Paint

 I am going to finish up this part of the blog by saying that I came very close to my goal.  But I have given myself permission to quit obsessing over this project and get back to my normal life for awhile, whatever that is.  This photo shows the present status of the seat...upper seat back with a gloss coat of enamel, side panels and lower seat back sanded and ready for same.  The sanded coat is the third coat of enamel that was allowed to remain. Perhaps as many as six coats were washed off with solvent before they dried.

This pretty shiny surface does not hold up in the light of day.  Because the lighting was poor when I painted, and because the painting area cannot be made dust proof, the surface actually has an irregular gloss and a lot of dust in it.

Shortly after this photo was taken we had a wind storm and the inside of my painting tent looked like a tornado had blown through.  That was the end of the project for now.  Fortunately, nothing will be harmed by allowing the paint to cure before being "flatted down" again and recoated.  The important thing is that the wood is all wonderfully protected.

Happily, I learned a great deal about the paint, what I should expect to see with each coat, sanding, brushes, light and the all-consuming need to control dust.  I will share with you what I have learned.

So, what happens next, after I get my fill of riding and driving my neglected horses and catching up on all the heavy yard work and house work that have been neglected as this little wooden crate has dominated my every waking hour this summer!

I am going to prepare the body for paint.  That will be the next phase of this blog.

I will move the painting into the shop, which will have improved lighting and a "clean room" enclosed in clear plastic, with filtered air.

I will buy a different paint brush.  The one I am using tended to "split" and force me to work an area of fresh paint more than was good for the finish. I think that is where I got into trouble with the areas of faded gloss.

I will resume the painting project with considerably more confidence!

So here's my experience!

***********

Carnation Milk is the best in the lan'
Comes to the table in a little red can.
No teats to pull, no hay to pitch,
Just punch a hole in the sonofabitch!

That silly old advertising jingle pretty much sums up my understanding of paint until a few days ago.  I took my expensive paint, dipped in my expensive brush, brushed the paint on my meticulously prepared surface and ended up wiping off three consecutive coats before they could dry.  The results were hideous!  Brush marks and runs, no matter how carefully I applied the paint.  Time to retreat into the information packed halls of the internet.

When one is spraying modern automotive paints - which we are not - there are precise formulas to follow when combining ingredients to prepare the paint for spraying.  In brush painting, we do not have "instructions" to follow, so to speak.

As it turns out, the expensive paint may not be ready for brush painting right out of the can, just as Carnation evaporated milk isn't exactly the same thing as whole cow's milk.

The paint usually has several methods of application; brush, roller,"roll and tip", airless spray, conventional spray.  The manufacturer has no control over the method used for application, the surface to which it will be applied, or the expected results.  Nor does he have control over the conditions of atmosphere under which the paint is applied. So he offers a product that can be adapted to suit the requirements of the painter.  That generally means thinning.  Yes!  Even for brushing!

I always thought that thick paint, the way it generally comes out of the can, meant that it had enough substance to flow out into a smooth coat.  I don't know how many times that incorrect assumption caused paint failure for me.  The instructions always say to apply several thin coats, and I always try to put that paint on in the thinnest coat possible, but it usually doesn't work well, even on a horizontal surface that's been sanded as smooth as glass.

There is more.  Modern environmental laws and regulations specify limits as to how much VOC - volatile organic compound - that paints can contain.  VOCs are solvents that evaporate into the air.  Sufficient solvent is required for the paint to flow out correctly.  But your paint may not have enough solvent to give you the glassy surface you seek on your carriage!

You will see a notation on the label stating the VOC content,or you can look it up on the Material Safety Data Sheet available from the manufacturer.  You may see a warning that adding solvent will increase the VOC.  As a consumer, I have been uninformed about the relevance of that.  In simple language, it means that there may not be enough solvent for proper paint flow out, and if I add more, I may actually be breaking the law!

Further, the manufacturer's instructions may allow you to "add up to 10% solvent" for brushing or "10-15%" for spraying.

Translation:  That is all you can add to keep the product VOC within legal limits.  It has nothing whatever to do with paint performance.

