Good Morning! 64F @ 5:30AM. Abundant sunshine. High around 85F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
What's your trick for centering the rebar in the middle of the concrete pour, Farmer? I watched as the crew that laid the driveway here just left the rebar on the ground, then after the concrete covered it all, walked out into it with a wire hook and lifted it to what they thought would be the middle. My sense was that most of it ended up in the lower third, but since nobody can see it, why worry, right? Besides, it's not THEIR driveway...
I very much like my Powermatic bandsaw too, Ed. It's an oldy-but-goody, back from the days when they still used green paint. Yours is gold, right? Hope you post some pics of the new tools, and of what you make with them, too!
It's hard to be kind to a sore back when there's work to be done, but at least you have someone to delegate to, Drew. My back's been sore since I had to move all that wood, and I don't see letting up for a while yet so am just trying to stay on the Ibuprofen, with maybe a little Jack or Jim to help in the evenings. What I really need to do is start working out again on the Bowflex to rebuild my core muscles, and maybe drop some of last winter's paunch as well.:laughing:
Moved the pop top and luggage carrier to the driveway yesterday, got 'em up on saw horses, and used the D/A sander to knock off all the thirty years of crust. The pop top still had stick on letters attached, so I used one of those rubber wheels in a drill motor to rub them off, and I could see how much of the fiberglass gelcoat I'd removed. Most of it was gone. What was left was pitted and there were a few cracks as well, but none that went all the way through. I was about to shoot a nice thick coat of high build primer on it when I realized even that wouldn't get things smooth enough. In the past I'd used a chip guard spray that left a pebble texture, but didn't have enough left over to cover the two parts, so I called the paint store and asked if they had any more. They could order it, but I need this done before Sunday's rain, so I asked what else they had. The counter man suggested bed liner, and they had one that could be tinted white. By this time I was pretty hot, sore, and itching like crazy from all the fiberglass, and the thought of a nice comfy ride to town sounded pretty good. A quick shower got most of the glass off, and I slid into the store a few minutes before closing. Returned the black bed liner kit I bought last week, along with the high build primer, and came out with both black and white tint and a tintable bedliner kit. Also bought the schutz gun to apply it, and picked up a few tips on how to do it.
Then I swung by the mechanic's place to see how he was doing, and to look at a few vans and how the doors were hung. Mine seem to be fitting the same way, just a little crooked, so I think I just need to make a few adjustments. But I also noticed that one of the rebuilds had bed liner on the pop top, so it's not an uncommon approach. Then just as I was leaving they started installing windows on another van, so I stayed and watched. They used the string-in-the-molding-lip trick, and what was supposed to be soapy water. Turns out it wasn't very soapy, so things didn't slip in as easily as they should have, but they didn't break any windows, either. So I'm thinkin' I'll just let them put my windows in, as it's obviously not something I can do by myself and I don't think my bodyman/neighbor does enough of it to be quick enough to save me any money. Then we talked about when I should bring the van back for the engine install, and we're targeting the middle of next month. That should give me enough time to clean up the paint and get a couple of mechanical tasks out of the way, and line up the car trailer. But this is the third two week plan we've put together, so hopefully this time it sticks.
), well at least until it rains again. Phone company could see the line fault at first, although by the time the engineer came to our section of line with his fault locater, everything was drying up and the fault had cleared itself. He looked at the weather forecast and predicted he would be out again on Saturday. 
