Another day, another few feet of wooden siding stripped, sanded, and primed. I keep telling myself this has got to be the last time we will have a car that has to be completely stripped down to bare wood and repainted. First there was the 309, which I joined when it was already partly done, then the 321, then the 308, and now the 36. 
Furniture restoring shops will sometimes have a large vat full of paint remover into which furniture can be dipped, greatly speeding up the process. I have not yet figured out a feasible way to scale this idea up.
I finished stripping four sectors of the letterboard and upper siding (19-22), then sanded it all down and applied first primer. I then went back and started doing a complete job on the window sections, as seen here. This part is the most challenging; there's less square footage, but lots of angles and corners. Much of it must be sanded by hand.
Thursdays tend to be lightly attended. The usual suspects were seen lurking about: Rod, Tim (of course), Buzz, Max, and Roger. And me. Nick seemed to be AWOL -- be on the lookout!
You are to be congratulated on your epic efforts at restoring all the cars you have attacked over the years.
ReplyDeleteIt is the same daunting task for a metal car, most of those arrive at IRM in such bad shape that removing all the years of multiple layers of paint is a necessity. It is no less work for a steel car.
Even a relatively simpler car that is shorter and has fewer windows, such as a caboose, or no windows like a boxcar is a major undertaking. In the case of a steel boxcar, hiring out a sandblaster to remove paint and rust quickly speeds up the timeline, but only if $3000 - $4000 can be raised to pay for that privilege.
So all you readers enjoying these posts and progress reports, without paying to subscribe to these 'on line magazines', please support the work with donations to your favorite project.
Bob Kutella