Since we do not have a "tech sheet" to guide us beyond this wilderness marker, we need to gain experience with our chosen paint and various thinners/reducers which MUST be compatible with the paint.

Take no chances! Use the thinner recommended by the manufacturer!  Some explanation of common thinners:

When conditions are cool and damp, we may want a thinner that will dry faster, so it won't take a full day for the paint to become dry to the touch!


Naptha can usually be used, as it dries a little faster than ordinary paint thinner.  In some cases, "Japan drier" can be added sparingly.  It is an additive that I believe, causes catalytic (chemical reaction) drying, but it can make paint brittle.

For slower drying, I think plain mineral spirits or paint thinner can be used.  You would want slower drying on hot days because the paint may dry too fast for you to control it.  Your brush will get sticky and the paint won't flow out.

At any rate, I am guessing that in order for a thin coat of paint to flow onto your carefully prepared surface, it should virtually have no brush marks in it as you lay it on.  Don't take that as gospel from an experienced painter,but that pretty much paraphrases a passage from one of my coachpainting books. It seems that after this recent experience, that is just about what the thing needs to look like as you are working, and that very well may mean thinning your particular paint with a suitable thinner.

Pettit offers a "brushing thinner" and a "spraying thinner".  I believe the spraying thinner dries much faster.

Following the paint can instructions can sometimes guide you in thinner selection, but you are somewhat on your own when determining how much, if any, thinner you are going to add to your paint.  Experience is your friend. The paint needs to be thin enough to lay on perfectly, but not so thin that the pigments are diluted too much.  You need good coverage. Whether you are within legal VOC limits when you are done is none of my business.

When I finally arrived at the earth shattering epiphany that I needed to thin the paint in order to achieve proper flow-out, I started with one half ounce of Pettit brushing thinner to five ounces of Pettit EasyPoxy paint.  I painted part of the carriage seat with that and was ecstatic with the results, but I didn't feel it was just right yet, so I added another half teaspoon of brushing thinner to my remaining paint.  It reduced the slight brush strokes by at least 50%.

Ultimately, for the seat back above, I came up with a mixture of 4 1/2 ounces EasyPoxy, 1/2 ounce Penetrol (which may dilute the pigments, but adds shine and adhesion and improves flow-out) and 1/2 ounce Pettit brushing thinner.  I got gorgeous flow-out with this, and good coverage, but my light was poor enough to be difficult to see the black surface well, and my paint brush was splitting, leading to missed spots which had to be gone over too many times, and some of which remained in the final film.

This is pretty much where the thread ends for now.  But here are some photos of the process, and some comments.






Before the main event, while the wet-sanded exterior of the seat was drying, I took the opportunity to put a coat of enamel on the inside of the seat.  A great shot of what *no* surface preparation looks like after painting. Very rustic.  This will of course, all be covered with upholstery.  But all surfaces of the seat are now protected.

My first coat of paint, while it was still wet, was enough to bring a normally mature, rational adult female to a state of sniveling self pity!  I had sanded the guide coat off the primer with 220 grit wet sandpaper.

I KNEW that 220 grit sandpaper was too rough!  But it was several grits finer than the manufacturer's 150 grit. If you double click on the photo you will see that the surface is anything but glassy.

NOW...much wiser than when I took this picture, I realize a number of facts that were unavailable to me before.  The first is that with meticulous surface preparation, it is likely very unnecessary to use a "high build" primer as I have on the seat.  The seat surface was nearly perfect before I proceeded to prime.

When the guide coat was all sanded off, what I could not see is that the surface was still a bit far from level.  That, and the visible sanding scratches in the paint made me feel like a failure.  But actually, what I was seeing wasn't all such a bad thing.

It was just the first coat of paint, and the first coat of paint needs a rough surface to grab on to, so although I still think 220 is awfully coarse, it provided the necessary roughness for the enamel to grab on to.

The dark gray of Schwartz sanding primer is quite a bit easier to see when the primer coat is level, so that should be a help when I prepare the body for paint.

Back to the first coat of paint.

As the paint dried, it did an amazing job of leveling, and didn't look half as bad as when it was wet.  So I felt a lot better.

