Rio Grande Explorations

 

RGX IV

January 13-15 & 18, 2022

 

Another, unexpected, free weekend. The plan called for work Thursday and Friday evenings, all day Saturday, and part of Sunday afternoon.

 

Thursday evening, Noah and I removed the fill pipe for the gas tank, the rear pull bar, the rear light, and the fuel tank.

 

Friday evening we removed the seats and seat frames.

 

Saturday morning, Everett Lueck came over to lend a hand. With his help we pulled out all of the windows, cleaned the battery box, and did a first pass on scraping the paint of the interior. After he left, I sanded the entire front and then Noah helped me prime it.

 

 

Before the Weekend

Casey got the crank and cam back in the case.

Valves are good.

 

 

Looks great!

 

Thursday Evening

 

Noah uses a wrench to hold nuts so Daddy can remove the bolts on the outside of the car.

 

 

Rear Pull Bar

These photos are archived so that I have an easy-to-find reference when reassembling the car.

 

Fill pipe for the fuel tank already removed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Done for the day.

 

Friday Evening

Archive photos of the seat frames so I can put them back together correctly.

 

 

 

Noah oils some stubborn nuts

 

He's very focused on his task.

 

Done for the evening and Noah helps clean up before dinner.

 

Seats are out

 

 

Saturday

Everett cuts the trim around the windows so we can remove them.

It turns out that only the front windows are safety glass. The rest are Lexan and that'll make it much easier and cheaper to replace.

One panel of safety glass is re-usable and it'll go in front of the Motorman's seat.

 

 

Kill switch in the Battery Box

 

 

Cable entry port on the Motorman's side of the Battery Box

 

Cleaning out the Battery Box.

 

Artsy photo of Everett

 

We scraped the interior with wire brushes and Everett tested some primer.

It didn't work, so I'll go back and power-wash off all of the loose paint from the interior when the weather warms up enough.

 

Archive photos of the passenger side vent

 

 

All of the front sanded down to bare metal

 

Noah helped me prime it

 

 

DONE!

 

Tuesday

(After work)

We took advantage of a warm day and power-washed the roof and the interior.

 

 

The next step is to complete the sanding of the exterior and then prime the entire car, inside and out.

 

 

 

+