Let's Paint!

[Thorondor]

No task too small, no challenge too big - Zombie's got some real sand man!

Takes a bit of squinting but it's noticeable alright.

If you're indeed doubling over on the coating front though, you will most likely need an extra sprinkling.

[Zombie]

On 6/7/2023 at 2:24 PM, Thorondor said:

If you're indeed doubling over on the coating front though, you will most likely need an extra sprinkling.

Yup, I put another coat on it yesterday and today when I checked it the grit was noticeable but I felt it wouldn't be enough if the threshold was wet or icy. So today I put on another light coat, put on a heavier sand finish and then put a thick coat of poly over the top of that. Hopefully that does the trick. I'll report back with what I find out tomorrow. If it needs another coat I will not be able to work on that till next week as it's supposed to rain for once over here.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

You're laying it on thick as it is, it seems to me. But, yeah, never let 'em rain down on your parade!

[Zombie]

The threshold seems good enough to me. Even my worn out tennis shoes had no problem getting grip, so I'm going to call it done. Pic will be forthcoming when the lighting is decent. Anyhow, a couple days later I was moving some stuff around and noticed some sticks on top of a stack of pallets. Upon closer inspection it was a bird nest with a mourning dove sitting on it. I grabbed the camera and tried to gently shoo her off the nest to see the eggs but she wasn't impressed with that strategy and slapped me with her wings. Sorry momma, just wanna see. I finally got her to flutter off and was surprised to see two fledglings. Both were sound asleep so I had to rouse them to get a decent pic (sorry little ones)!

It will not be long till they are big enough to fly off on their own. For now I'll let them be.

Yesterday the electrician was at our shop switching over the remainder of the fluorescent lights in the store over to LEDs. So now the entire showroom is LEDs and that makes me happy. He also was switching out the fluorescent lights in the designer and delivery area to LED too. He was also slated to do the middle room where I work. To help him along I took down the 8-foot long fluorescent bulbs and the metal cover plates. The plates were caked with dust on the inside and some were rusty or had spider poop on them so I scrubbed them down and started to paint them. Um, sorry about that. But I caught it in time. Unpainted are the three on the left and the painted ones are the three to the right:

Here's what the middle one looked like before paint:

Unsightly. And not very reflective either. So I think a fresh coat of white paint on there will help to reflect any light back down where it belongs. Unfortunately the electrician didn't bring enough 8 foot bulbs along so the center fixture is going to stay fluorescent for a while. Here's what they look like with the cover plates off and the wires hanging down:

Nice and bright now! We also have another 4-foot fixture off to the left which hasn't been converted over to LED. He didn't have enough bulbs for that either. In due time we'll get those small things taken care of. Next area to do is the office and once that's done the entire first floor will be LED except for one screw-in CFL in the backroom above the small garage door. When that burns out I'll switch it over myself with something LED - hopefully more than 200-watt equivalent.

The very last area is the basement but I told bossman to hold off on that. The fluorescent bulbs in the store are all relatively new (like 3 years old). So the plan is to take those bulbs and put them in the fixtures downstairs to use them up. When they start burning out then we'll do the switch down there. I think that offers the best return on investment than doing everything all at once. Little by little we'll get it done!

I'll try to get a pic of the lights in the middle room with the cover plates on. Depends how much work it is to secure those loose wires first!

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Fire hazard inspection. See here, this nest ain't built to code!

It never struck me before how you might ever help an electrician see the light, Zombie, but this clearly goes to show otherwise.

Evidently brightens up the place. I hadn't noticed before there are flowers even in the ceiling.

It's enough to feel downright energetic indoors once again. Just don't ignore any jolt when it happens. *ok, ok, I'll stop now *

[Zombie]

8 hours ago, Thorondor said:

Fire hazard inspection. See here, this nest ain't built to code!

It's funny, those fledgling mourning doves must've matured quickly as they jumped nest and are nowhere to be found. I guess a stray cat could have got up there and ate them but I doubt that as that momma dove put up one hell of a fight with me. Well, since they aren't up there anymore I took down the nest as I don't want any other birds to get an idea. It was some shoddy construction if you ask me, but served it's purpose.

Here's a pic of the cover plates for the lights in the middle room after one coat of paint:

There are some areas that aren't perfect but I don' t think that's gonna matter when the lights are so blindingly bright. I got the wires from the lights tucked away inside and then put on the cover plates and reinstalled the lights. Much better. Pic will be forthcoming.