Here is a macro of the surface.  I'm sharing these pics so that first-time painters will know what to expect.  Look at the sanding scratches that have "photographed through" to spoil the shine.  Nothing could be more graphic to demonstrate the need for a perfectly prepared surface!  You can double click on any of these images to get a closer view.

The speckles of dust are very difficult for me, or anyone, to eliminate, as I do not have a dust-free environment.  Right now I have an air ionizer going in the tent to try to help eliminate some of the dust, but it is very breezy and hot outside today, so it wouldn't be a good day to paint.

Now, for comparison, here is a singletree that I painted a day later, with its first coat of the same paint!

The difference is the primer and the sanding.

For the seat, I used a heavy bodied, "high-build" primer (Pettit) and sanded it back "level" with 220 grit sandpaper.

On the singletree, I used a less heavy bodied, hard drying sanding primer (Schwartz).  I sanded it back part way with 220 grit, then finished with 400 grit.  The first coat came out nearly flawless.  All coats of primer and paint were brushed.  The difference is in the primer and the sand paper.

Now!  The rest of the carriage comes down to primer selection.  After seeing the results of my first coat of enamel on the heavy, high-build primer, I had to ask myself, with all the laborious surface preparation that preceded the first coat of paint, why did I elect to use a "high-build" primer in the first place?  There were no defects to fill!

The only answer seems to be, it seemed like the right choice at the time! For now, it looks like I will be leaning more toward using the Schwartz sanding primer for the rest of the body.  I expect no further need for high-build products, particularly since the wood on the body is so beautifully preserved.

And even now, it doesn't pose a problem.  We sand between coats of paint anyway.  The seat, in its present state, just poses a little bit more work.

And so once again, the little carriage seat is trotted outdoors into my shady sanding place.  Ugh.  This shows that the "guide coat trick" is not foolproof.  Especially with white primer!  At least with the dark Schwartz primer you can really see the results of your sanding!

So here, I've taken a few careful strops with 400 grit wet sandpaper, and immediately, we can see why our first coat of paint came out so dismally dull.

Once again, these brush marks and dust must be sanded out completely before the next coat is applied or they will be WORSE! Happily, these defects are now quite shallow and sanding is considerably easier.

IMPORTANT TIP!!  Just putting on more paint will NOT solve the problems shown here.  Adding paint to a surface like this will only make it WORSE!  Like cutting a board twice and discovering it's still too short!  Or adding more saddle pads under a too-narrow saddle to try to make it fit a wide horse. Defects in the surface must be leveled by sanding or the quality of the job will just continue to deteriorate.

IMPORTANT TIP NUMBER TWO!!  It's going to take at least 24 hours in good weather for your paint to be dry enough to sand!  If your sandpaper clogs up easily while you are wet-sanding, STOP and wait for the paint to dry another day or so, believe me if you don't, you will be sorry!  The paint will roll up in sticky wads on the surface and it will be practically impossible to get them off!  If you have big, thick drips, you may want to shave the surface off with a razor blade to allow the paint underneath to dry.

(Following was written as "stream of thought)

An hour or so of light but thorough wet sanding with 400 grit paper yielded a really nice, smooth surface.  Yes, I cut through to primer in a couple of places, but that's not a problem!  There were a couple of almost-drips that were a little too soft yet to sand well, so those will be last minute touch-ups before Coat Number Two.  Today, it's too hot and windy to paint.  Hopefully tomorrow.

And yes, of course, learning to use a paint gun would eliminate 90% of the labor.  But not everyone can buy a big enough air compressor and a paint gun.  And the number of problems an inexperienced person can create with a modern spray gun and a traditional paint is mind boggling. I really want to stress that you can do a great job of painting with just a brush, if you have the patience to do all the necessary sanding.

Sanding got easier on the enamel, because the surface lumps and bumps (basically, the primer and the poorly-flowing paint) became fainter and fainter.

I ended up sanding what I thought would be my last time, with 600 grit sandpaper, as 400 grit was still showing sanding scratches.

 When I painted this time, I ran into problems trying to "control" the paint in the hot, dry weather, and even once I found my "magic formula" I wiped off coat after coat of wet paint because things would begin to go wrong, the brush would drag, and I would panic.

