Working party reports for August 2018.

​2 working parties were undertaken during August.
On Saturday 18th, Pete started the final push towards getting the front of the cab area painted whilst Graham Pearce set about the final part of restoring the “Fly ladder” brackets with new copper washers and leather inserts.
Before setting about the actual cab, it was decided to try and clean up the aluminum trims around the windscreen and dashboard areas. This was no easy task as they hadn’t been cleaned in probably 30 years, are a difficult shape and area to get at and Pete had no real experience of the best method to use! After much head scratching and trying different techniques and materials, a plastic based rotary drill attachment with some metal polish, accompanied by occasional wire brushing, produced an acceptable finish.
Once this and the full masking up of the areas were done, all surfaces were cleaned thoroughly and finally the paint could go on. The dashboard area and the engine top cover had 1 top coat before time ran out, but the signs were promising for a good finish.
Graham meanwhile had made good progress but was prevented from finishing as he ran out of copper rivets.

​The following week, Saturday 25th, Pete & Graham were back at Romford for a re run but this time it was decided that every effort should be made to get both jobs fully finished in advance of the next event for 240 which was going to happen on the following Sunday.
Once again, the front seats came out, the cab was stripped of all the small parts, had a thorough flatting down, clean and finally the masking up done and then the paint could go on. Once masked up, we were about to start the spraying of the area behind the seats when we realised that like last week, we should sensibly try to clean down the brightwork and trims abutting the paint area.
Last week was a real trauma trying different systems to clean the alloy so this time, a more pragmatic view was adopted and Pete set about the central divider top panel with a small amount of extra fine rubbing compound and a superfine sanding soft pad. Eureka!!! It has come up a treat with almost no effort. This will now be finished off next time with a quick clean with metal polish to be sure of removing the remaining paint residue from previous efforts of others.
The back panels and engine side panels had their first coat, the front dashboard area and engine cover, which had previously had 1 coat got masked up and then had their 2nd coat, and finally back to the rear panels and engine side panels for coat number 2 and the job, was done with ½ can of paint left out of the 6 x 400ml tins we started with.
It is really pleasing to see 240FLM with her correct colour reinstated, hopefully next year we will be in a position to do the same to the outside.