Wednesday, April 30, 2014

More Improvements for Patty

As we raced to the finish (I use that word loosely...not sure there will ever be a finish line) I got more excited about actually camping ahem, "glamping", and less excited about taking boring documentary pictures of the final details of Patty's spruce up. But I do have a few for you today. 

First: her rusty old door frame.
We thought of taking it out, stripping it, painting it, and reinstalling it. We thought about replacing the whole enchilada. But we settled on buffing her really well with a circular wire brush attachment on the drill, and doing our best to spray paint it while still all assembled. Not a perfect job, but 1,683,492 times better than it was! Used Rustoleum Hammered Metal in Silver. This paint is stellar at hiding imperfections btw. I like using it for all kinds of non-camper-related projects!

So here are a few befores:


And an after-as modeled by the Glamping Bichons, Chester and Caroline:

Side note: I also sprayed the screen door (though the screen really needs to be replaced), and WD40-ed the sliding latch access panel, and it's practically like new - except for the loose screen! Wish I had a good "before" of it, but trust me, it was looking rough.

And while we're talking about paint, let's just jump on over to the whole ball of wax: her super-cheap-done-by-an-amateur  BODY PAINT JOB! Don't look closely...I feel about as fond of frog-taping things off as I do about going to jail, so yes, I was a bit sloppy. But, BUT! How much better does this old girl look???

Before:

After:

Yay! Yay! Yay! We still have much to do, but I'm so happy to have this large item crossed off the list. It took me about a week of intermittent painting. I started by washing the whole thing down well with windex and an abrasive rag, sanded out some rough patches, taped everything off, and then sprayed with Rustoleum High Gloss White, and Krylon Ocean Breeze (which is super close to the original Scotty aqua). I used a trigger attachment which saved my pointer fingers (best $2 you'll ever spend), and did it all. by. my. self. Note that this is not a long-term paint job. We'd love to get it professionally done one day, but for now, it is a ginormous improvement, and will keep us from being the laughing stock of every campground we roll into :-)! 

That's all for today folks. The next installment of Adventures in Patty will be an exciting one: Her Maiden Voyage!


4 comments:

  1. Wow wow wow, she's really come so far. You guys are going to be glamping in style, and I can't believe you did all of that painting yourself. WHEW! Way to go!

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  2. Looking sharp! Love the exterior paint colors -- so fresh and happy.

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  3. You guys have done an AMAZING job on Patty's makeover!!! .Somehow, she just keeps getting cuter. :) Love the colors!

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  4. I'm impressed that you did all of the exterior by yourself! That was a big job! Such an exciting improvement though!

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