At one point I did a beautiful job on the seat back, and while it was still tacky, I made a horrible mess of the lower part of the seat.  I carefully solvent-wiped all the wet paint off the bottom half, and in the process, the cotton rag rained lint all over the tacky seat back! So that all had to be wiped off again, and it was nearly too late!

So!  That is why the upper seat back is painted, and the bottom is sanded as I end this part of the blog.  I learned not to be greedy and try for too much all at once.  I got that upper seat back painted on a good day and QUIT.  A couple of days later when I wanted to try for the bottom part, the wind had turned my painting tent topsy-turvy.  I was so fed up, I finally said QUIT, BARB!  BEFORE YOU REALLY SCREW UP!!  REST, BUILD A BETTER PAINT BOOTH, GET A NEW BRUSH, AND OPTIMIZE YOUR CHANCES FOR SUCCESS INSTEAD OF BLUNDERING THROUGH.

Happily, most carriages come with handy, built-in "sections". One need not get the whole thing painted in one day, and as beginners, learning to control the paint mix, the application and the brush, it might be best to stop for the day when you're ahead, instead of experiencing such heartbreaks as I described above.

And so, my friendly readers, I will leave you alone for awhile.  I'll pick up again with carriage body repairs, new priming, sanding and painting strategies.  Thank you for sharing my adventure with me!

Body Off!

While waiting for the hot, windy weather to moderate before continuing the painting of the carriage seat, I was seized by the urge to dive into another dirty, tedious, boring task!

So out I went to lift the little carriage body off the gear!

Thankfully, some farsighted carriage builder of the past painted the shanks of the bolts that held the body to the bolsters (the large wooden blocks between the body and the springs) so that they released the body with only a feeble fight. No corrosion welding the wood and the bolts together!

In those "famous last words", there appears to be very little repair to be done to the body.  Here I am pointing to a long shrinkage crack in one of the seat risers (the part that the carriage seat is bolted to) which must be repaired.

And here is its matching crack on the other side.

One of the first jobs is to get rid of this hack job of a tool box under the seat.  When I first saw it, with random nails everywhere, and those split up end pieces, I thought how am I EVER going to repair this?!  Then I realized it was a careless add-on.  The ends look to be made from the same piece of wood from which the repair panel in the seat was made!

There probably WAS a tool box under the seat before the seat was repaired.  Like most buggy seats, the bottom seat frame has a large opening for a "hatch door" to access lap robes, tools, etc. stored in a little wooden box underneath. 

I found the old screw holes where the seat had originally been mounted.  Since there are no corresponding holes in the present seat frame, that suggests a major repair to the seat!  New seat boards.  And as I suspected, the original seat was held on with only four screws, not seven!  So more little wee bits of history revealed.

There is no rot in the floorboards, but they're all badly split and will be replaced.

Cosmetic damage from unknown hardware.

The only corner that seems to need a little repair.

And just the usual signs of wear and tear.

 As is typical, the body could be removed from the gear by removing four nuts.

My first really good look at the side-spring gear.  I am not really familiar with side-spring carriages.  This gear has no wooden "reach" connecting front and rear axles, but rather these apparent extensions of the springs, forming "outriggers" from the centers of the springs to the rear axles.  It is certainly NOT a Concord wagon gear (which I already knew, but the side springs and body style make it look a lot LIKE a Concord wagon).

These "outriggers" are tied in with the springs at the center bolt.

And this "wishbone", tying the fifth wheel at the center front axle to the springs, also layers into the springs leaves.

I always thought that the carriage body had a slightly lop-sided appearance and blamed it on the blocks that the axles are sitting on.  But, oh no!  Can you pick it out?  The near bolster is a full 3/4" shorter in height than the off bolster!  It is also made of two pieces of wood, where the off bolster is one single piece!  What tattle-tale of a wreck have we here!!  There are also unused bolt holes at the front of each bolster, suggesting that something was re-drilled at some point.  I'll worry about what to do with the problem later.

