This weeks tip..
If someone asks you to help them install a new garage door, run far, far away....

A friend of mine, gave us a hand in getting rid of a bunch of bushes that I had cut down from the front and side of the house this week, The area we live in had a free dumpster day, and we were allowed to dispose of yard-waste , trash, old garage doors, etc... So we got rid of about 6 truckloads of goodies and then headed over to take on the garage door from hell.

He’s done the one on the left side of the garage, so he’s feeling rather confident about the task at hand, so we started removing the old garage door track, broke out the jig saw to cut the track to the proper length (tip, don’t cut the curved part of the track, like they did on other door.) cut the first track, started to cut other tack broke the blade, No worry’s, we had a backup blade..someplace...

By this point we had the first panel of the new door in place, looked good, and started on the second panel. This one has the lock and such on it, so we measured, drilled, fitted and had the panel ready to go in, we dropped it in place and something did not look/fit quite right..... We installed the $%^&* panel upside down. Off comes the lock, handle, etc door gets turned 180 degrees and we reinstall the locks and such, goes much faster the second time.

Fast forward to the good stuff..

We get the last panel in place and my buddy looks up and goes pale, he/we forgot to take into account the plumbing pipes that drop below the rafters won’t let the door pass.. We have two choices, get rid of the pipes, or modify the door. Seeing how his wife has grown fond of the indoor plumping, we (rather wisely) choose to modify the door.

They say the 5 Scariest Things in the Army That You Will Ever Hear Are..
1. A Private saying, “I learned this in basic training...”
2. A Sergeant saying, “Trust me, sir...”
3. A Second Lieutenant saying, “Based on my experience...”
4. A Captain saying, “I was just thinking...”
5. And a Warrant Officer chuckling, “Watch this Shit...”
The scariest words I have ever spoken are..
“Hand me that saw, I have a idea..”

We ended up taking 70% of the old door hardware, and installed it on the new door. We gave the term “Monster Garage” a whole new meaning, Jesse James and McGyver would have been proud of our effort in getting that door to go up and down and still being able to count to ten with both hands.

I think we violated every safety warning/guideline in the entire installation guide, a new personal record for myself.