Sunday, April 19, 2015

Friends and Family

This weekend I had some help on Clarabelle. My dad and his wife Thi are staying at the moment over the school holidays to help look after Chester. But on Saturday he was with his mum so I took Dad and Thi out to Clarabelle and put them to work. We were joined by my friend Pallave - who proved very handy with a paint brush!

Dad putting a coat of paint on the bottom of one of the dining area seats

Dad at work while Thi looks on. Thi spent most of the day cleaning and tidying both inside and outside the carriage.

In all fairness to Pallave, she was not expecting to be put to work and so wore some nice clothes. But she was happy to get into it, borrowing one of my painting smocks and laddering her stockings in the process!

The end result of our combined day's labour was to finish painting and then reinstalling the dining area. Pallave, Thi and Dad all looking suitably pleased with themselves!
Thanks guys! Clarabelle really appreciates your efforts. Now, about next weekend ...

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Fixing some holes

Remember last week I signed off with a comment that I'd found a whole bunch of new leaks on Clarabelle? Well this weekend I fixed them. Trouble is there's not a lot to show for a few hours effort!

The Northern Side
There were two types of leaks to deal with. On the northern side there were some leaks in the top lights. Closer investigation showed that the timber in the frames of some of the top lights had contracted a little opening up tiny gaps at the corners. This was pretty easy to fix with some acrylic filler and paint but it did involve lots of up and down ladders.


A repaired bottom drop light seal
The second fix up was a bit more involved and only seemed to effect the windows, or drop lights, on the southern side. The main problem was that the lower margin of the seal against the glass was in pretty poor condition so I had to chisel out and level off what was left back to good timber. I then cut a 6mm quarter-round beading to length and glued it in place using acrylic filler. The beauty of using acrylic filler and acrylic paint is that it's easy to get a good, flush seal - the repair is almost invisible.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Mostly Painting

Two nights on board over the Easter break meant one and a half days clear to just work on Clarabelle.

I started by finishing off the outside fix-up started a couple of months back. This was just a painting job and, over night on the second night it rained heavily. Good news is these gaps have all been sealed. Bad news: the rain identified a whole bunch of other leaks elsewhere in the carriage!

Now all I have to do is scrape the paint off the windows!

While I had the right colours out I finally got around to finishing off the door seals. I think they came up OK!

Chester poses with the newly painted door seals

Then it was inside the carriage to continue fix-ups there. I added some trims including beading around the top lights, then more painting.

Dining area wall with added trims and new paint

More new paint along the corridor opposite the dining area