Since I had to clean off our little shelf so the electrician didn't knock anything off of it, I finally decided it's time to fix it up. Before:

I wanted to mess with this for ages as the board under the shelf had too much space to slip a normal flower cutting knife between them (that's the intended purpose of it). The trouble was I couldn't remove the board as the screw heads were stripped. I did find out today that the screws on the brackets were not stripped so I just took down the entire shelf - brackets and all. In order to get the stripped screws out I used a small flat blade screwdriver and pounded that into the head, then used even slow pressure to turn the screw out.

My old buddy (and fellow employee, rest his soul) who built this always told me he was a "wood butcher, not a carpenter" so the stuff he worked on was more utilitarian than nice. The paint job had lots of skins in it and there were rough brush marks. It needed some scraping to get the high spots off, then I sanded it all with 50 grit sandpaper and finally 120:

This it what it looks like when you get closer (this is the top):

So I put a coat of gray primer on the top and three sides and I'll put a coat on the remaining areas tomorrow. If it dries decently maybe I'll have time to put some polyurethane on it. As for the brackets, I sprayed them gray to match. More on that tomorrow.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

You weren't screwing around with that shelf, Zombie. It had been teasing you out of a resolution long enough I guess.

[Zombie]

As promised, here is a pic of the threshold (hope it shows how rough it is) and the cover plates for the lights in the middles room (hope it shows how dirty the rest of the fixture is):

So here's what those brackets looked like after spraying them gray and then installed:

Reinstalling the brackets was actually kinda tricky. The screws that went into the anchors in the block wall were way too short to hold anything so I decided to put the appropriate length screw in there. The holes of course were not drilled deep enough so I had to ream them out. The right bracket went fine but I somehow snapped the screw off below the surface of the block on the lower screw on the left. I decided not to mess with it anymore and left it the way it is (suppose I could have got out the propane torch and heated the screw to red hot in order to melt the plastic anchor and free the screw, maybe another time).

Here's the shelf with a coat of gray latex primer on it:

And then a coat of polyurethane on all sides:

Today I put another coat on the top surfaces for a little more protection (after sanding of course). It dried really quick outside so I figured I'd better get it back in action. Installing the board underneath the shelf was interesting. Recall there was too much room before and I found out the reason why: there was a washer acting as a spacer between the board and the shelf but one was much thicker than the other one. So this time I found two thin washers. But then how was I going to put a screw into the hidden hole in the shelf? I used a couple finishing nails and stuck them through the holes on the side to get the middle screw started:

Used better screws this time too. Not coated deck screws or stainless - I don't have that type of budget! The screws that were used to affix the bracket to the shelf were the correct size but most of the heads were chowdered up so I picked the best ones to reuse and then found some similar screws as replacements. Here's what it looks like installed:

Here's a top-down pic with knives temporarily in the slot:

And here's a bottom-up shot too:

Works great now! Only thing I need to do yet is put some nails in the holes to hang stuff on them. Other than that, it's mostly good to go when it fully cures (I'm guessing it'll be fine by Monday).

Today I also bleached a ton of flower buckets again (it was well over 70 at last count). I cleaned out the back cooler and it's possible I'll be able to turn it off for the first time since Valentines Day although that depends how many funeral arrangements we have. The floor still looks great in there - it's just dirty and needs to be cleaned.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

Oh, I can confirm the threshold looks rough enough. And, you know, a little uneven in spots, but you've dedicated a very generous amount of attention to it as it is.

Lighting fixture: night and day!

The special shelf: I feel absolutely spoiled; thanks for taking all the stage-specific pics. Personally, I particularly like how brackets ended up looking - such a smooth-looking finish. All told, and despite the minor screw mishap its another win for restoration of form and function.

Bucketgeddon & co: non-stop maintenance is the name of the game apparently.

Do take some time to smell the roses too. The living may often say they'll rest when they're dead, but some others might counter that one may come to find oneself on death's bed only to discover not having lived much at all.

[Space Voyager]

Damn, all pro work, no doubts there. The only thing I might try to do different (but not better) is make the new threshold symmetrical. But I'm too obsessed with completely unimportant stuff like that...

[Zombie]

Just some flower updates today which may or may not be interesting. I don't like to toot my own horn or anything, but I always do a fantastic job cleaning the front cooler:

This is what it looked like just before I went on vacation in early August (but it looks like this most weekends as that's when I do my clean jobs). When I got back, it was a disaster. Didn't take a pic of this as it was utterly embarrassing.

