Steel 7-21-12

There was a rather long break this spring/summer because of vacations and work sessions down south.  We got back at it in July continuing with prepping and installing steel reinforcing.

The photo above shows the west end of the car with the steel in place.  The pieces for the inner sills can be seen resting on the cross ties below.

The ends of the steel were cut to conform with the moulding of the corner as shown above.  Holes were drilled for bolts to secure in place.

Holes needed to be drilled in the longitudinal pieces of steel to accommodate the tie rods that pass through the width of the car, as well as for bolts to secure it in place.  They were placed on blocks in position as above, and the locations for drilling were marked.

Thanks be to whoever invented the mag drill!  I had never used one before, but it made drilling heavy steel relatively easy, as opposed to using a hand drill.

We used a "special sauce" for a drill lubricant that worked better than oil alone.  Contact me if you would like the formula.  It came from Greg Roberts at the Trolley museum.

Meanwhile, Tom is treating spacers that will be placed under the sills since the vertical dimension of the steel is greater than that of the sill.

The trim pieces over the ends of the doors will need replacing, and the roof curve is not a simple arc of a circle.  A protractor was fashioned and measurements made to help determine the shape of the curve.

More very soon.