Tidying the mess

Today I headed to Walmart to get some things to complete work on the back door. I'm beginning to wish I'd left it well alone! Anyway, if you remember, a few days ago I sprayed two of the rub rails black.  The masking tape didn't really work (does it ever) so the grey body got black on it. After that I gave up on masking tape and figured it's easier masking the rails and touching up the body. These spray cans don't contain much paint and cost a heck of a lot of money. Thus today I bought a pot of black paint and some throwaway paintbrushes. 

After I got back I cut some wood and put sandpaper around it then started sanding the Bondo from yesterday. That was painfully slow! I couldn't find my sander but I did find my pistol drill with an abrasive disc. That was perfect and I had very quickly both turned myself into a snowman (with Bondo dust) and I had pared the Bondo tendrils down to something that looked reasonable. I saw a few holes in the Bondo and used the crack filling Bondo tube that I'd also bought.

While the Bondo crack filler was drying, I painted the top rub rail by hand with a paintbrush. I did a far better job by hand than the spray can ever did. In fact I might well get a can of grey paint rather than use the spray can and touch up where I over-painted with a paintbrush. Spray cans are handy and good for general touch up but they're not that good for anything else.

I passed by the pack end and hit the bare metal with what was on my paintbrush. Then I painted some of the rub rails at the back on the other side of the bus. That was somewhat chilly as I was both in the shade and it was beginning to get late in the afternoon. Remember - it's pitch black by 5:30pm now as it's still winter.

After I gave up on painting rub rails for the day, I sprayed the back grey again. Whoops! Some of the black paint hadn't dried enough and blended with the grey. I'll have to hit it all again tomorrow. I spotted a few holes that I'd missed too.

When the outside of the patch is finally sorted out, I'll sand blast inside and put Bondo inside. That'll make it much more solidly mounted and add the final rigidity. I bought a huge bucket of Bondo that was amazingly only $15 - the exact amount I'd paid for my smaller tub of the stuff a year or two back.

The backup camera came to grief a few weeks ago. I dropped the metal sheet on it while I was trimming it to size. What I'll do is to weld together a couple of steel angle sections, drill holes for the screws and weld the angle to the top of the bumper. Then I can simply bolt the camera through the steel brackets. That'll give it an armored shell that an elephant can dance on without any harm coming to the camera. I have a couple of spare cameras.

The roof-line camera seems to have got water in it, judging from the misty appearance of the images. I'll see about replacing that and giving it a hood. That's all electronics though and electronics are not giving me a good time right now. Thus that's not a priority.

A couple of days ago I was amazed at the number of hits my blog had. It seems a lot of people started whining and moaning because I commented on the meth heads working at Walmart. Honestly it does not surprise me that Walmart employs meth heads. Right now it's very hard to find staff for anything. When you do, it's usually the dregs at the bottom of the barrel. Walmart has never had a very high caliber of staff in my experience and they're getting worse, not better. None of the staff there are willing to take ownership of a problem. That's even if they have the thought capacity to understand what is required.

Ages ago I worked in retail as a supervisor. The standard of my cashiers was woeful. Their attitudes to work were woeful too. The job was their livelihood and they treated it like a detested homework assignment from high school. Nothing I could do would improve their performance. I wondered how they managed to bathe, wear shoes and not make messes in the house. Walmart has the same issue I believe. Thus they pay the absolute minimum, get the absolute minimum and provide the absolute worst service.

And finally, what with it being New Year I'll wish you the same that you wished for others last year.