Basement Door Renovation, Number Nine

Number nine...number nine...

There is a hydraulic door closer that gets mounted to the bottom of the door. It's pretty straightforward.

There is a bracket that goes on the hinge (in my case the left) side of the door jamb.   Just drill some pilot holes, and attach the bracket with screws.

Then the closer attaches to the bracket with a steel pin.

Then we attach the other bracket right to the door. 

The instructions say it should be level, so I used my little Empire level.  The darn thing kept falling off but finally I got it to stay on long enough so I could take this picture.

You need to drill pilot holes for the wood screws that hold the bracket to the door.  In the instructions it says "do not drill through the door."  I wonder how many times it does happen though?  Probably get to hear some specialized technical language from the person doing the installing.

Finally, finally, finally, it's time to prep the door. 

There's an old deadbolt lock on the door that I need to remove.  One of my pet irritations is trim that has been painted over.  This is a case in point here.  Seriously, how long does it take to remove the lock, paint, and put the lock back on.  This looks so sloppy and shoddy, and frankly, careless. 

It took me about 90 seconds to take this thing off.  I want to finish this part and the priming so I can go watch the Canadian Grand Prix, but I'm not going to do bad work. 

About 20 seconds into the removal, I decide that I'm just going to trash this deadbolt rather than try to get the paint off it as I originally thought.  Too old, too gross, and I don't want to see it again.

I had to remove the inside door's striker plate so I can paint around it.  Some of the copper weatherstripping around the door interferes with one of the screws, so I figure I'll just snip a bit of it off.

Can't find my tin snips (!) so I decide to do it with a Dremel cut-off wheel....sparks ensue!

Then it's on to actual prep work.  I go over the door with my trusty Ryobi orbital sander - first with 60 grit, then 150.

I have to hand sand the little grooves in the door panels by hand.  Ugh.