More friends

Another fun day out at Clarabelle with friends lending a hand.

My roof work in the setting sun

As I mentioned last time, the gutters on the southern side of the carriage needed some attention and so I spent most of the day up ladders, cutting out the old roof lining where it had lifted and resetting the lining of the gutter.

The southern side after I'd sorted most of the roof

This was the Queen's Birthday long weekend and my mate Steve came over from Sydney for a visit. So, of course, one day had to be spent putting him to work on Clarabelle!

The first topcoat applied to the kitchen ceiling by Steve

No spider was safe from Steve and the broom!

 Pallave came out again and put another coat of high gloss varnish on the dining room bulkhead

Pallave rightly proud of her work

And, as usual, I had my son Chester along for the day - most of which he spent in the main bedroom on his iPad!

My little bloke hard at work in the main cabin

This last shot was taken at the others request to show what a grot I am when I'm working on Clarabelle. And this is after I had washed off the worst of the paint from my hands!

In case you're wondering, yes, I did manage to get some paint on the roof of the carriage!

Another short visit

Only a few short hours in the morning but still able to get something more done to Clarabelle!

Now it looks permanently wet!

 I got another coat of ultra-gloss varnish on the table. I think this job is now finished!

Another white ceiling

The kitchen ceiling has now got an all-over cover in 3-in-1 and looks so much better for the attention. Now for a couple of coats of gloss top coat and it will look brilliant!

An unexpected ecosystem in the gutter

What I wasn't expecting was to find problems with the gutter on the tree-side of the carriage. This had filled with seeds and other detritus from the tree and had developed it's own ecosystem complete with rather angry-looking ants! Even once I'd scooped out the worst of the humus, water was still pooling in the gutter because the carriage is sitting dead level and there is no fall on the gutter to drain it. I'm going to have to get up and reline the gutter to ensure it's water tight and may have to install some down pipes to help it drain more efficiently. Yet another job to be done!

An afternoon

Only a relatively brief visit this weekend but productive thanks to the help from Pallave who ventured out again to lend me a hand.

Pallave took to varnishing, reworking the dining area bulkhead and adding another coat to the table.

I spent a considerable amount of time masking off the kitchen area in preparation of starting on that job.

I got as far as scrapping the corners and edges across the ceiling then filling and painting them with 3-in-1 undercoat.

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 ...

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.

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

Table at home

Didn't get out to the carriage this weekend but I did get to work on the dining table at home. You may recall that a few weeks ago I strapped it to my trailer to try and take a warp out of it and to pull in some of the edge pieces that had begun to separate. The strapping seems to have worked taking out most of the warp and pulling the edges in considerably.

The strapping had pulled in the edges and closed the gaps I'd recut the other week

Brass slot-head screws pulled the edges in further and will hold them there

I recut the open joins to even them up a bit

Filled and sanded, the results are pleasing

At this stage I've only sanded the top surface and wiped it over with turps but the beauty of the Silky Oak shines through

That last caption belies the fact that it took two and a half hours of sanding to bring the surface back to fresh timber!