Month: July 2022

One of the problems I have in doing this blog is, I don’t necessarily have permission from clients to show the interior of their homes.   So I end up using pix of jobs done for friends and/or family, or for myself.  So I fear my “real” work doesn’t get showcased as much as I would like, but, c’est la guerre.

Anyway, latest project, I live in an apartment complex and soon after moving in I noticed a rust issue on a radiator cover.  This had an obvious cause, the radiator gets hit with shower spray and gets wet.   And I decided it was time to deal with it.  Note it wasn’t TOO bad but then I scraped off the layer of paint that was covering the rust and  . . . oh brother . . .

And, to avoid keeping you in suspense, here it is, more or less done:

It was pretty obvious to me that, before I moved in, the rust issue existed, and someone on the maintenance crew had just covered the rust with a layer of latex and walked away, so of course, it just re-manifested.  So  . . .   Justin the Handyman to the rescue, let’s do it RIGHT  . . .

So I got out my tools and a wire wheel on a drill and scraped off all the loose paint and got to what you see above.

Next I put on some blue masking tape, then I took some Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer and painted it on, see next 2 pix:

 
And finally, again, after waiting 72 hours, I topcoated it.

The trouble with rental properties is, all too often the goal is to just get to close enough and not do it properly . . .  BUT, unlike my predecessors who just did slap dash, the Rustoleum rusty metal primer will actually stabilize the rust and make it a nice solid surface which should prevent a return of the rust for at least a year.   The mgmt gave me some latex paint to use as topcoat but it doesn’t match . . .  again, rental properties . . . I can always take  some of the older paint I scraped off (and saved) to Home Depot and get a sample size jar, and that should match pretty good.  Stay tuned!

 

One of the many benefits of being a handyman is, when you need something done, you can generally do it yourself.  I had two such projects lately:

The first was my bike.  I have had this bike for 40 years and it was needing some love and attention.  Here you can see the original “stem” style shifters that I have had all this time and frankly, I always hated them.  Not only did I have to take my hands off the handlebars to do any shifting, but they were terribly inexact and had to be fussed with on each shift.

But now you see the new “grip shifter” I installed for the rear derailleur:

FYI  the handlebar grip cover is missing in photo  . . .  and I confess I had to take the bike to the shop for a final fitting, as the frame had gotten twisted out of true.  But it’s just so fabulous to have this, makes shifting SO much easier.

I also bought and installed new tubes and tires, plus at long last I have a kickstand (what a massive upgrade!), and I am cleaning off all the rust (My Dremel tool came in VERY handy for that!).  I am calling this the summer of bike, I am really getting out and biking around.

Next, I have been meaning to do this for a while, I swapped out the spark plugs on my vintage Honda Civic:

  This could have been a classic handymanning post all by itself.   A few gremlins encountered:  One, the manual said to “gap” the plugs to 1.1 mm, but the plugs now made for my car come “pre-gapped” with a 1mm gap, and I am NOT supposed to touch them.  Plus, while the manual says to use 13 ft lbs on a torque wrench (Hey, I learned how to use a torque wrench in the process), NGK, the makers of the plug, said to use 18 ft lbs to properly crush the washers . . . but I simply could not turn it any further, the torque wrench only went to 14 ft lbs measurement, and NGK help line was fine by my just turning it 180 degrees past hand tight, so I left it.

Always kinda dicey doing this kind of work as you can really screw up your car if you make a mistake but . . . I immediately took it out for a test drive and OH MY  what a difference in general zip!  I have been constantly bugging my mechanic about putting these in and he always said not to worry about it . . . but in this case,  he was wrong, it really needed it.