I have been busy this weekend.
There is still more to do and I need some new sheet metal parts but I was feeling I should make it look right for it's new owner, Bill.
First, I took it all off the board, Flipped the board over and surveyed it. It only had 8 extra holes evenly spaced 2" in from the boarders. Each has a broken off screw or nail. This side was never finished and had plenty of darker than normal spots from the grain. There are also hundreds of tiny age cracks in the surface layer.
I did not have the proper equipment to sand the old unfinshed surface so it did not come out very good at all. When I was done there was still a fair amount of discoloration so I treated it to a chlorine bleach bath. After that I had to sand it some more with a rotary disc sander which is not the right tool but one I could locate which is not the case for my belt sander. I made a batch of my signature blend of urethane with reddish and golden brown tinting (stain). I put on a few coats of the stuff. While I am not happy with it, it will do in a pinch. At some point I will likely find someone with a good planing machine take it down to flat and bare wood again. From there I will hand sand it or is needed, add a new surface layer (press and glue).
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There are just too many holes in the original top side:
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Under the aluminum heat shield is a plaster filling a shallow bowl where charred wood was scraped out by the previous owner. This was a neat smart fix given what he started with. If I wind up adding a new surface layer I may Just go back to this side and cover it up for good.
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Here is the wood after sanding , bleach, and more sanding.
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And here it is after some urethane.
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A visitor's last visit!
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Next. the firebox gets cleaned and gets 2 coats of copper paint
followed by 3 coats of clear lacquer.
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Next step was to clean up the engine and boiler.
Eventually, I got to the generator, too!
The original paint on these parts was in mostly excellent condition.
To clean off the years of oil build up I used GoJo hand cleaner - the smooth non-abrasive type.
It is old (more than 10 years) and is now looking like brown motor oil instead of a white paste.
While it looks like it has gone bad, it still works great. It scrub with a soft towel soaked with the GoJo.
And then wipe it clean with a dry part of the towel. Then I cleaned the nickeled surfaces by gently hand polishing with Simichrome and a soft microfiber towel.
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Next step was to flip the wood back over to make a paper template for drilling the mounting holes for the firebox, generator, and engine.
Then drilling which gave me the opportunity to use a small bit to use the smaller correctly sized screws for the firebox which I had purchased from Jensen a few years back.
My work is now mostly done until we get some new sheet metal.
Below are some pictures of what it looks like.
Enjoy!
Gil
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Very impressive Gil! Looking great! It’s in good hands.
That's looking really good already
Awesome work Gil!
Lots of good tips here watching you clean this one up.
I would never have thought to flip the base board and refinish the other side.
Looking forward to the next update.
Bill should be very pleased with the result.
Regards,
Charlie
Hi Charlie, Yes, Bill is happy with it so far. In fact he is having a great time reviewing the updates I have been sending him.
Thank you all..!
Gil
Looks great, new owner should be very happy with that.
Great job, Gil! Looks fantastic!
Who'd have thought that was even the same engine?!?!?
Gil, I think any 50 or 51 that comes your way will get the best of the best cleanup and discrete refinishing. Beautiful job.
Rog
Thanks gents. At some point I will re-visit this project when I get the boiler straps correctly fastened and a proper plug set up.
Gil
Today I made up a brand new plug and cloth cord with NOS parts.
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When I get a proper chimney stand, I will likely replace the zebra striped cord (although I must say it is good quality wiring).