Wake Up Rusty!

...Or you'll miss your "a-paint-ment!"  LOL!

Oh, come on, have a sense of humor!

July First, and resuming the restoration project is right on schedule.

The wagon seat and box repairs have sat through a cold wet winter and endured their first 100 degree day.  The seat came down to the shop today for inspection and preparation for painting.

During the winter I realized that the lower seat back panel and the bottom seat boards were not original.  (However they were installed after the Great Wood Boring Beetle Attack!) This accounted for a poor fit in the corners.

One task that I did today, was to re-contour the corners for a nice appearance.

There is one small adhesion fail in the epoxy that I should be able to fix this evening.

New contour.

Next came a sanding-fest, beginning with 150 dry, followed by 220 dry, inside and out.  The surfaces had been coated with clear wood sealer, which had to be completely deglossed.  All the surface imperfections were filled last winter.

I always have a hard time deciding whether to disassemble and paint, or leave intact.  Plus the challenge of painting inside and outside.  I decided that there would be far too much damage to disassemble, paint, then reassemble, so I tightened all the fasteners, cut off long threads and began.

The inside of the seat will all be covered with upholstery, so I want to stress that painting the inside and the underside of the seat is strictly for protection and doesn't reflect what the finished exterior is going to look like!  If you think these pics look rough, consider that the pic at the top of the page is what was under the original upholstery!

The fastest way to be over and done with the non-visible areas was to spray with Rustoleum rattle can paint.  I used their high-build primer, which I liked quite well.  The spray enamel was the usual pfft.  But both primer and top coat are done in an hour.  The exterior is going to take days!

Under side.

And a couple coats of enamel, on the non-visible surfaces and I can forget about them for now.

Tomorrow I need to erect a portable gazebo to work under outside.  I need to drain the air compressor, install water/oil filters, gather up my spray guns, thin some primer, and maybe shoot the first coat on the external surfaces!

There may be up to six prime coats, depending on how wet sanding goes!

A darned, tiny little spot of epoxy did not adhere well in the corner.  Application fail, not the product.  Applying a little "Liquid Wood" to re-adhere it.

The underside paint actually came out quite nice!  And no - no part of my house is safe from carriage restoration activities!