This past weekend was very long, and tiring, but quite productive: sand blasting and painting of the frame and associated add-ons was accomplished. Blasting of the frame was completed about 2:00 PM on Saturday, and painting was done by 5:30 that evening.
The first things blasted were lots of smaller items, such as diagonal and longitudinal braces, cab and coal bunker brackets, coupler pocket, journal boxes and so forth, which allowed us to get a jump on painting while the long process of cleaning the frame was on-going. Years of grime and rust sure had covered lots of casting imperfections and defects, plus a few misdrilled and plugged holes. Air passed completely through an area of the front coupler pocket as we were blowing the dust from it prior to painting. After painting we shut the shop with the heat set at 72 to cure the DuPont Chassis Saver paint(which will not come off your skin).
Sunday morning the paint was cured hard enough to assemble the smaller items onto the frame. Looks great in black instead of brown, don't you think? Hats off to all the crew that participated: everyone worked like borrowed mules. In order to not leave anyone out, the prep crew of the previous work session did a fine job as well.
Steve Fox and his crew from Specialty Groups, Inc., were great to work with on the blasting. They did a top-notch job and seemed to take working with us amateurs in stride.
Clara Atkins fixed two delicious dinners that kept the workers happy, just like in the logging camps.
