My Cannonball Run Entry The Night Train

[oldcarfan]

I have the wheels and tires in place and the chassis about ready to go on, but I'm stalled due to weather. I have an office in the shop and our A/C is not keeping up. It's been 103 outside and higher inside so I'm waiting for this heat dome thing to go away. I have ordered one of those mobile A/C units and I'll have to see if it helps. If nothing else, I suppose the heat will have finally hardened that Rustoleum paint! lol

[oldcarfan]

Sort of an accidental progress weekend. I discovered a positive side effect of the heat we're having!

I needed to work on a non-model shop project and had to paint some metal parts. My wife bought Krylon Fusion paint for it which to me seems a bit like Rustoleum in that it takes a while to harden completely.

Being out in the heat causes some issues because I had four heat strokes in a row a couple of years ago and don't handle the heat so well anymore. It takes planning to be out there for very long safely. Here in central Texas we're currently running about 103-107 in the afternoon with some humidity thrown in. With that in mind I got up early and went to the shop to prep the metal parts. I painted everything while it was a cool 94 and left it outside on the drying rack. I forgot about the parts until last night and when I checked on them the sun's rays and the heat had acted as a true dryer. Everything felt like it had been painted days ago instead of just that morning.

As for my workshop, it's in an uninsulated metal building which is basically an oven. I divided it up and turned some of it into an enclosed hobby area and insulated that part, but in these extreme temps it still gets into the 90s even with an window a/c. Maybe in the Fall I can do some more upgrades. Last winter we had a lot of below freezing days and the hobby room stayed comfortable with just a small plug-in heater. To put a positive spin on the heat delay, sometimes I do better work when I have time to think about what I'm going to do. I get some pretty good ideas that way.

Regarding the actual Night Train project, before it got too hot this morning, I worked on making some antenna (antennae?) for the roof and pretty much have the wheels and tires ready.

Edited July 1, 2024 by oldcarfan

[oldcarfan]

Can't believe it taken so long. It's now mid-October and we've finally got some cooler temperatures. There's a cold front coming in and this coming week it'll only be in the 80s! I went into the shop and got some work done, mostly just straightening up and finding all the parts I left laying around in July. I did manage to do a little assembly work on my entry and hope to have it finished soon.