Rob & Tash Showmans

Well a good afternoon on the belly tank today, I'm amazed how well all the bolt and rivet holes lined up. Welldone STW. Just waiting for the tank sealer to arrive before fitting the final panels......and for the fingers to recover. Thanks again for your post on the kit Brian, was very useful today.

Tash will start painting the tool box tomorrow if the weather allows.

Yesterday's progress..was great to get back out in the workshop again.


Final adjustment to the bends.

Bellytank Construction by Robert R&N, on Flickr

Looks like the back panel may have warped during welding, but the ratchet straps soon pulled it back again.

Bellytank Construction by Robert R&N, on Flickr

Progress at the end of the day (taken this morning as it was dark when I finished.

Bellytank Construction by Robert R&N, on Flickr


Bellytank Construction by Robert R&N, on Flickr

Still a fair bit to do but getting there. (also got the website updated this evening....to quote a line from a famous film...."So much time, so little to do….wait, strike that. Reverse it").

Hi Rob and Tash

Nice to see progress on your engine. So you will be finished by the end of June

Hi Rob n Tash,
Even though "we" at the "front end" of the build have done it!! It's still great to see progress of those behind us........ brings back lotsa memories!! ................At least you'll have the correct brackets & stuff in the correct positions first time round!!
Keep up the good work,
Regards,
Tony

Hi Rob and Tash,

Just spoken with Isabel and my next kit being dispatched today is the belly tank. So looking at what you are doing and reading Brian's account hopefully will help me with my build of the tank. Isabel suggested that the missing kits ie 2 &3 should be in in March.

Plead keep posting your updates it helps to motivate the rest of us.

Best wishes

Ian

lynnr wrote:Hi Rob and Tash

Nice to see progress on your engine. So you will be finished by the end of June

Of course, just not sure which year

Tony King wrote:Hi Rob n Tash,
Even though "we" at the "front end" of the build have done it!! It's still great to see progress of those behind us........ brings back lotsa memories!! ................At least you'll have the correct brackets & stuff in the correct positions first time round!!
Keep up the good work,
Regards,
Tony

Tony, thats probably the only advantage to being behind. I would rather be up with all of you at the front end of the build and be a few months away from being in steam. I recon once you guys are done and in steam our completion won't come fast enough. I think this years tax rebate will go on extra kits this year.....

IanL wrote:Hi Rob and Tash,

Just spoken with Isabel and my next kit being dispatched today is the belly tank. So looking at what you are doing and reading Brian's account hopefully will help me with my build of the tank. Isabel suggested that the missing kits ie 2 &3 should be in in March.

Plead keep posting your updates it helps to motivate the rest of us.

Best wishes

Ian

Hi Ian

The key, like everything is in the preparation. One problem I have at the moment is I haven't taken off enough material on the chamfers, really got to get it down to about 0.5mm or less. You'll see what I mean from the drawings, I'm abit over this and the end plates don't quite sit right so I have a bit more work to do here. Far easier to take it Right down before putting it together.

The instructions also said STW found it easier to start in the middle of the curved section and work out. In our case with the back panel slightly warped we started on the outside corners (both ends and work towards the centre) then with the ratchet straps we pulled the panel back in line, will depend on your situation but have a look before going to far with the fixings as believe me you only want to put them on the once.

Having built the bowser tank this was a very similar process for us and I am sure that helped.

Good luck, and hope the ends of your fingers don't suffer to much.

Hi Rob,

Many thanks for the tip on the chamfers.

Ian

Had a couple of days off this week to catch up a bit now finger will let me. Have the belly tank together now and in primer, if the weather is nice again tomorrow it will be rubbed down and the first base coat will be going on. Like Ian one end plate fitted like a glove, the other needed about 50% of the holes redrilling, so i didn't quite get it square and all lined up right.

Sorry about picture quality, taken on the phone today.


Belly Tank by Robert R&N, on Flickr


Belly Tank by Robert R&N, on Flickr



Belly Tank by Robert R&N, on Flickr

Had a couple of days off this week to catch up a bit now finger will let me. Have the belly tank together now and in primer, if the weather is nice again tomorrow it will be rubbed down and the first base coat will be going on. Like Ian one end plate fitted like a glove, the other needed about 50% of the holes redrilling, so i didn't quite get it square and all lined up right.

Sorry about picture quality, taken on the phone today.


Belly Tank by Robert R&N, on Flickr


Belly Tank by Robert R&N, on Flickr



Belly Tank by Robert R&N, on Flickr

As well as the work to the belly tank have over the last few days painted the name plate for the toolbox just and the tooolbox also ready for base coat.


Tool Box by Robert R&N, on Flickr


Tool Box by Robert R&N, on Flickr


Also planning to rub down and finish the borser tank tomorrow. Signwriting lesson next Sunday and looking forward to it, will then start the lining out of the bowser tank. [b]

Rob it is looking good,

Have just come in from the workshop where the POR15 is hopefully doing its bit to seal the belly tank, still have to start the painting on any of the parts of the tank or fittings so good to see the name plate completed.

