Veteran Home Improvement

10/23/2025

Replace rotted facia and trim that had a wood pe**er/ bat cave in it. Remove gutter, replace rotted wood with primed and painted pine. Caulk and touch up pine. Re pitch gutter toward downspout. Add drip strip under drip ended and over gutter backing. Homeowners are having me come back too replace a kitchen cabinet, another rake board with a bat hole. And jack up roof and deck where posts have rotted. Wich is the reason the roof looks like it takes a dive and why the gutter looks high but is actually pitched just enough. Roof is sagging about an inch at the post watch the videoThe bat was clinging to the inside of the rake board.I didn't even realize it till I had the board almost all the way pulled off. He acted like he didn't know how to fly at first.But once we pushed him off the deck, he took flight and flew into the woods.So no need to worry.We saved his life, but we did take his home and block him from the soffit for good.

04/23/2025

Just wanted too repost this job from last spring. Anyone looking too have their old d3ck freshened up lmk. Great alternative too replacing. Refinish, replace necessities and paint.

02/07/2025

Waiting for better weather too get back too this 10x12 walk out. Few photos of the deck a week before

01/28/2025

Really like this larson security storm door system.

01/27/2025

Call Veteran Home Improvement for your home improvement updates, remodel, or building needs. Everything from framing, sheetrock, flooring, decks, roofing, doors, windows, rly anything. even exterior hardscape. Patio, walkways, small walls

01/25/2025

11/01/2024

Okay, auto, body and painters. Please don't judge me. I haven't painted a car in almost twenty years.Besides little repairs here and there... I went back-and-forth, turning the pressure up-and-down. Got it spraying, really nice, but then I had tons of overspray and was using a lot of paint, so I tried turning the pressure down and ended up getting a ton of orange peel. I should have just blew through the paint and laid it on nice like I was doing at first. But of course, I wanted to make sure I had enough pain. So I tried finding a happy medium next time. I will just get extra paint and lay it on like I had it going at first a few sections came out very nice and then I tried adjusting the gun and they came out a little dry, but all in all it looks okay. It is shiny red anyways, lol and again, this isn't a show truck. It is a work truck. My goal was longevity not perfection... Next is the two tone, black flares and paint the roof black and windows and up... Debating, if i'm going to paint the moldings, black, or leave them red any suggestions? It's like a midnight black with silver metallics. That's gonna be the roof and the Fender flares. I was debating on doing the molding, but i'm not sure now... I had the tailgate looking perfect because I had it laid on heavy and it is flat, but then I turned the gun down and tried doing a second coat. Now it looks like an entire orange peel. Please don't judge me l o l...

10/31/2024

Dang, I forgot to prime the tailgate. I will have to do it in the morning and hopefully it will be dry enough when I go to paint the rest of the truck after noontime. The primer came out okay for doing it outside. The bodywork is mediocre, to say the best. There are still things everywhere. But I got very impatient and need to put this truck back together. I can't take any more time off of work. It's not a real restoration, it's just making my work truck rust, resistant and look nice again.
It would be silly to spend another week, making it look perfect to go plow with it.And let my laborer drive it around but this raptor anti corrosive primer lays on pretty good. It's an epoxy primer, so it lays on like glass, but you have to spray it like it's a clear coat, nice and heavy but I would use it again.We will see how it holds up.That will be the real test...

10/27/2024

Okay. I'm sure everyone is sick of the piece of c*** truck post, but I am getting very close here and we are trying to not skip any steps but if anyone is thinking of doing this to their trucks, I would think really hard and make sure you have the time because there is a lot of labor hours involved. If you want to do it, right and do a rust preventative and a heavy top coat to create. A good shell to prevent rust in the future.But my opinion is better to do it.Good now and not have to keep touching it up every three years, i also chose to brush all of the underside of the bed and the frame as opposed to spraying it because it is a little chilly out and I want to make sure the paint makes a good contact with all of the surface and lay it on nice and heavy instead of doing three coats... Sometimes i've noticed spray, painting or spraying, unless you have ideal climate control it does not last... We are getting there. I just need to do a little more block. Sanding and paint preparations and then set up a decent homemade spray booth.I should be done by this weekend as I have to work at least a few days this week, lol. another side note, if I was doing this in the future, if my work didn't get moved and I didn't have a free week, I would not have been able to do this. so I considered that a bonus... But also I don't think the shop would have went as in depth as we did with some of the frame repair. They just quoted me six thousand to pull the bed off and sand and undercoat, everything... And I believe they were going to replace two cross members, also once you let a shop, tear your truck down this far.There is no telling when you will get it back. but we did a lot more fabrication than that, and i'm painting the whole exterior it probably would have cost more like 9 thousand to ten thousand to have this done... in all honesty, I have spent almost 10000 restoring this truck, but it has a practically new engine. All the components stainless steel lines. A lot of things that buying a used $10000 truck, it would not have, and they may possibly need to be replaced even after you buy a $10000 truck. I've owned it since it was almost new.And tried to take very good care of it.. It really is going to be like a new truck... Actually better than a new truck, because a new truck comes with steel lines that will rot after six years, if you don't take very good care of them.A lot of parts that were upgraded are factory failures in the first place. The replacement fenders are way thicker than factory. The bed rails are thicker, same with all of the cross members. They are all better than the factory ones.That obviously are a failure point... I tried not to cheap out too much on that kind of stuff. If we are replacing it, we are replacing it with good ones.So it's actually better than a new truck, in my opinion...

10/24/2024

Taking a lil longer than I thought but I haven't done this crap in a long time. Neither has my old man. And my helper has never even ran a da sander or a grinder. Maybe not even a ratchet. Bur we r getting there and doing it right except for foaming and iberglassing front fenders cause they were almost 600bucjs for new ones...2 more crossmembers, the bed rails, and a bunch bodywork. But that will go quick the welding takes a while. Lotta prep and rusty metal.

10/21/2024

Anybody have an official spray booth?They are willing to rent me for a day.Next week? I have all my own equipment. I would just need a heated spray booth, or maybe somebody with a large heated garage that doesn't mind me.Spraying my truck in it with a bin in the window lol... I know it's a lot to ask, but I think it's going to be too cold to do an outside paint job and I really want to paint my truck before the winter. I'm also willing to pay someone to do the spray job if I do all of the prep work. And I can also prime it and have everything sanded and mostly ready for paint. I can also bring them the bed on a trailer so they will be able to paint it and have full access to the back of the cab and the bed... I'm doing all repairs this week. And it will be ready for spray by the end of the week.Any help would be greatly appreciated... I can supply all of the materials in paint. I already have everything. I just really need a heated place to have it done or have someone do it.When they heat it, spray booth or equivalent garage paint job... I'm doing all of the repairs, and I can spray all the jams, and I don't know under the bed. Etc, all they will have to do is a basic spray to the outside mask, the windows throw a blanket over the frame and spray. I will have the bed liner.Pulled out and ready for an easy spray job... Again, I have all the paint already. It's a single stage black and red two tone bottom of the doors in the entire rest of the truck red, the only part that's going to be black is from the windows up so the roof is and uh, tops of the doors and I can put a stick on pinstripe over the hard line, no need to worry about that... It is a plow truck. It doesn't need to be perfect, but it does have to cure correctly at least I'm not worried about a few dirt nibs. In the paint, if you don't have a perfect dust free paint booth. If it was gonna be above eighty I would just set up a tent and do it outside like i've done before, but I have a bad feeling if I try it when it's below sixty degrees, it will not come out good