The answer was YES! Actually some frenetic work got the carriage temporarily reassembled a few days before my birthday (and a few days before the rain!) and I finally managed to scratch my 9 month itch to drive it!
Thankfully! I was at a critical point where I needed some serious validation before putting it away for awhile!
Overall, the ride was unremarkable. The elaborate side springs did much to smooth out large bumps, but having no upholstery, there was plenty of road vibration, and the bare wood seat back forced me to lean forward in a most undignified manner! :o)
Hubby is at this moment down in the shop, revamping the hoses and filters on the air compressor. We've pretty well determined that much of my difficulty with spray painting in the past was due to restricted airflow to the paint gun, due to undersized, too long hose, and too many low-volume quick couplers. The HVLP paint guns require a large volume of air (CFM) to be delivered at low pressure (hence the HVLP designation) and our air compressor is barely adequate for the job. Restricted air flow has caused all manner of atomization problems with the paint. I hope to have a blog post about this eventually but it would only touch the surface...spray painting is a very technical skill.
That being said, I have decided not to pin my self esteem on the results. Like all trades, there are farm shop welders and there are professional welders. There are farm shop painters and there are professional painters. The big differences are knowledge and experience. I have just barely enough of each to do a farm shop job, but still, I'll do the best I can.
One thing I know for sure is that I'll never touch a paint brush to a carriage again if I can avoid it! Trying to achieve a glass-like finish with a paint brush is an arduous process. There was a reason they invented spray guns!
The carriage went back up on blocks and I fetched in the wheels and shafts for a final sanding of the wood and taping of the rubber tires. The sanding is for final smoothing of the wood and de-glossing the clear sealer. The wood feels like silk! Just light work with 220 grit sand paper, but I can sure feel the "I'm sick of this!" creeping in! I think this is the point where giving up starts to look attractive, but it won't happen...I bought the thing to drive it! I WILL get it painted and upholstered, but we'll just have to wait and see if I splurge on pinstriping.
Anyway, one wheel sanded and taped, three to go.
By the way, it is my intention to paint the wheels, running gear and shafts yellow. I have two quarts of fairly bright yellow and two quarts of white paint, and a couple of empty gallon paint cans. I am scared to death to see what I come up with when I begin mixing!
