Selling Your Older Car: Why a New Paint Job Matters
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Selling Your Older Car: Why a New Paint Job Matters

Last year, I bought a new car. Rather than trade in my old one, I decided to sell it myself. Before I put it in the market, I took the car to a local shop and got my old baby a new paint job. The new paint made all the difference with the car. While operationally it was sound, the outside was not all that great. After the fresh coat of paint, the car generated a lot of attention from prospective buyers. I even had a bidding war going on between two parties who really wanted it. If you have an older vehicle to sell, it pays to invest in a new paint job. Let me tell you more about why this strategy works. Follow my tips for selecting the color and the paint type, and you'll get a great price for the old jalopy.

Selling Your Older Car: Why a New Paint Job Matters

How To Make Your RV More Self-Sustained While These Two Common RV Repairs Are Completed

Nora Boyd

If you own an RV or a camping trailer, you may have dealt with repairing damage to the inside or outside of your unit. Because RVs and camping trailers travel on and off the roads, it can be common for them to sustain damage from tree branches or other fixed structures. It can also be common for your RV or camping trailer to sustain internal water damage from a water system leak or from the rain. Here are two self-sustainable upgrades you can make to your RV or camping trailer while repairs are being completed for two common types of damage.

Install Wood Burning Stove During Interior Water Damage Repair

If you have had a water leak inside your RV or camping trailer, you will need remove any warped plywood and other water damaged materials. While your RV or trailer is in the shop for the water damage repair, it is the perfect opportunity to make room to install a trailer wood burning stove. Remove a section of cabinetry, a couch, or water-damaged wall and flooring in your unit to fit the dimensions of a small RV-sized wood burning stove.

There are many different types of wood burning stoves that you can install in your RV or trailer with surrounding heat-resistant wall and floor panels.  Some stoves only need one inch of clearance from combustible items around the stove. The stove does need to be attached onto the floor to keep it from moving about when your RV or trailer is in motion. You also need to have a chimney pipe installed out of your RV or camper to vent the stove's gasses outside, and a fresh air vent to pull air from the outside to feed your fire. Then, install a carbon monoxide detector inside your unit to protect you and your family from deadly fumes.

With a wood burning stove in your RV or camper, you won't need to rely on propane for heat or cooking inside your unit. As long as you have access to logs or wood pellets, you won't need to worry about running out of propane as fuel. Propane to run your unit's stove or heater can be expensive, as the price of propane was $2.36 per gallon in February 2015. Wood is available to burn in your wood burning stove for little cost or even free in certain camping locations where wood foraging is allowed.

Add Solar Panels During Exterior Damage Repairs

As you maneuver your RV or camping trailer into a tight-fitting camping spot or trailer parking slot, you may come in contact with low hanging tree branches. The exterior roof and sides of your RV and camp trailer are not built to withstand the damage from a tree branch. RVs and trailers are built to be as lightweight as possible so they can move over the roads easily. If your RV or camper has a hole poked in its exterior, you will need to have the exterior panel replaced and repaired as soon as possible to avoid internal water damage.

While you are having the exterior of your unit repaired at a place like Chehalis Collision Center, it is a good opportunity to have solar panels installed on its roof. While living off the grid with solar panels, you won't need to run a gas-powered generator or have access to an external power source. Install two 140-watt panels on your rooftop with a 12-volt system with an inverter inside your RV or camper to convert the solar power from DC to AC. This will run your interior lights, fan, charge your cell phone and your laptop, and allow you to watch a couple hours of television every day. 

Use these two common repairs as an opportunity to upgrade your RV or camper to be self-sustainable.


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