Hello everyone, and welcome to another update from Quorn. This week, we’ve finally been able to get some paint on both 3606 and 3621 which marks a big step forward in their restoration, especially given the recent abrupt end to the summer.
While Dave and I got the equipment assembled and ready, Ernie, Daniel, James and Nick completed some final preparation work on the tanks.
Our new paint pot is an upgrade, we now have capacity for 10litres of paint up from 2, which means a lot less time spent mixing and filling up the tank! Dave and I used 12 litres of grey primer/undercoat over both 3606 and 3621. We had to spent a little bit of time avoiding/ drying up after small showers during the day, but we were able to get both tanks into undercoat, save for the portion of the under fame below the dock.
While Dave, Nick and I got the tanks painted, Charlie and Ernie made a start welding up the splash guards for 3854. Nick assisted with bending up a new end for one of the pieces.
For Dave and I, Sunday was pretty much a rinse and repeat of Satruday, only this time with black gloss paint, rather than grey! Nick and Oliver assisted with some spot drying of the tank barrel and underframe. We’ve opted to try some skip and container paint on these as an experiment. Tom got some undercoat on the underframe on the parts of the tanks below the dock, and he was willing to have a go with the spray gun.
Nick and Oliver ended up going to Swithland to look at 80307, which was noticed to have had a window blank fallen inside the vehicle. This has been fitted since it arrived, and had fallen out in the wind. The piece was refitted, and sealed back to the door for the time being.
Charlie and Ernie carried on with the weldeing until the generator ran out of petrol, after which Charlie and Oliver started to repair the steps up to the tool van.
Tom finished up the tank; by taking the spray gun below the dock again and spraying up the underframe. A second coat is required for both tanks, but we’re glad we’ve got them both started!
That wraps up this weekend’s work, We’ll have to sort out a second coat for the tanks at some point soon, and then its on with the signwritng. Plus we’ll have to sort out the Esso plates! I’m not sure what the plan is for next week, we are very dependent on the weather at the moment, so join us next week and see what we end up doing! Thanks for reading, Ross