Previous Paso Pekema Projects

I was kind of feeling like we were really slacking on projects since moving into our new house, but after completing this post, I realize we've been staying pretty busy. Anyway, here's a quick recap of all the projects I can remember completing in our new house in Paso.

Slimming Sill Slabs

Before

The Miata came with spiffy polished sill plates.  I have considered removing them in the past to save weight, but they appeared to be holding the carpet down, which I appreciated.  I recently realized I could slim them down to at least save a little weight.  After pulling them off, my decision to keep them was confirmed when I saw how unattractive the bare sills look.
I decided where I wanted to cut and then trimmed them.  I had to keep the Miata script.

I cleaned up the cuts with a file and hit the back with some of the rubberized undercoating to try to prevent them from rattling.  They previously had some double stick tape in addition to the screws.

After a lengthy drying period, I reinstalled everything.

Weight Savings:  8 oz.

After

Rowdy Rattle Reduction

Don't confuse this post with my previous prattle about a rattle; they are separate but equal.

Before

The interior of the Miata is not a very quiet place.  The unmuffled exhaust is one thing, but sometimes with the roof on, it resonates just right, creating an obnoxious rattling.  I was pretty sure the source was the metal panels that separate the passenger compartment from the fuel tank.  Normally, they have carpet covering them, which would damp out most noise, but our car doesn't have any of that.  It was sacrificed to the Roll Bar and Light-Weighting Gods.

I had to figure out a way to add some damping in another way.  I started by removing the panels.

Before

My giant shoe is included for scale.

When I removed the big panel, I realized it wasn't really needed, which I had heard before.  There is another layer of metal between the gas tank and the passenger compartment, so I decided to leave it off.

Weight Savings:  4 lbs, 7 oz.

To perform the damping, I used rubberized undercoating.  It sprayed on pretty nicely.  We'll see how it works.  I will reserve judgement for when I've driven the car a few times.

I also put a coat on the mating surfaces in the car.

After coating, there was still some play in the panel that seemed like it could make noise, so I put a few layers of duct tape down to keep everything more secure.

The gold screws did not go with the new black motif, so I stuck them in some cardboard and spray painted them.

Before

After

 I tightened down all the newly painted screws on the two panels I was keeping and was done.

After

A Street Table Called Desire

Andy and I found a sad little table on one of our evening strolls. We thought we would drag it in all of its pitifulness back home to see if we could salvage it. I can't however locate ANY of the before pictures. I know, why even blog???

Ugh. I'll try and paint the picture. Our TV was sitting on a dining room table which screams college and since we aren't in college anymore, this just wouldn't do. In comes sad little table. It had been spray painted  brown and yellow missing hardware and was in very poor condition.

 I removed a shelf, sanded the living daylights out of it, primed and painted.

 The color isn't very exciting but I was in a time crunch. To finish it, I threw on some fancy new knobs and voila!

 Much better.