Wet Sanding - The Movie!

At last, the time comes to begin the final countdown to painting.  

There is one more operation to perform on the running gear, wheels, shafts, bolsters and singletree:  Wet sanding.

Just like it sounds, wet sanding means rubbing the primed surface down with wet sandpaper.  We do this to obtain the smoothest possible surface to receive the color coats, so that any blemishes will be leveled prior to painting.

This is such an important step, that I made a little video of the process, for those who are unfamiliar with it.  It's an unscripted, back yard video.  Hopefully seeing how it's done will show why it is such an important step toward painting success.

A pictorial blog post of wet sanding this carriage's seat to remove brush marks can be seen here.

UPDATE 7/26/15  

My friend and fellow restorer, Walt Ashford offers a word of advice.  As you've seen in the video it is sometimes nearly impossible to avoid sanding very close to the wood.  Walt advises that you should be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that the surface is bone dry before applying any type of additional paint - primer or otherwise.  The porous wood may have absorbed a tiny bit of moisture during the wet sanding process, and this bit of moisture could come back to haunt you in the form of a blemish in your final paint job later on!

All Dressed in White!

The last of a century's wear and tear disappeared under white primer today as the running gear received its first coats.

It's about a week short of a year from the day we first brought the beautiful carriage home.

Think we'll celebrate tonight!:o)

Some of my friends reading this encouraged me to replace the "perch bolt" and the "king bolt"  shown in this picture with authentic reproductions in the early stages of the project.  Would you repeat the advice?  :o)  Not only gorgeously authentic, but new and perfectly sound as well.

Now it is easy to savor the beautiful details without the distraction of ugly scars and nasty old paint, dirt and rust.

A real challenge awaits, trying to put a nice paint job on this very complex assembly!

The gear will receive a few more coats of primer, followed by the reasonably pleasant task of wet sanding the gear and rest of the parts that are at that stage.

Then...

PAINT!