Frank writes...
I didn't make it out to IRM on Valentines Day Weekend, and was only able to make it out for a couple of hours on Sunday, but I tried to make the best of the time. The first job, of course, was to install the beautiful new seat that Tim finished for us. I'll give you, oh, I don't know, how about two tries to figure out which seat is the new one in this photo.
Anyway, it fits perfectly! I can't thank my father, who built the frame, and Tim, who did the canvas and rattan work to make it into an actual seat, enough for their work on this.
So the two biggest holes that were in the car's interior when it arrived - the missing seat, and the dropped ceiling panel - are now both repaired. Of course the interior is still rather "unrestored" and we have some more window work to do, along with an eventual need for some rattan repair, refinishing the walls, and replacing the huge ceiling panels that have warped, but at this point I think the interior is quite usable.
After that it was back to the car shop, where I sanded down the wood filler epoxy we had applied a couple of weeks ago to the latest two windows for the car. That was followed up by a coat of white primer on both windows, as shown here. And I also cut a new piece of glass for one of the windows, a job which went off pretty much without a hitch, thankfully. The glass cutting machine we have in the lean-three is really a nice asset.
You're probably getting tired of photos of the 36's air compressor, and I'll admit that it looks exactly the same, but Dan finished up his work on the pistons so it is now approved and ready to go back onto the car. Thanks, Dan! First, though, I will need to wire-wheel and repaint it and its cradle, which at the moment is out in Barn 4. But this is definitely exciting progress and should return the 36 to fully operational status, hopefully this spring.
Sorry, what an eyesore! In a more perfect universe, there would be a can of rattan antiquing formula available at your local Menard's. But as it is, perhaps we could experiment with staining a few scraps of leftover rattan with various shades of grey?
ReplyDeleteI’m inclined to leave it as-is because at some point we will need to replace more rattan in the car and we can decide then what direction we want to go in to try and get a more uniform appearance. If it ends up that we need to re-cover the majority of the seats anyway, we won’t want this one “faux weathered.”
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