Submitted by DJ DePanicis
Much progress has been made over the past few weeks. Both new end beams have been shaped, with the one on the east end completely finished aside from the installation of the ladder. The railings, hand brake, and coupler lever have all been installed and are straight and secure. The west end beam has all of the railings and hand brake on. The coupler lever and ladder still need to be attached. The porch floor on the East end of the car is in great shape and not in need of any work. The West end porch has been completely removed and will need to be fully replaced.
I showed up Early Sunday morning to find much work to be done. Both walls were almost completely sided with only a few boards needed on both sides. This work was done by both Steve and Joe. The stove has also seen some TLC with a fresh coat of black high temp paint. The finished product looks pretty good. When Rob showed up, we went to work finishing the interior siding. Of course, these pieces were the ones that needed special cuts to fit around bolts and other hardware. After a few test fits, the new material was installed and secured. Once completed, we moved onto cleaning and organizing the material under the car. Much of it was sent to the burn pile, however we did save a few pieces for future use.
After lunch, we finished cleaning up material and moved to patching a section of floor that was slowly splintering away. To our advantage, the material being replaced came up pretty easily without destroying existing tongues and grooves. Amazingly, we were able to slide the new flooring into the existing floor. The floor will need sanded to level it out, but for the most part, the floor is shaping up nicely.
Looking ahead, there are a few projects that need to happen in order to move forward with other projects. Steve is looking into finding the material to make the porch roof supports. This is difficult due to the size of material needed. Once these are made, the roof can be installed. We also decided that installing the exterior siding on the SE corner of the car. This will allow us to install that step box which will make getting on and off the car much easier. With that being said, here is a list of the next steps that can be completed by anyone:
-Sweep under the car
-prime the tongues on 25-30 exterior siding boards
-Construct west end porch
-Bring in all remaining siding from the Triple Crown trailer
-Purchase roofing paper or Tyvek paper for under exterior siding
-Figure out locations for all grab irons
If you have not seen the progress on the car, be sure to stop in and check it out. Also, look for the video coming out from Kelly.
Thanks to all of you who have supported and helped with the project. We are well on the way to a completed car.
