and gave it two coats of undercoat.

Bought a piece of foam for it, for just $10...

and voila!




Painted it black and covered the foam in a piece of upholstery fabric that only cost $4.50.

Garage Sale Art. 2 .

Here is drawing no. 2.

I did this straight after going to the dentist, so I have a bit of a speech impediment right now.(Not that it affects the art, I'm just saying). And man, I wanted to save money, so I went to the dentist down the road. He's cheap, but painful, but I thought it would be worth it, but man... I'm sure I'm biting to the side now! Maybe I've taken penny pinching a bit too far this time! Well, I'll know for sure when the numbing wears off.

Note: false alarm. It was the anesthetic. My bite is fine.... phew!

Garage Sale Art.

Well, we had another church garage sale last week, and I didn't do any drawings, and apparently someone came asking if we had any more drawings!

So I'm gonna do 2 more. (We have another garage sale this weekend to sell the rest of the stuff).

Here's drawing 1. I'll do the second either today or tomorrow.
And look what my friend Myra let me borrow. A bread maker! I've been wanting one for years! And man... it makes YUMMY bread.... Look at those angelic rays just shining off the thing!

I made stuff!

Ok, I made some stuff.... and I'm so excited about it! First thing I made is this extention for my bench saw... yes, I totally got welding today!

It looks like a bird pooped all over it... but that's beside the point. (The point being 'I welded today!')

And in my defence it was a cheapish gasless mig welder which splatters and even Rob (who leant it to me) has trouble with it.

So check it out! My bench saw that used to only cut to 400mm wide now has a removable attachment which can cut to 900mm!

(And price wise I saved a couple of hundred dollars by doing it this way instead of buying a dearer saw!)

And not quite so exciting but still nice are these little wall reminders to remind certain family members under the age of 7 to turn off the lights when they leave the room.

Quite pretty and I even made the glue myself. (1/2 a cup of flour boiled in 3 cups of water if youre interested).