Sunday Report

Frank writes...

It was another beautiful Sunday at the museum, with a high of about 50. I split my time roughly evenly between the two Shaker Heights cars, the 63 and the 18.

I took our sample battery box cover back over to the paint store in Huntley because we hadn't been thrilled with the initial paint match. After some deft mixing work by the store manager, we ended up with a match that I think is much closer. After that, it was time to trace the lettering off the car, as shown above.

There's not a ton of lettering on the 63. The center doors have "Westbound Entrance" next to them (above) and the front doors have "Eastbound Entrance" next to them. There's an RTA emblem, a number in one typeface on the front of the car, and four instances of the car number in an odd squashed typeface at the corners. But that's about it.

WE NEED YOUR HELP: Anyone a font expert? The "Westbound Entrance" and "Eastbound Entrance" will need to be recreated for the late-1970s era, and this looks like some kind of standard font. If we can figure out what font it is, it should be easy to recreate the lettering using vinyl decals, which is what the car actually used in this era.

There's also this RTA emblem. In the late-1970s vermilion livery, the RTA was in red and it was set against a white square.

So, that was about it for the 63. On the 18, when I first arrived I sprayed the chains, links, and springs that will hold up the Eclipse fender with primer, as shown above. At the end of the day, they all got sprayed black, as you can see below. With luck, next week I can hang the fender permanently. Well, more or less; it is intended to be removable.

I also removed the next four windows, L11 through L14, and brought L13 and L14 into the shop. These did not go as smoothly as the previous four. L13 is in rough shape and one corner came apart when I removed it from the car; then, because the glass had been glued in with caulk, I managed to break the glass while taking the window apart. Hmm. I got both frames stripped of paint, so next week I'll see if I can cut a new piece of glass and/or repair the corner of the window frame.

There was plenty of activity, of course, as usual. The Veracruz open car was on the pit for its annual inspection; Greg and Norm were working on chasing down electrical gremlins; Nick, Zach, Jeff and newer volunteer Joseph K were working on electric parts; Matthew was working on the forklift; Jimmy was doing air brake work on the CSL cars; and there were several other people hard at work on various projects.

Hey, if you haven't heard, it's just a few weeks until the 2024 Snowflake Special and tickets are mostly sold out. Reserve yours today while you still can!