There are bolts going through the bolsters into the cross braces that appear to be "sprung" or at least twisted hard to fit existing holes in the metal.  These refused to release the bolsters from the gear.  Again, something I'll worry about when I tear down the gear.

My winter project!  I am still waiting for the wheels to come back from the wheelwright.  But it looks like I'm definitely NOT going anywhere in this carriage for awhile anyway!

Final Preparation for Paint

SPECIAL 9/10/14 UPDATE  

If you are following along with this restoration as a means of obtaining information for your own project - and perhaps you've already read this post - I want to add some additional information that I've only realized since I have proceeded to actual painting.

First of all:  220 grit sandpaper is probably okay for knocking off the high spots on your primer.  Finish up with 400 grit.  I'll show you the results of stopping with 220 grit in another post. Sanding scratches are going to show through in your first coats of paint, but we are going to gradually work the paint down between coats with 600 grit for our final sanding.  You can go finer, but for a working carriage, this may be good enough for you.  More details when we move on to painting.

I have certainly learned that following this next procedure will not necessarily give you a perfect surface but it will be very good.  It may take 3-4 coats of enamel and meticulous sanding between coats to get the glassy surface we all want.  Please be patient and don't get discouraged.  I have already done that for you!


Three coats of primer and a guide coat when last we met.

Following an overnight dry, the seat was moved into a nice patch of shade.  Got my stool, got my 220 grit wet sand paper, got a couple buckets of water, a chamois and assorted sanding blocks.  Forgot the sponge until a little later.

The task is to get all that dark stuff off.

The paint manufacturer recommended 150 grit sandpaper but that seemed much too coarse, so I started with 220 grit, and this is what began to emerge after just a few strokes.  Hmm, I think, this is going to be easy!  Yeah, right!

With a lower quality paint, even sanding scratches from 220 grit will show through in the final coat.  We'll see what happens.  We do have to be concerned with adhesion, so while we want a smooth surface to paint, it still needs to be rough enough to grab and hold the coats of paint we'll be applying.

Unfamiliar with "wet sanding"?  A moment to explain.  Wet sanding is a process that is used to produce the best quality surface for painting, and for sanding in between coats of paint.  A special type of waterproof sandpaper is used.  One needs a bucket of water, to which they have added a small amount of hand soap.  Just rolling the wet bar of soap between your hands and rinsing them in the water is usually enough.  This lubricates the sandpaper and makes the work go more easily.  Alternatively, you can occasionally swipe the sandpaper over the bar of soap.

Usually the sandpaper is wrapped around some sort of "sanding block" which can be a purchased sanding block, or any number of items you have on hand, including paint sticks, putty knives, and in tiny places, fingernails!  In most cases you do not want to rub the paper over the surface with just your fingers, because you will not get a flat, level surface this way.

As you sand, you will want to continually wash away the sanding sludge, by holding a big water soaked sponge over the area you're working on, to continuously wash away the sanding sludge.  You want to stop sanding as SOON as you have sanded away all the guide coat, because it is so very easy to cut through to the bare wood.  Sometimes it's hard to stop the motion of your hand soon enough to make that one extra swipe.  Washing the sludge away constantly is the only way to see exactly what's going on with the surface!

When you are satisfied with your work, you can go over the entire surface with a clean chamois skin to help dry the surface and finish up.  If you have compressed air, it's a very good idea to blow any water out of cracks.  At any rate, the sanded part needs to be left to dry thoroughly before coating with paint.

Getting back to the task at hand, here is the first panel completely sanded.  The only bits of guide coat left remain around the edges of a large bolt head, and around a hole that will be covered up by another bolt head.  Right now I'm thinking this is a piece of cake.

On to the seat back.  The first few strokes once again make it seem easy.

By now I'm beginning to bog down around the edges and the bolt heads.  Such care must be taken not to cut through!  My sanding blocks are becoming smaller and smaller as I have to work into more and more fragile places.

But eventually the job gets done.

On to the much maligned repair panel.

By now the work was becoming enormously tedious.

And the last panel was absolute misery.

But the edge around the bottom of the seat remained.

And as you can see, there are a few places that still show some black.

So the difference between a truly meticulous restorer and me is those specks of imperfection, which I fully intend to leave.

