Honey, I Painted the Car

A few  years back, some auto makers started using plastic to make bumpers and trim on their cars.  I imagine this was a way to significantly lower their cost of producing automobiles.  The only problem is this plastic fades over time from going through car washes and being exposed to the sun.  Our 2002 Ford Explorer is one of the makes that has the plastic trim.  It was looking really terrible.  So I had the idea to use the new plastic spray paint that came out a few years ago to give it new life.  Honestly, it couldn’t have made it look any worse.  And I was actually pretty pleased with how it turned out and thought I would share what we did.

The before pictures...

The paint we used is Rustoleum for plastic.

We taped off the trim using “Frog Tape.”  This is the latest in paint tape and sticks much better than the old blue kind.  It gives really cleans lines and doesn’t allow the paint to seep under the tape.

We started off taping and using newspaper.  I would recommend this method if you are not a proficient spray painter.  Spray paint oversprays quite a bit and the newspaper keeps it from getting on the metal part of the car.

I ended up being impatient and just used the tape around the wheels.  There was obvious overspray when I took the tape off, so I used one of those dandy Mr. Clean Magic Erasers to get rid of that.  Those things are nothing short of amazing.

After two coats of spray paint (it took nearly two cans to cover), we have a brand new-looking truck.

Thanks for reading!

Amazing Phone Apps

I thought I would go off the beaten path for a moment and talk about how much I love my new Android phone.  I was already loving the navigation app, being able to receive and send e-mail, check Facebook and Craigslist…all through apps. This week I have discovered three new apps that are awesome. 

First up in the Walgreens app.  I scan my prescription bottle barcode and the app uses my GPS to tell me the closest Walgreens location.  I then tell it I want to refill the prescription I just scanned and it is ready in 24 hours for me to pick up. 

Next is a food diary app called “MyFitnessPal.”  It starts out by entering my age, height, weight, goals and then tells me how many calories, fat, etc. I should be eating per day and anytime I enter a food or exercise, it adjusts my daily tally to tell me how much I have left.  This app not only has an extensive food database so I can look up nutritional information to put into my diary, it also has the ability to scan a pre-packaged food’s barcode and finds the nutritional info and automatically plug it in to my diary.  I am in love with this app. 

To go along with the food diary app, I found “CardioTrainer.”  This app uses your GPS to show you where you have been.  It tracks the miles, steps you have taken and rate at which you are going.  You can save your workouts and compare them down the road to see how you are increasing your distance and rate.  I am excited about using this app with my daily walks (and eventually my daily runs).

Thanks for reading and I’ll be back soon with more finds!