Well, I took a deep breathe and began to take the Lady to pieces. I was terrified but spurred on because I want to take it to the Steam Show at Onslow at the end of August and I want it to look great when I do!
The first thing I did was to have a new handle for the hand brake made, what do you think? A very nice neighbour made it for me from a solid piece of aluminium.
After stripping the pram down I sent a lot of the chrome work for rechroming, such as these finials on the chassis, which had seen better days. Luckily the wheels didn't need doing they cost upwards of £150 to have re-chromed.
I can supply the name and address of the people who did the work for me, if anyone needs chroming done, I can't recommend them enough.
I can't tell you what hard work it all was, especially as I didn't have all of the right tools, like a sander polisher for instance, but I won't have that problem again, I am ordering one in the morning, it's far too hard without one! But here you can see some of the paintwork when I had finished. It still needs more polishing and if I get any better at it I will probably decide to do it again at some point. I want it to be perfect and I still don't feel that it is at the moment, although it is a lot better than it was.
Famous last words! I kept looking at it and thinking that I didn't like this and I didn't like that so I stripped it all down again and it is awaiting it's second coat at the moment! (August 2007) Here are a couple of photographs of what I managed the first time anyway and I hope it isn't too long before I can show you the end result. Never mind it is all practice I suppose!
I left it a few days, flattened out the run and the rest of the body and recoated a second time and the second coat of paint reacted to the first coat of paint for some reason, (only where I had rubbed it down, over the run) even though it was the same paint and the same thinners! When I asked the experts, I was told that I hadn't left it long enough to dry and that I should give it at least a week, so I gave it 10 days and it still reacted. That was when I lost it and took the Nitro Mors to it!
OOhh there were tears, I can tell you! Here it is in my little tented shed, almost ready to start putting on the top coat. I plan on giving it 7 - 8 layers before polishing it off. But I rather suspect that it isn't going to be ready for the Steam Show at Onslow which is only just over a week away now!
I have cursed up hill and down dale I can assure you and it would have cost me a lot less to have paid someone to have done it for me, plus I wouldn't have had the worry and sleepless nights, I mean after all this is THE lADY that I am talking about here!
I have thought many times that I should have got out the camera and taken some photographs but haven't really had the heart to record the mess I was in, so this is the first time that I have felt at all optimistic about it. First of all I was told that you couldn't put ordinarly cellulose paint straight on top of bare wood , that I would be better taking the Dulux to it! That was like a red rage to a bull! Apart from anything else, I didn't have time to do it, I needed cellulose on it. Then I was told as well that you can't spray oil based paint, but I know you can because I have done it, so I figured that that person might not really have all the facts at his fingertips! So I rang the experts who told me what to use and how to go on and in fact you can use cellulose straight on top of wood, above is the proof and they have guaranteed me that it will not all come off in the first breeze either! Here's hoping! LoL What I have used is a high build cellulose undercoat which will fill all of the little nookd and crannies which wood has so many of! I have also used some fine filler here and there, in fact I am still fussing over tiny bits that are not up to scratch, but I do have that deadline to worry about and I am still getting the sleepless nights, the house is like an absolute pigsty and I can't help it! It won't be perfect I am sure, but I will do my best. Next step I hope will be polishing with my lovely new electric buffer! I hope to goodness that it works!
Well I think I have anyway! There is a little bubble that has come up in one place and I don't know why it is there or what has caused it, but I am not going to take the lot off just for that, I will see what it is like when I come to polish it up tomorrow and even then it might have to stay that way, I can't face starting again! Everything is drying now, we'll see what it looks like tomorrow. Poor cat has got to put up with the smell of cellulose thinners again tonight in her shed! On the plus side, the heater is on in there to keep the damp air off the wet paint, because it is throwing it down with rain again.
This was about three quarters of the way through the spray job
Just who is that glamorous woman there? Posh Spice eat your heart out. I came in and took off the mask and I have still got paint all around my nose and mouth! Will need nail polish remover to get rid of it I think!
This is a close up of the final paint coat, before it gets it's polishing tomorrow afternoon, or maybe Sunday for safety
She is getting there though, isn't she?? That is the reflection of my hand/finger on the new paint on the side of the pram.
