Happy November, readers! Thank you for being patient with me during my technology free weekend. While escaping from technology was quite a nice change, B and I definitely didn't escape from work. Not that we minded, since we are the kind of people who love raking a yard full of leaves!
Our biggest project this weekend was painting B's Subaru, affectionately named Champ. Honestly, I've been meaning to write a post about Champ for a while- we got him at the end of July! Oops. We now have two Subaru Foresters- you may have read about our first, dubbed Subie, here, here, and here or read about his first camping expedition here. Yes, we love our Subarus! After we got the first one, and just before B's truck was about to die, we started to decide what model of car we wanted next. In the end, we realized that we simply loved our manual Forester so the search for another one began. Fortunately, we didn't have to drive to Madison this time- we found Champ right in our home town!
Now, I love cars, especially our Subie. But B's love for cars, or rather modifying cars to meet his needs, is beyond anything I have seen. The boy can't be happy with something off the lot... he has to lift, paint, add, subtract... you name it, he does it. So it didn't surprise me at all that he decided in addition to painting the wheels, the whole bottom half of Champ "needed" a new coat of paint.
In his defense, the truck was pretty amazing. He had spent years modifying it with a lift, new wheels, custom photography gear storage, etc. Even I can admit shedding a tear when we left it at the dealer as a trade in.
Not to mention that Champ, while dependable, just didn't have that rugged, rough-and-tumble feel that B needs in a car.
And this is how it came to be that I spent most of my weekend taping, sanding, and painting a car! All I can say is even though I know I'm lucky to have him, B is pretty darn lucky that he is marrying the type of girl who can and will spend the weekend wielding a sander and some spray paint. But we've never been the type to back away from a challenge- after a body shop offered to do the job for $1,200, we were pretty determined to do it ourselves!
We started off by taping the entire upper half of the car- B only wanted the top half to get the paint. This part honestly took the longest- we spent hours making sure every little crevice was covered. Although it took a lot of time, my detail oriented brain loved every minute of it!
B picked this stuff to use instead of a flat paint. Traditionally used as a truck bed liner, the spray paint gave the lower half of Champ a textured, rugged feel- exactly what B was going for.
The only issue was that the paint needed to be sprayed on in layers... the waiting between each layer got a bit old after a while! This was after the first layer- I think we ended up doing four or five between Saturday and Sunday. Each layer had to dry at least 20 minutes, but we let the third coat dry overnight just to be sure we didn't end up with any drips of paint. The next day we finished with a few more coats between raking leaves and left it to dry for a few more hours. After we removed the tape, it looked like we had a whole new car!
Not too bad for a couple of amateurs! Not to mention that we ended up saving about $1,100 after the cost of supplies. Although I have a feeling some of that money saved is going to go right towards a new rear view mirror, tires, and who knows what else. I just keep reminding him that we also have a wedding to save for! But, he spends a large part of his day in his car, so if he's happy, I'm happy. And a bit proud that our weekend adventure was such a success!Labels: Bri, cars, Subaru
