Autumn / Winter 2024/25
After raising the body to a height of 12", work started on cleaning up the chassis.
First the two lower gangway plunger support castings were removed from the west end headstock as they
were misaligned. Whether this happened before or after the "damaging blow" inflicted on the west end is
anyone's guess, but a lot of rust and scale had built up behind them. After removal (quite a fight) they
were cleaned up, primed then undercoated to await re-fitting.
The west headstock was the first to be cleaned up, the rust and scale being removed using a chipping
hammer and power wire brush. This was immediately painted with green primer to prevent rust re-appearing.
The exterior of the solebar on the north side was the next to be tackled. A combination of chipping hammers,
wire brushes and a needle gun was used to remove the old paint and scale. Any part cleaned was quickly re-primed.
A contractor was secured to clean up the interior of the chassis using sand blasting. As this is an extremely messy business, the carriage was moved outside the RCB. The cleaning process took longer than expected due to "staff shortages" and extremely cold weather.
While the chassis was being cleaned, work continued on the renovation of some of the external doors. BR had put many large screw holes into the framing. To remove this ugly feature, either a completely new piece of framing was substituted or the frame facing was lowered by about 1/2" then a new hole-free piece of teak was glued in to regain the original profile. Panelling was re-used as far as possible - where the panel was not badly split, it is amazing how good the teak can be made to look with the aid of a scraper and some sandpapering.
After completion of the chassis sand blasting, the chassis was cleared of excess sand and dust before green primer was applied. We used rollers and brushes to get at the easy bits, and an airless paint sprayer to access the more difficult parts. All the interior surfaces of the chassis were finished in black whereas the exterior will be finished in teak colour.
