HOW TO MAKE ANYTHING 2016 K DEC Y TRA T

Increase the usable space on your deck by making a tray for your railing, with rotating tabs to secure it underneath.

9.

Nail through each plate and into the end of each stud with two 16d common nails.

10.

With the studs in place, measure the new wall’s diagonals. Normally, there’s a small difference between the two, causing the wall to be shaped slightly like a parallelogram. To correct this, move the top or bottom plate left or right (you’ll really have to shove it) as required to make the dimensions match.

11.

Stand the wall up and align it with the plumb line on the wall and the marks on the floor. Hold it in place with a pair of wood shims above the top plate, about 60 cm apart. Hold a level in the centre of the wall and at both ends to check the wall for plumb.

12.

If the wall is under joists, attach it to them with screws. If not, use large hollow wall anchors or toggle bolts to attach it to the ceiling sheetrock.

13.

Anchor the wall through the bottom plate into the floor. Use concrete screws for a basement floor and wood screws for a wood floor.

14.

Cover with drywall. Use paper tape and drywall compound at the intersection of the new wall and the ceiling or adjacent wall. The wavier the intersection, the wider the taped joint you’ll have to make.

After drywall is complete, trim and paint.

3.MARINATE THE MEAT Fully submerge the meat in the marinade in a container. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours.

1.

Pick a hardcover book that has at least 300 pages, one that people aren’t so likely to pick off the shelf. Like the dictionary.

2.

Open the cover and first few pages and secure the remaining pages with clamps.

3.

Use a ruler and carpenter’s pencil to mark your cutting area. The border should be at least 25 mm wide, measured from the page’s edge.

4.

Cut the rectangle out with a craft knife, removing about 20 pages at a time. Or if you really want to have fun, put on safety glasses and a dust mask and use an oscillating tool with a semicircular blade to saw along the perimeter of the rectangle. Stop once the cuts are 20 mm deep. Switch to a straight blade to get the corners.

5.

Flip the book upside down to dump out the cut-out pages. Remove dust with a brush or workshop vacuum cleaner. Clean the edges with a craft knife.

6.

Mix white glue with water to create a brushable mixture. (It should be roughly 70 per cent glue, as too much water will cause the pages to pucker.) Paint the edges of the clamped section of pages as well as inside the cut surface. Remove the clamps and let the glue dry under a weighted object (at least 5 kg).

4.DRY THE MEAT Turn the oven to its lowest setting, which should be somewhere around 100 degrees. Drain the meat, then lay it out on paper towels and blot dry on both sides. After lining the bottom of your oven with aluminium foil to protect against drips, lightly oil the baking racks and set the strips of meat directly on the racks, leaving space between each strip. Leave the oven door open a crack to allow humidity to escape as you cook. Every two hours, flip the meat and rotate the racks from top to bottom. When the jerky is done (between 6 to 8 hours), the strips will be pliable enough to bend without breaking. Remove from the rack and let cool for 2 to 3 hours.

OPTIONS FOR PAINT REPAIR RANGE from simple tinted waxes and As-seen-on-tv miracle pens to multistage treatments matched to your car’s exact colour. As someone who’s capable with a spanner, I went with the latter and tested an automotive touch-up kit on my pockmarked 1993 Ford SUV. It costs about R600 depending on which supplies you need, compared with R60 000 for a professional all-over repainting. This collection of aerosol cans and sandpaper is as close as you can get to an appointment at the paint booth. Here’ss how it works, and whether it’s worth it.

1. ABRASION

It feels very wrong to lean into your car’s bodywork with a folded piece of 180grit, but that’s what you have to do. You make the scratch much, much worse before making it better. I get t big, horrible white blotches on the fender, door, bonnet, and rear quarter-panel. But it’s cathartic, in a way, to grind down to bare metal in the name of making your car beautiful again.

2. PRIMING NG

On to the sprays. First is the black-tinted sandable primer (top right). It fills in the sandpaper scores with something that resembles the original black, instantly

3. COATING

Primer gives way to base coat, which means more aerosol cans. Each application seals in the pigment and protective layers beneath. Between sprays,

4. RESULTS

The clear coat dries overnight, and I hit my handiwork with the rubbing compound to bring out the shine. And shine it does, which brings me to an unexpected dilemma: the touch-up work looks better than the original paint. Inevitably, nine layers of new paint look better than decades-old factory black. For the job overall, I say, success. In fact, too much success. The instructions say an all-over wax will help it blend. Final step: give it hell with the orbital buffer and hope it blends.

IT WASN’T SO LONG AGO that an expensive dealer-installed load bed protector or mat was the only bakkie protection solution. Fortunately, now there are several money-saving DIY options on the local market.

One of the biggest names in paints, Plascon, describes its Bakkie and Trailer Coating as a hard-wearing, water-based coating that protects the underbody of vehicles from stone chips, and helps to prevents damage to the painted work areas of utility vehicles. A spray-on alternative is Tuff Guard, a polyurethane liner that covers the bed up to 5 mm thick, bonding directly to the surface to form a permanent, watertight and airtight protection against rust and corrosion.

Either brush or spray formats are available for Duram’s Durabak. Its single-pack polyurethane formula offers textured protection from abrasion, corrosion, weather, chemicals and solvents. Although tough, it’s said to be flexible enough to yield instead of chipping or flaking on impact. The product will not taint water or food once cured and can be overcoated – because it bonds to itself, it is repair-able. It comes in black or grey in a convenient fast-drying spray- or brush-on format. About four litres’ worth will do for the average short wheelbase bakkie.

Pretoria Mat and Rubber says its Hardliner kit, unike polyurethane or two-part kits, contains no toxic substances or volatile organic compounds (VOCS). Hardliner, which needs no primer, is described as “the most affordable diy bakkie liner kit”.

Selfcoat Eco Paint plays the environment card even stronger with what it says is revolutionary technology applied across its range of products. Besides having zero volatile organic compounds, they’re said to be extremely pliable waterproofing and protective coatings of high density.