Back in April I got in a box of green Dianthus which is in the Carnation family. It was so nice and fluffy I had to take a pic of it:

I think I mentioned a while back about that dark red rose called "Black Pearl" which we get in from time to time. A few weeks ago I got in a bunch of that (on the right) and also got in a bunch of roses called "Hearts" which is similar in color (on the left):

Hearts is technically a "garden rose" so that's why the petals look frilly or wavy.

Not sure how versed any of you are in the world of flowers, but florists have been looking for "natural" blue flowers for years. The holy grail of blue flowers would be tulips, roses and carnations as that color cannot exist in those flower types normally. Back in the 90's a company called Florigene came out with a "blue" carnation which was technically not really blue but a lavender or purple. It was a big deal back then as it was a "first step" to a pure blue carn.

From what I remember, their scientists isolated the gene which caused the blue color in delphinium (one of the only blue flowers available). They then took that gene and transplanted that into a normal carnation thinking they would get a blue carn the same color as the delphinium. It didn't quite work as the color turned out to be more of a lavender than a blue. The delphinium gene didn't "express" properly in the carn genome. Well, the scientists added more "blue" gene sequences in the carn genome and created a whole family of purple carns which are quite unique in color. In fact, a few years ago they also created a rose with the same lavender color.

Today we got first dibs on a new "blue" product from Florigene: a chrysanthemum (called BluOcean)! A month or two ago the company made wholesalers aware that this was going to be rolled out in the fall of this year. Our wholesalers were "mum" about them (meaning tight-lipped) so  it was quite a surprise when I saw them on the truck this morning. You know me and new products so I got some in:

Counterclockwise from lower left: two bu of "Coral", "Purple Sapphire", "Sapphire" and "Opal". I didn't see the other color ("Jade") otherwise I would have got a bunch of that too. But I think we are probably the first (or nearly the first) florist in the state (maybe even the nation) to get them in. Needless to say they went on display in our front cooler immediately and received a lot of compliments from from employees and customers alike. Kinda cool. I'll try and get some pics of the carnations at a later date.

Switching gears, a month ago we had a lot of flowers to deliver to a church for a funeral on a Saturday morning. I made a shelf in one of the vans for the "standing sprays" - which are arrangements on a green wire easel:

I fit all 7 standing sprays in the van and had plenty of room left over to maybe take some more. In the end I just took a big basket with plants in it. I crated up all the other stuff for our other driver who would follow me over there in a bit:

(By the way, the blue flowers in the close arrangement in the red box is delphinium). So yeah, that was interesting.

I'll see about getting pics up of a project I worked on this summer - not huge but it took a while to complete.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

People's notions of "messy" or "tidy" vary... wildly. Luckily your own compass is well tuned to the 'lawful' side of that, Zombie.

Dianthus: looks plush-like in texture. In fact I think I can see something like a sitting teddy bear forming on the top left part of the pic. Your eyes might perceive a different thing, obviously, as in a Rorschach test.

So, let me show you:

Chrysanthemums: I definitely prefer the richer tones of the three on the bottom half of the pic to the more 'washed out' ones above. They sure stand out.

The shelf you've placed on the van: undeniably useful - for a start. Here's some further inspiration for you to consider giving a go one day:

Probably not very easy to fabricate all by yourself though...

Your last pic: all the flower arrangements in it are very nice, but the red one helps make it really 'pop'. Quality work!

[Space Voyager]

LOL, the teddybear is a great find!

[Zombie]

Mr T passes the Rorschach test with flying colors... or green. Your choice really!

As for that delivery system...

We have a Ford Transit Connect as one of our delivery vans. There isn't a hell of a lot of room in these vehicles the way it is. Now put in a system that literally eats half to three quarters of the space and you don't have a lot to work with anymore.

The top shelf totally isn't necessary - if we have boxes we put them on the passenger seat (or in the foot well) or above the windshield as there's a small shelf up there already. The middle shelf is too low to the lower shelf as you can see when he pushes it back some of the flowers get caught on it. And the lower shelf is only good for casket sprays not our usual standing sprays which are on a 48" easel. In fact, the lower shelf would need to be the entire length of the bed in back because it's just 50-55" and that would eat up the whole floor space for us.

If the system could be removed easily, it would be interesting. The main issue having it on a Transit Connect chassis is that there isn't that much head room in the back and there isn't enough usable floor space left. The better choice would be to put that on a full size Transit cargo van or something like the Mercedes Sprinter as there's plenty of head room back there. And you could make it much longer to handle more stuff.