The time to sand this seat smooth was a ridiculous four hours.  And it is as done as it is going to get.

And I also need to be honest and report a potential Abatron fail in the seat corner above.  There is a hairline crack developing at the upper edge.  It is an inch long and nearly invisible.  I believe that I may have stressed the repair before it was fully cured when I rejoined the two panels with the metal strap and the corner block on the inside.  All I can do is hope that nothing else lets go.  Next time I glue or "fill" a defect with epoxy, I will wait at least a WEEK before I put any stress on it.

Preparing To Paint

SPECIAL UPDATE, 9-10-14

Since proceeding to the painting of the carriage seat, I have come to a somewhat more informed decision about selecting a good primer. Basically, if I spend hours perfecting the surface that I am about to prime, it seems silly to apply a "high build primer" as I have here.  It's been pointed out to me that a high build primer is a good alternative to the micro-surface preparation that we are trying to do on a carriage, and is best suited for things like massive boat hulls, where that type of surface preparation is just a preposterous notion.  I believe that I have spent considerable extra hours, sanding back thick, high-solids primer, and if you continue to read my blog, as each piece of the carriage is prepared for paint, I will probably be relying more on Schwartz's good, hard, dark gray sanding primer.  I have learned a tremendous amount in the last few days.  I expect to learn and share much more as restoration progresses.



Eventually we get to the point where we have to say, "That's the last repair, let's get on with it, shall we?"  Having given the seat one final, thorough sanding, it's time to paint.

Reiterating the process, the old paint was stripped to bare wood and all repairs made, including new corner blocks.

"Missing" wood and small areas of dry rot were consolidated and built out with Abatron products.

Large grain and surface flaws were leveled with Pettit EZ-Fair fairing compound.

All wood surfaces sealed with Pettit EZ-Wood Sealer.

All surfaces sanded smooth with 220 grit dry sand paper.

Surfaces degreased with automotive wax/grease remover or solvent.

Surfaces wiped with tack rag just prior to priming.

And here is the seat in the paint shed, with a pretty sorry looking first coat of Pettit EZ-Prime High Build Primer  I wish I realized they made it in gray*!

After reading through my notes of my last restoration project, I decided that I would brush the primer on.  I had already decided to brush the top coats on.  Those notes convinced me that I do NOT know how to spray paint, and that this project was not the place to try to learn.  I do not use a spray gun frequently enough to be good at it, and if I do my surface preparation correctly, I always get a better result with a brush anyway.  There is just more elbow grease involved, getting the surface level for top coats.

*I would have added some black topcoat to make a gray primer, but the topcoat has silicone in it, which I feared might interfere with adhesion between primer and topcoat.  I don't know that, but why risk it?

Observations on EZ-Prime

I may sound like an advertisement for certain product lines, particularly Pettit Paints and Abatron restoration products.  The reason I like Pettit is because they make a FULL LINE of surface preparation materials that are compatible with their top coats. You don't have to go looking for products to do the job among various manufacturers.  Pettit products are for marine (harsh environment) applications, suitable for wood, metal, fiberglass substrates.  They are high quality, high gloss and durable, and you can use a brush.  There are lots of other manufacturers out there.  I'm just reporting what works for me.

Anyway, the EZ-Prime is LOADED with solids, both titanium dioxide and calcium carbonate.  It is designed to fill defects in the surface to which it is applied so that it can be sanded back smooth and level.  A less heavy-bodied sanding primer that I used on a previous project (shafts painted earlier in this blog) was too wimpy even after four brushed coats to sand with anything coarser than 400 grit, and even then, it was easy to cut right through to bare wood. There are pros and cons to such a heavy material, but the cons are just things that can't be avoided when you want the coverage that allows you to sand to a level surface.

Firstly, it wants to be put on in a fairly full coat, though not full enough to drip or sag.  It seems to level and cover a lot better when a good full coat is put on. I added two ounces of Penetrol to about 22 ounces of EZ-Prime (I had removed 10 oz from the quart to mix for spraying, when I thought I was going to spray) to help flow-out, but I don't think it really mattered.  The first coat went on as you see above.

