pboehmer.com

2014.09.05

I managed to put the trim up around the doors and windows. Trim for all but one door has been painted. I am going with a gray/yellow/white industrial theme, so the trim and cabinet bases are going to be �smokey gray� and the cabinet doors and insides are going to be �safety yellow�. I'm in progress of trying different paint layouts with a single cabinet and then will proceed to paint the rest of the cabinets. I promise I will post some pictures soon!

Since my last post, I've joined the Garage Journal forums. A lot of great stuff there. The downside is that I'm seriously debating on what kind of flooring I want to put down. I was originally sold on the 100% solids epoxy, but after lurking on the site for a couple of weeks, I'm starting to lean towards VCF (stuff they use in Walmart, etc) or even porcelain tile. I'm still a while before I get to this point, so I still have time before making the final decision.

I haven't had time to put the new bumpers on the 300 yet. I have all the parts, just not the time. It seems over the past couple of weeks, as soon as come close to finishing one project, I get pulled into another (before the first one is completed). In this case, we've been noticing that the water in the toilet bowl in the mornings is brown (and not for the obvious reasons). After some research, it turns out that we have iron (red/rust) algae in our water softener system. Several months ago, I stopped using Morton's salt for the local hardware store's salt (around same price, but local store is two blocks away). The new salt does not have any additives for iron reduction, hence the new problem with the algae.

2014.08.12

Finally making progress on the garage. First coat of primer is on and I think I will just apply a second coat and call it done. At the same time, I'm going to start prepping the cabinets and getting them hung so I can get some junk, tools, and parts off of the floor. Once the floor is clear, I can epoxy coat the floor.

I got the bumper covers back from the painter and against all odds, they came out to a near perfect match... at least as far as we can tell without actually mounting them. I'm still waiting on a new rear view camera and license plate lights. I also need to rework the front license plate mount so it looks a little cleaner. May have to get a fiberglass kit and see what I can come up with.

2014.08.04

Garage drywall work is about 90% done. Last bit left is blocked by the garage door when it's opened, so the remaining work is going to be a load of fun with temperatures in the upper 80s his week. The original plan was to paint over the primer, but honestly, I think the primer is going to work just fine as is. Once the walls are primed, I'll start working on getting the cabinets painted and hung, and then floor paint. At some point, I need to run a 220v/50a outlet and probably a couple more 120v/20a outlets.

I mentioned a while back that I had backed into a handrail in the 300 and lightly damaged the rear bumper. I picked up front and rear bumper covers a couple of weeks ago and dropped them off to a local painter last week. I opted to upgrade from the Touring covers to �C� covers. I did this primarily for the rear bumper, since it already accommodates dual exhaust, so I wouldn't have to re-cut a new bumper. The front, on the other hand, was purely for aesthetics. Million dollar question is if the painter can match the paint without having to blend. If not, I'll be looking to repaint the entire car in the future.

2014.07.15

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had replaced the covers on the car seats. I did have one small issue with the passenger air bag light coming on after 10 minutes of driving. By no means end of the world problem, but annoying at best. After a little research, it was obvious that the weight sensor in the passenger seat needed recalibrated. The research also also says that only a dealer can do this as it requires a StarScan diagnostic tool with Miller special-tool 9077 can do this. While I don't have 1200 bucks laying around for 100lbs of plastic molded butt-cheeks, I do have the StarScan and 100lbs of old UPS batteries. After a little work, I was able to successfully recalibrate the sensor.

2014.07.05

Hope everyone (American) had a good 4th of July holiday. I was originally going to say mine was pretty cruddy, but in perspective, it really wasn't too bad. The weather was perfect and time spent with the family was great. We saw Madeira's 4th of July parade, festival, and fireworks Thursday night, saw the Reds play and enjoyed their firework Friday show, and spent time with the family. What soured it was the onslaught of work related trouble calls throughout the weekend due to radio interference (on a licensed frequency) at one VIP/Tier 1 customer (which strangely occurred between 10a-7p Friday-Sunday), dinging my bumper while parking at the Reds game, and finally the clothes washer crapping out Sunday afternoon mid-load (naturally). At least time spent with family was good, not too mention the endless supply of cheeseburgers and hotdogs over the weekend.