Oliver's Makeover

Oliver Queen (aka The Green Arrow) is not just a comic book character, but my beloved Ford Focus.

So FOREVER ago when I had just moved to Utah, I was driving some ward members to FHE up in the canyon. I had parked and was pulling out to straighten out Oliver out but one of the guys in the back opened my door as I was pulling back out. It got caught on the car next to me and hyper-extended my door and put a crease in the seam of the door making it impossible for me to open the door unless the front door was opened first. I tried everything to get it out and finally took it to a friend's dad who did body work and he told me I had to replace the door completely.

Well, four years later and right before our second child was going to be born, I decided to actually get it done (I suspect nesting instincts). So I called around to some junk yards and finally found a door, the guy even said he would put it on for me! So we arranged everything and right before we hung up I asked him, out of curiosity, what color the door was. I was secretly hoping he would say green, but alas he said the opposite...white. I called around to some body shops to get an estimate on how much it would cost to get just the door painted...they estimated anywhere from 300 to 600 bucks. HA! So I was placed with a little project...painting the car door.

There was no way it was going to get done before Darci came so for a little over a month we had to drive around with a white door. I sent multiple emails to my dad to ask what I needed to do and get in order to get this done and when he came down for Darci's blessing he bought us the things we needed to paint the car and gave us further instruction as to how to paint the car door. This last weekend I took advantage of the perfect weather and painted the car door. Below is my progress.

Washed, roughed with steel wool, and first set of tape placed

Rest of Oliver taped off, wiped with acetone, and sprayed with primer

Paint and clear coat

Finished product.

I still need to add another coat or two of clear coat because we didn't have enough, but other than that, our car door looks back to somewhat normal and we love it!