Ian

Thanks Ian, gave the final joints a second coat first thing this morning so was able to get primer on just after lunch. Hope you dont have to much leak out, when i did the bowser it went everywhere. This time I have brush applied with two good thick coats so hope it's worked.

The brackets have all been painted with the first base coat in black, as has the inside, base and inside the lid of the tool box.

Well done Rob and Tish

I will now have to make the final work of fitting the end panels on my belly tank from you and Ian's tips as you followed my build process so thanks for posting this info. I did get distracted by the diff kit so I have ended up putting off finishing the belly tank. I wanted to do the grinding down outside rather than cover the garage in a pile of metal dust as there is quite a lot to remove.

I also missed last weekend's workshop time due to hosptial visits with both my wife and daughter for two seperate things - crazy weekend is all I can say, just getting my sleep patern back to normal. Hope to get some done this weekend but must be concious of mothers day

Cheers

Brian

Thanks Brian

We found that leaving the corner long rivets very loose helped with the final shaping of the plates. We put a bolt (stronger than the rivets) in the next hole along and tightend so it pulled the plate nicely to shape, then did the same with the longer rivets already in the corners and it pulled together nicely and brought the angles together with minimal gap.

Rob

I was using the countersunk socket head screws for that putting the tender together. There are quite a few left over so I will use them as you recommend.

Cleading kit should arrive tomrrow to but I should not get distracted again.

Brian

Bad day today, decided as it was a nice morning I would spray the belly tank out in the open air (2nd base coat). Just as I was finishing it started spitting for about 30 seconds, not long but long enough to spoil the paint work. Havent looked at it since moving it in to the dry, but depending on the damage may have to rub back and start again on panels affected.

That will teach me

On a positive note the Bowser tank was given its final top coat yesterday, and looks great. One small run to sort out but otherwise its come out really well. Thanks for all the tips on spraying, the inline filter seems to have done the trick and solved the problem I was having.

Sorry about the water damage to the paint. I was dodging very short heavy and very cold rain showers today.

Glad you are getting to grips with the spray gun and where are the water bowser pictures then

lynnr wrote:Sorry about the water damage to the paint. I was dodging very short heavy and very cold rain showers today.

Glad you are getting to grips with the spray gun and where are the water bowser pictures then

One of those things that will be easily solved, just a bit more rubbing down. I'll have a proper look tomorrow and see how bad it is. I like the look of your engine the colours are working really well, and looks great in the sunshine.

Images of the Bowser to follow in the bawser section, at the moment its hung in the workshop and i've left it there for now. Light levels are to low for decent photo's (poor excuse as I could have taken the studio lights out there), but some will follow I hope tomorrow if back hope at a decent hour.

We have not done anything on the Engine as such this weekend even though the weather has been great. However today we spent the day doing a bit of signwriting down at Wayne Osborne's studio.....this is not as easy as he makes it look. I'll need much more practice before I start the final fascia boards.

First a few of Tash giving it a go.....

Good result, this is just two hours in to the day.


Signwriting by Robert R&N, on Flickr

After lunch on to the real thing...


Signwriting by Robert R&N, on Flickr


Signwriting by Robert R&N, on Flickr


Signwriting by Robert R&N, on Flickr


IMG_1021 by Robert R&N, on Flickr

While she was doing her name I was looking at the more traditional letters we would be needing for the fascia...

Initial sketch of the letter...

Signwriting by Robert R&N, on Flickr

Transfered to the board...

Signwriting by Robert R&N, on Flickr

Main body in paint...

Signwriting by Robert R&N, on Flickr

Finished letter...

Signwriting by Robert R&N, on Flickr

There are several bits I am not happy with, but for the first go I am not too worried, with practice it will get better.

One problem though this took about 3 hours, so with 66 letters to do there is months of work. Our actual font is simpler than this but even so there is a lot of work to be done. It may be I speak to STW and change to order of kits to get the canopy around the same time as the rest of you sp I can take my time with it.

Most impressive & although it might take a month to do your canopy, it'll WOW people for years!!
I'm jealous!!
Regards,
Tony

WOW,

Tash that looks brilliant I can see a new money spinner in doing sign writing.
Ian

Ian / Tony

Thanks for your comments, we had a good day learning another new skill for the build. We will be doing a bit of practice over the next few months and hope Between us we can do the art of signwriting justice in the final work.

Any one interested in giving it a go I can recommend Osborne Signs in Midhurst.

Next challenge....gold leaf.

Sorry Rob missed your post. Phone does not always show unread. Looks very impressive indeed. I also want to do the gold leaf. Should be fun.

Rob and Lynn,

GOLD LEAF !!

OK I give in

Ian