918 November 2004 update

918 November 2004 update 918
November 2004 Update

This month we moved over to the left side. Upper panels were painted silver, then the middle panels were painted orange. Body work has started under the cab and will continue around the nose to the other side. This will take some time (and lots of body filler). The radiator grills went up on both sides and will eventually get polished. In the meantime Don has been working on the fuel tank skirts that will be re-created to cover the rear two thirds of the fuel tank. The original skirts were moved out slightly to accommodate the expanded fuel talk that was added around 1952. Sometime during the early 60's, WP removed the skirts on most all of the freight F7's to facilitate maintenance. We're still working out a few final "rivet-counting" details on them before they get installed.

Early November...

	Don is tightening the last of the bolts that hold the grills in place.

	Al, Jon, Don and Tim set in place the first of the three grills on the left side.

	They had a lot of fun aligning the grills with the upper panels. Sometime things just don't go back together the way they originally came off...

	I have my work cut out for me here. The body filler is going fast...

	Still lining up those bolts.

	The nose is being stripped down to bare metal before filler work is done.

	Another view of grill work.

	Nearly completed back end. The door needed some extra attention. It will be painted silver... soon.

	View of right side with grills installed. Really starting to look finished.

	Not much left of "Perlman Green". This was the last WP f-unit to still wear this scheme. MU receptacles were removed last year. After filler work is done, it will be primed. Then we will have to wait for a nice day (may be a while) to paint the entire nose orange. The whole thing has to be done in one shot.

Late November...

By November 20th, the fuel tank skirt for right side was completed and installed. Work continued on stripping what was left of the green paint on the nose. Phil Orth came down during the week and spent some time getting this done (after getting plenty of practice by stripping down the 5472). By this date, all green paint was removed and body filler work continues...

The rest of the collection at Oakland's OTR headquarters -
SP 5472, WP 713, OTR 97 and SP 5623.

Photos and text by Dan Furtado

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