Winter wagon work

As the new season draws nearer we always ask the same question “when are we going to paint the living wagon?” This year was no exception. The wagon has suffered from the weather, the sun cooking it in the summer and the rain in the winter and the back off it and one side was badly needing some work. We decided to start at the back, as we rubbed back the wood it was clear that it could do with being replaced or we would be using a lot of filler. The decision was taken to use a good quality hard wood. Finding the wood was a more difficult task than we thought. We spent the afternoon driving around the local Hampshire timber yards with not a lot of luck. We didn?t have much time to wait as the beginning of our rally season was only just around the corner. Eventually found a supply of hard wood and we pick out the best 21 panels and paid the HUGE bill!

The wood was soaked in a wood preserve and left for a couple of days to soak in and dry. We spent the following weekend ripping off the old panels and replacing them with the new. We were pulling the old panels off and we uncovered a load of information that had been written on the inner panels of the wagon detailing its history from when it belong to its previous owner (Peter Fagg). The camera was then put to good use recording this information before we carried on with the task in hand.

What had started as a bit of rubbing back and painting had now turned into a big job and we could see that the first event of the season was creeping up fast. The difficult decision was made to forgo this event and get on with the reboarding. After some debating about which paint to use we then had to find someone that could supply it. The selected paint was micro-porous as this would allow the wood to breath so hopefully we wouldn’t have to repaint the wagon every year. Two coats were applied and left to dry before replacing the window and reflectors etc.

The roof of the wagon was also starting to look tatty and in places around the edge holes had appeared over the winter so we decided that we should refelt the roof. This was done in a day and now looks much better.

We had to stop there as we had missed one event and we didn’t want to miss any more, so we have a lovely reboarded and painted back of the wagon and the roof is water tight. It’s a shame the sides of the wagon look slightly worn. Still it will give us something (else) to do over the winter this year!