And think about this for a second. If the entire back is loaded up like in the video how are you going to be able to see anything in back of you when you are driving? Well, in the video there's a little space in back to see out the windows, but if you increase the height of the middle shelf then that space would be gone. Oh, and then there's the issue of weight. If you don't need any of the shelves you are stuck riding around with them lowering your gas mileage.

I don't know. I still think having an empty bed is much more usable and temporarily customizable than being stuck with shelves eating up half the floor space in back. At least for us.

Edit: sorry can't figure out how to link YouTube videos anymore.

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

3 hours ago, Zombie said:

Edit: sorry can't figure out how to link YouTube videos anymore.

- Zombie

If nothing changed lately, I had to delete the "s" in the https 

 

It seems something changed...

 

[Thorondor]

I did notice how cramped it looked on the demoed van and the too-low clearance on the lower shelf but I was aiming to simply showcase a rack system that might help with the steadying, loading and unloading of your precious cargo.

As you say, this would be best used on a full size cargo van like a Mercedes Sprinter and probably not occupying the full width of it even. That would leave room for a driver to look back when manoeuvring and allow you to go into the van's back to hand-pick something and having sliding trays that weren't full length either but split into, say, two parts of lenghts compatible with larger and smaller arrangements as per the known size standards.

Just an idea of course, and I imagine it has been well implemented already somewhere. Installing it with some sort of latch system to put it in, fix and then easily remove everything later if/as needed.

p.s.: fixed your video embed. There's not much art in its use, but a reliance on the built-in "smart" auto-embed of the post editor is advised, so here's how I suggest you do it:
- first, have your video open on a web browser (doesn't need to be playing)
- on your post, place a letter (say, Z) in the spot where you'll want the video to show and highlight/select the letter (using shift and arrow keys or your mouse)
- go to the browser tab where the video is and use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + L to select the video's adress/link and then Ctrl + C to copy it to the clipboard
- go back to your post, use Ctrl + V to paste that link (so instantly replacing the letter Z) and wait a second or two for it to render the video in place

[Zombie]

As a quick update, here are some vehicle-related pics for you. Last week the boss was driving back to the shop and a big branch broke off a tree and smashed against the driver-side A-pillar (it's between the windshield and the door). Luckily he was uninjured, but the branch chipped a section of paint off down to the bare metal. Automotive paint is pretty thick so I was tasked with trying to fix it the best I could. First up was scraping off any flaking or loose flaps of paint, then cleaning with lacquer thinner. After that it's the long arduous process of taping around the section. Here's what it looked like with one coat of primer:

And here's a close-up:

I didn't tape directly up to the bare metal as I wanted the final coats to be a little "proud" of the surface for more protection. Then it was two more coats of primer. I put on a couple coats of gloss black over that and when I took off the newspaper and tape I noticed some of the gray primer had seeped under the tape on to the normal finish. I got it off with lacquer thinner but took some of the black off too. How to fix? Yup, retape and spray:

I let this set up for a little bit, then crossed my fingers and took everything off again. It was fine:

Not quite the same color obviously, but you can't really see the difference from a meter away so I call that a fix. Oh sure, we could've picked up an exact color matched spray, but I didn't have that type of budget to work with.

I've been after bossman for a new delivery vehicle for a few years now. Our fleet wasn't very new anymore except for the used 2018 Ford Transit Connect which we've been running around town. We had a Chevy Astro van but that died on me when I was delivering last Christmas. The replacement was bossman's old Chevy Uplander van with 160k miles on it (250k km). The dash was lit up like a Christmas tree due to all the problems: tire pressure sensor dead, e-brake light, traction control, ABS, you name it except for the check engine light. It still drove great though and I used it quite a bit this summer and fall for larger delivery loads. When we had it in for an oil change the mechanic had another list of problems: failing boot on axle, brake pads almost gone, tires had dry rot. The writing was on the wall, so we've been seriously looking for a new vehicle for the last month or so. Bossman signed the papers last week on a new Ford Transit cargo van.

Took some pics of the old Uplander after putting the seats back in it and taking everything else out:

And here's the new Ford Transit:

I was hoping it was going to be the high roof variant, but it's just the normal roof height. And the bed in back isn't a full 8 feet either - it's only 7 which is tough if you want to haul 4x8 foot sheets of plywood or dimensional lumber. Not fond of no windows on the sides either as it makes it hard to spot addresses or when backing up. I guess it'll just take time to get used to it. It has about an inch more clearance over the back wheel which is better than our small Transit Connect XLT.

