
The first day I tried to twist this rusty-stuck nipple I watched the WD40 in the hope I would see evidence of it penetrating the threads. Yesterday there was reference to calling a plumber to work some additional torque on the problem. This morning I asked myself. Where does the clinging pool of WD40 go? Is it working some slow alchemy or is it evaporating? Can it evaporate? Just what the hell IS WD40?
This evening I held the radiator on edge and took a seat before spraying the threads. Where does the WD40 go? And the meniscus of light... fluxed? I watched on with re-doubled attention. It pulsed again. What else could it be but the wonderous WD40 sleekly seeping. I lay the radiator down, assembled my pipe-wrench lever, and gave it a pull. I've been stripping that nipple for over a week so believe me when I say this felt somehow the same but different. I reset the wrench and pulled again, this time closely watching the nipple's threads. They turned. See the impossible happen.
sparks flew
Galvanized metal siding seems to be the meme dour jour. I keep seeing it everywhere-- or perhaps I started noticing it more once we decided to go that direction. There's a place up on 7th avenue accros from Greenwood Cemetary that we bid on about a year before we bought this place. Whomever bought it did quite the architecture number on it. It is covered in corrogated brushed metal installed horizonally. The borders around the windows and edges are all mitered aluminum. Quite the piece of craftsmanship I have to say. But, it does have a bit of "architects students first real project" about it-- down to painstakingly paintng the original dental work on the cornice a San Francisco muliplicity of colors.
Before cutting and putting up the actual siding we had to prep the back of the house. Clearing back some of the numerous coats of roofing product where our house joins our neighbors (row house remember). Then we cut and bent flashing for one side (the other side just got roofing goop out of a tube) and the bottom where the exterior wall joins the kitchen roof. Next we cut, squared and screwed in 1 5/8" galvanized channel to frame the edges and around the windows.
It was not fun work. The pieces needed a lot of adjusting, bending, snipping, and filing. We were using self-piercing tapping screws that are essetially a screw with a drill bit head. Getting them to set, cut and drive pushed both of us to our limits a couple of times. That combined with the cold (vanity note: I have a down vest on under that sweatshirt, I haven't been packing on the pounds) made for quite the frustrating day where nerves wore a bit thin.
I finished (read: I was the last man standing and it still needs more) screwing it up around 8:00pm. Granted we didn't start until 10:00am, but it's still a long day. Under the bright work lights it looked pretty damn fine (if I have to say so myself). I hope I have the same feeling when I see it in daylight.
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