Missed It By That Much

I had the second warmest November in Iowa history to work with, but I still ran out of time. I knew it would happen; the writing was on the wall and the forecast was on the TV.

It is now officially too cold to paint in my garage, and I found that out the hard way.

Earlier in the week it was between 48 and 51 degrees at 4:00 in the afternoon, so I was able to get the second side of my cabinet painted. I cut the stencil out and alligned it on the cabinet at night. I then jetted home after work to paint before the sun went down. 

Only the front of the machine was left to paint, but I needed to apply two more colors.

I didn’t have time to make a stencil. Instead, I taped off the front of the cab for the red pattern. I used this picture of the original paint design and eyeballed it.

It looked close enough for me, and besides, the clock was ticking.

The high was about 45 degrees on Wednesday. That’s well below the recommended temperature of 50 degrees, but I got impatient. I didn’t want to look at the blank front  of the machine all winter long. So, I tried using our ceramic heater to warm up the garage. I turned it on high and let it work for ninety minutes. I then convinced myself that the cabinet was warmer than it was, and I grabbed the red paint can. The first coat looked pretty good. I went inside the house to pat myself on the back.

I waited five minutes and came out to apply the second coat. That’s when things went south. As soon as I pressed the can’s nozzle, I noticed my smooth layer of red paint had begun to crackle and bubble in four different places. My heart began to sink like that red line on the thermometer.

In some places the bubbles were over a quarter of an inch tall. I didn't know if this is called fish eyes, orange peel, or termite tower. Crap. There was nothing left to do but pull off the painters tape and walk away. I'll have to paint the green "W" on the front when spring arrives.

Daphne helped me carry the cabinet to the basement. I noticed that the red bubbles were settling down a bit in the heat of the house, and the shooter rod plate covered a lot of the damage.

 When the paint was dry, I started to put the Full House together again.

I forgot all about the paint bubbles once the machine was back in one piece.

So, it's not "done", but I feel pretty good about it.

Time to find my next project...