Today I put a piece of plywood down in the back but it was about a foot short so I had to find a piece that sorta fits. Best part was that the mat we had on the floor of the Uplander was exactly the correct length I needed to fit the new van:

Perfect fit! Might still try to find another piece of plywood to fit in along the sliding door wells, but for now it's at least functional. Don't really get the patchwork presswood panels on the back doors, and the cargo light in back is a bit small and dim so we may need to upgrade that. Bossman is thinking of getting aftermarket windows put in the back and it's possible we will get it wrapped with our company logo and location. Some, all, or none of this may happen. At least we have a reliable replacement now. Oh, It's got great gas mileage (24 miles/gallon city, 25 highway) which is nice too.

I'll continue to have the bossman on the lookout for another van (hopefully a high roof variant with a full 8-foot bed in back and windows on the sides) as that would be the way to go for big items or lots of deliveries).

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

What's this, Zombie - The Day of the Triffids? Plants are fighting back!

Your boss was very fortunate that branch fell where it did. Had it landed, say, on the windshield, the damage would've been far worse.

Besides, you've done a good enough remedial repaint, if a tad bit glossier.

Fleet renewal, step one: hard to complain much about such a shiny, brand new vehicle, but you're obviously right about the issue with the lack of side windows, so hopefully that will get addressed before long.

I'll say one thing for the old Outlander, with a tailgate you had even better visibility out the back. It also sort of shelters you somewhat when it's raining and you're readying to get stuff out for delivery.

Anyway, this was basically an apples-for-apples trade and getting a high roof van too does seem to make perfect sense by now. You're moving enough product and it would mean the end of space compromises at last.

Still, purse strings have already been pulled just now so, that could take a while; unless the boss is going big on tax deductions this year.

[Zombie]

On 11/17/2023 at 11:12 AM, Thorondor said:

I'll say one thing for the old Outlander, with a tailgate you had even better visibility out the back.

It's called an Uplander, not an Outlander, but you are correct, it's "out" now. As for the tailgate, the visibility was just okay. See, it depends on two factors: how high you sit and how low the glass goes on the tailgate. In the Uplander, you sit on the low side so visibility is restricted a little. Compare that to a Chevy Astro where you sit in a more upright position where visibility is near perfect. Didn't need a backup camera in that van at all, you could see everything (our last Astro had "Dutch" doors in back: a upper half which opened up and then two half-height side-by-side doors).

The new Transit is in the "Okay" category I think. Yes, the glass doesn't go across the entire back, but it's enough to see what you need to. You do sit a little higher than in the XLT so that helps too. (Our XLT Transit has a single tailgate door that opens up like the Uplander, but you sit really low which means visibility really suffers).

On 11/17/2023 at 11:12 AM, Thorondor said:

 It also sort of shelters you somewhat when it's raining and you're readying to get stuff out for delivery.

True, though it does create more hassles when it's cold or windy out. When the whole back swings open, a lot of the heat escapes in the winter. And it takes a while to recover to a reasonable temp. If you have side-by-side doors you only need to open half the back (sometimes even less than that if the arrangement is small) so less heat is lost. In the spring/summer/fall I like delivering out the sliding doors on the side so we put all our deliveries near the front of the vehicle. In the winter I'll load the deliveries in the back & take them out through there instead. If you have a bigger arrangement that needs the full width to get out, that can go on the sliding door sides. It's all about managing heat loss. These Transits aren't exactly great in getting heat where it's needed - no heaters in the back so you have to run the front at near full blast.

When it's windy out the wide open back tailgate can suck balloons out if you aren't careful. With side-by-sides, the vacuum effect isn't as bad if you can put the arrangement with the balloon in back of the left door. And even if the balloon does get sucked out to the right, you are standing in the way of it escaping. (We put weights on the helium balloons so they don't escape or tie them to an arrangement, but if the wind is strong enough weights don't offer much protection - even if the thing is tied to an arrangement or vase it can work it's way loose).

On 11/17/2023 at 11:12 AM, Thorondor said:

Anyway, this was basically an apples-for-apples trade and getting a high roof van too does seem to make perfect sense by now. You're moving enough product and it would mean the end of space compromises at last.

