However, 38 degrees was forecast for Saturday and then 40 degrees for Sunday.

Also, there was a total fire ban in the hills meaning no "hot work" allowed. Ie no grinding or welding.

I was almost inclined to stay home and do some cleaning up around the house but then I remembered that a lot of work was still required to convert rust and paint the veranda beams.

I headed out early arriving at 6.30 am.

It was actually cold at this time of day.

Using only a hand held steel brush I worked my way along the 13m front beam removing any loose rust.

This was hard work, especially working around the welded cleats.

I was about to apply rust converter but was puzzled by the lack of reference to this in the product sheet for the cold galvanising product.

I rang the retail outlet where I had purchased the cold galvanising ("Inspirations" in Midland) to ask for advice.

They told me that, really, I had bought the wrong product. Cold galvanising should only be applied to bright new unrusted steel.

They said to bring it back and they would exchange it for zinc primer.

I packed up knowing that I would not be heading out to Wooroloo again that day (it was already getting very hot at 10.00 am) and drove down to Midland.

Wayne, at "Inspirations", was very good and swapped the product over. Because cold galvanising is very expensive I ended up with twice as much zinc primer, plus some steel brushes and spray on galvanising.

Next time I will not just walk in to a shop and tell them the product I want - I will ask for their advice first.

The rest of the day turned in to an absolute stinker and most of the population of Perth either cowered in their houses with airconditioning on or headed for the beach or cinemas.

Sunday was even hotter.

I was concerned that my efforts with the steel brush would be wasted if it rained before next Saturday or if there was a heavy morning dew.

So on Sunday evening, as the heat abated a little, I headed out to put a protective layer of rust converter on to the prepared surfaces. Rust converter is meant to be used in conjunction with the zinc primer.