Basement Door Restoration, Cont'd.

So when I put the door out by the trash I saw this really cool spider web across the top of the 'yard trim' can.

I'm not sure how well I captured it, but it was a neat design. If you look carefully, you can see Boris (the spider) near the middle of the web.

If you've ever tried to take a picture of a spider web, you know it's difficult. The light has to reflect off it a certain way or it's essentially invisible. Which, I suppose, is a defense mechanism.

There is an iron beam that runs the width of the house at the top of the cinder block basement wall.  The section over the door opening has a lot of surface rust on it.   I'm going to repaint it.

I have this paint that is supposed to turn rust into a paintable surface.   The instructions say to "remove any loose rust."  So, armed with a coarse wire wheel on my trusty drill, I go at it.  Oxide colored dust is made in the process. 

A bunch of rust comes off, but there's still a fair amount left.  We'll see how long this paint lasts over rust.

I decided to make some patches to fill the mortised slots that held the hinges for the old door.  I don't need those, and I'm trying to make this look tidy.   I took some cedar shims and trimmed them to fit, then glued them in with Titebond. 

The one on the right has yet to be cut to width, in case you're wondering.

Somewhere I have a picture of me sanding the door frame with my little Ryobi sander.  It (the picture) seems to have vanished from Blogger, and I'm too lazy to go reload it.  Suffice it to say that I sanded the frame with 60 grit and then 150 grit paper to get it ready to paint.   I also used a mold remover spray.  That took a lot of the mold off.

Crazy angle, huh?

This is from my point of view, spackling on the left side of the door frame.

The "turns rust into gold" paint is in a rattle can.  I just used some brown paper to mask off the beam.  You can see the remaining rust in this shot.

The brown masking paper, btw, really rocks.  Much easier (and cleaner) to use than newspaper.