Yes you can Joe. Just call me the day before and let me know the exact time you will be here. I can help you load it.
The cupola sides have been finished primed and are ready for paint. Now we are working on the long body sides. Pictured above is the bathroom window frame. Remember the windows were plated over and we had to cut the plates off. When we cut the plates, we left scars and imperfections in the metal, so we use body filler to smooth them out and make them uniform again. The masking tape prevents any body filler from getting into the factory welds around the window frames. We want to keep those welds original and not smooth them out. Tomorrow we will sand the filler smooth and 92% of it will be gone, leaving a smooth window frame. More photographs tomorrow. Having fun!
Keith, So right. And a lot of hard work too. I helped an old guy do some body work when I was a kid. Seems he was never happy and always wanted to do more filling and sanding. I swear we sanded more off than was applied sometimes. Never will forget that, cured me from any automobile body ambitions.
And now the surface is smooth again as original. I will sand the newly primed window frame one more time finessing away any minor imperfections. I may have missed the first time around, then one more coat of primer and she will be ready for paint. I have 3 out of the 5 windows completed so far and this is moving along quickly. I predict the whole caboose will be ready for paint in less than 2 weeks, but we will still have to wait for September's cooler weather to lay down the paint. I am getting excited every day seeing this project come together after all this time and effort.
Just felt like posting this photograph of the long body side. All 3 window frames have been smoothed and finished out, you can see a few spots on the body that are body filler that has not been sanded yet. Just a few more hours of preparation and this side will be ready for its coat of finish primer and will be ready for paint. I am really excited to see this project come together. Cannot wait to see the paint on this body!
The finished primer coat is still wet when this photograph was taken on the night of July 29, 2017. I laid the primer down at night because of hot weather during the day. It came out looking good. The 3 window side is now ready for paint and all the preparation work is done. The only remaining section of the caboose to be prepped is the 2 window side, and it should take us about a week to get to this stage. I am having a hard time containing my excitement seeing this come together after 3 years! I am ready to put the freight car red paint on her and then add the coonskin and "ship it" logos! Looking forward to nice painting weather in September.
Caboose 1291 was built in 1969, and it was painted PPG Freight Car Red. Caboose SLSF 1291 was freight car red for its entire life on the Frisco, and was never repainted until 1984 when it changed to BN green. Caboose SLSF 1291 was never Ashland red, or caboose red, or Mandarin orange and white, so the only proper color to paint her is freight car red. My local PPG dealer does not have a record of paint codes going back to 1969, but I have found a suitable match. This paint is rattle can Dupli-color red oxide primer. I read in another thread that Mr. Wirth paints his HO-scale wooden cabooses this color so I wanted to try it out. I like the results. I am preparing some small steel plates to paint the colors on so I can use them as samples, get them duplicated and batched in the modern PPG railroad quality paint. Now I will begin looking for a rattle can that approximates the lemon yellow color on the handrails. This is getting more fun by the day!
Body work is all done on the 2 window side and by the time this image was posted, all of the body work was primed. Now we can sand the entire side smooth once more and put the final coat of primer on her. Things are moving along well. We will definitely be painting this caboose in September.
I put the last coat of primer on the 2 window side today. Taking a long time to dry with this humidity. Would have been done with this last week but was delayed with the mini vacation to Brookfield, MO and Birch Tree, MO to see the cabooses there. Now we just have the front and back of the cupola to finish out and we will be ready for paint. Hoping for a cool dry September.