The one important thing I would suggest is don't use a paint brush that you love.  I pretty much relegated my badger hair brush that I've been using throughout this blog, to applying primer only.  The reason is because I found it VERY hard to wash out all the solids from the brush.

After flowing lots of solvent through the brush there were still lots of tiny white particles stuck in the bristles under the ferrule which I can just bet would show up as dirt in the top coat, if this brush was used for top coating again.

One thing that I found which helped blast the particles out of the brush was this Preval sprayer filled with solvent and sprayed into the bristles.  I think you can get these sprayers at Home Depot now.  It helped blow the particles out of the bristles, but still, I have another badger hair brush that I'll use for top coat, and I'll retain the used brush for the prodigious amount of priming that remains to be done on the carriage.

Let the coats dry 24 hours before recoating. Don't mess with dry times. Do what the instructions say or you'll end up with a defective finish.

I am going to try for three coats of EZ-Prime, with light sanding between coats and wet sanding before top coating.  The label says two coats are sufficient, but the instructions are very basic, and since we're going for dazzle on the carriage paint job, we need to lay on enough material to be able to sand it back dead smooth without cutting through to bare wood (but not create a thick layer of primer to paint over, either!) .

9/1/14 Update

Like watching paint dry?  Here's your chance! :o)  Day two primer, still not enough coverage in some areas.








9/2/14 Update

Oh dear, this is getting really ugly!  Day three primer covered really well.  After drying, what I am doing here is brushing on a "guide coat" of extremely thin paint of a contrasting color.

Oh!  Look how it has settled into all the BRUSH MARKS!  That is the purpose of the guide coat.  I have to sand all that dark stuff away.  It will remain in the low places until I have sanded the surface dead flat.

THEN the seat will be ready to paint!





A Word about the Paint Brush

Throughout this blog I have been using a "badger hair" paint brush obtained from Jamestown Distributors.  I ruined it for top coating when I dipped it into the high-solids primer.  But it is now my primer brush and my second badger hair brush will be reserved for top coats.  Throughout the process this brush has been carefully cleaned and hung in a can of solvent, not touching any part of the can.

This will be the last priming I do for a very long time, so I am going to put the brush away.

First I am going to rinse it in solvent again very thoroughly, then I am going to work liquid dish soap into the bristles.  Then I will rinse it thoroughly in water, and wrap it in a sheet of paper, and lay it away where the bristles will not become distorted.  If I can find a "paint brush comb" I will use that too, to make sure the brush is in good working order for the next job.  If you look back in the blog you can see how I managed the paint brush through many coats of paint.

Dashboard

The old patent leather dashboard was removed from the Concord wagon body and the old, dead patent leather was removed from the frame, in preparation for sending the metal frame out for re-covering.

The frame is rusty and corroded, but will not be visible.  I ground off the rust but made no attempt to "fill" the pits before treating with a rust converter, then metal primer and enamel.  When dry, the frame was sent to Woodlyn Coach Company* to be recovered in modern imitation patent leather.  Woodlyn is one of the few companies who have a sewing machine capable of doing a proper job of recovering a carriage dash.

*Woodlyn Coach, 4410 Township Rd. 628, Millersburg, OH 44654. Ph. 330-674-9124

  I hate sending work out! I'm so afraid of losing pieces!  Before I packaged the frame up, I traced it, measured everything, and even noted the curve.

This dash frame is very plain, but would require a skilled blacksmith to reproduce.  Taking no chances of losing it forever...

While I was at it, I removed the mounting hardware from the carriage body and once again, found hand made hardware - no mass produced castings!  I cleaned everything up, primed, noted punch marks - one punch and a round hole for right, two punches and a square hole for left -  and stored the parts away until ready to be replaced on the restored carriage.




9/2/14 UPDATE 

The newly re-covered dashboard came home today!

Gorgeous, as is typical of Woodlyn's work.

So good to have this part home.  It will be a long time before it graces the front of the buggy again.  For now it will be safely packed away in a corner of a bedroom somewhere.

And just in case you're not familiar with buggy dashboards, you're looking straight at it in this photo.