Yeah, that's true. For example, the other day I was tasked with delivering an upright Christmas tree in a wide stand with dirt in it. Total height? 5 feet. And heavy as hell. The Transit XLT has a max height opening in the back of 43 inches with a max height in the middle of 48 inches (4 feet, so still a foot too low). Bossman was driving the new Transit so we got him to come back to the shop to test it in there. It's max height is basically the same: 48 inches. But that extends all the way to the back doors. And because it's a cargo van, the ceiling isn't trimmed out so you'll get the entire 48 inch height to work with for half the length in the back. Again, still too short. We cut a few inches off the top which helped, but I had to loosen the tree from the stand so it stood up crooked which allowed me to sneak it in. This is where the high height cargo van would have came in handy. Would help with big evergreen wreaths too or big plants where laying them down might damage the leaves. I read the reviews - the "just" of it is to get the highest one you can.

I haven't driven the new Transit yet so I can't give an accurate review of it overall. But from the passenger side it seems nice.

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

I mean... WHAT ELSE?! Seriously, man, what other tasks will the job of a florist throw at you next? Airplane customization? Submarine in need of a flight module? Carrier vertical takeoff component?

 

And yet you make it all work.

[Thorondor]

@Zombie:

Pretty great overview of the pros and cons of those door types and vans. With real use cases thrown in for good measure. Now _that_'s a good review!

To quickly touch upon something you spoke of before, I do think skimping on the cargo light in the back is a little lame on the manufacturer's part, what with the sort of LED tech we have these days, which isn't that big on power draw and really delivers on the brightness.

Customers of such cargo vans having to deal with both early day and evening/night deliveries is such a common use case that it boggles the mind that they don't properly satisfy such a base requirement.

There are some people (example) that do all sorts of custom work on vans (including installing rear HVAC systems), but their services do tend to be quite costly.

Well, leave it to Zombie Customs I guess!

[Zombie]

5 hours ago, Thorondor said:

There are some people (example) that do all sorts of custom work on vans (including installing rear HVAC systems), but their services do tend to be quite costly.

Well, leave it to Zombie Customs I guess!

Yeah, that sure is something to consider. Does a flower delivery truck really need all that light in back? Probably not. And we certainly don't need to add anything like cabinets, racks or hvac systems. Before I start down the rabbit hole of adding lights I should probably take it out for a spin and check the functionality aspect. Right bossman?

- Zombie

[Zombie]

One of the projects I worked on this summer was the small garage door that faces the driveway in the back. In one of my previous posts on the small garage door you probably remember the bottom seal was getting bad as some pieces had fell off due to weather. I did a little scraping on the lower section of it as there was some loose paint and such:

And here's a closeup of the seal damage:

It was pretty messed up. The foam bottom seals are kinda garbage but I haven't really found an alternative at the local hardware store. Anyhow, the next day I started removing the bottom seal and the roofing nails that affixed it to the door. Needless to say, the nails were very rusty so I had to use a locking pliers (vise grips) to help pull the nails out:

Not fun at all. Here's the new stuff as it comes from the store:

The roll came with a small package of short galvanized roofing nails, and that's usually not enough to prevent sagging of the seal. When I was at the hardware store I looked for a nail that would hold up a little better (like aluminum or copper or maybe even coated) but they didn't have aluminum or coated and the copper was stupid expensive, so I guess it's back to galvanized. No stainless steel roofing nails either, that would have been prime.

The wood on the bottom of the garage door was really dried out and there were some soft areas in the wood too. I sanded the crap out of the bottom of the door and did a little sanding on the lower area too. After seeing that, I put on multiple coats of home-brewed wood preservative (boiled linseed oil + paint thinner + my leftover Thompsons Water Seal preservative). Lower area first:

And the bottom (looking up):

It soaked away really quick so I was able to prime everything too:

Certainly better. I left it sit like this for a month and a half just so I could keep an eye on it in case more peeling showed up. Nope, looked good. I then painted the lower part of the door and the bottom with the final color. After that I installed the new bottom seal zig-zagging the nails and alternating between the short ones in the package and longer ones I purchased:

It's a little wavy because I had to go around some obstacles/missing chunks of wood/soft areas. Here's what the outside looked like:

To preserve the foam a little bit more I wiped on some Armor-All to make the water bead off and hopefully protect against UV light during the winter.

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

That seems like a heck of a lot of nails to secure the old bottom seal, made of foam after all. Though I suppose the width of the door kind of justified it.

So I thought, before seeing you go all-in with the securing of the new one.

Well, the small garage door is sure better at providing insulation now!

[Space Voyager]

More great work... You're an inspiration, Z!