Weld it, paint it!

A day at the Rocks By Rail Museum where it was a day of welding and painting.

I did some MIG welding for the first time in over 20 years to sew back together the JCB cover to the hydraulic tank that I had battered with a hammer to straighten into something near its original shape. To ease that hammering process I had cut the metal at various points to take some of the stress out of it. As you can see a pallet makes a great welding station but it does work!

I surprised myself that I did not blow any holes in the metal with my welding which also seemed to have welded the metal together in a strong manner!

It certainly fits better although it needs some hinges now. A job for later!

Meanwhile, John who must be getting fed up with the sight of grey paint, was doing some touching in of the three plank wagon before it is deployed into service.

Alex, meantime, was busy painting the internal roof of Ketton No3 - not the easiest job when your hair is so near to wet paint!

It certainly looks a bit brighter in the cab from outside!

As painting seemed to be the in thing, Rob and I finished much of the JCB, Harriot. From a distance it looks good. I will say going closer can lead to disappointment! However this was never a serious restoration project and Harriot will be back digging things in the new year!