Painting mishap!

Having lived for 8 years on a couple of narrowboats,  Moored and worked with my ex-husband, Neil, in Welford Marina, I have dabbled in boat painting, both inside and out.

Roses and Castles, signwriting and painting the outside of a narrowboat is done with enamel paint.  
Excellent paint can be bought from. Craft Master
A fascinating range of colours for classic cars, traction engines, trains, boats and more.
Let the experimentation begin.

My experimentations began with a beautiful oak chair which I decided to undercoat and then in the style of the pallet wood experiments cover with lots of different coloured paint which I’ve purchased for the bus, then stress and distress it.  Very proud of the sanding and priming I show Ali ( my brother). Whoops I had misunderstood he wanted the chair restoring to its original woodiness not messed about with and DEFINATELY not PINK.  Steve cut me some lengths of pallet wood and I began again.

Pallet wood, interior wall experiments.

Thanks to Steve the Chippy introducing me to the idea of covering the interior walls with upcycled pallet wood.  Inspiration from Colin Jaques – Narrowboat Builder and Youtuber.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d380IKS2Xdg. Colin and his trusty tripod ‘Trevor’,
Unloading and storage of pallet wood on a rainy day.  Hurrah for bus patios.
 take us through the joys and trials of narrowboat building.  It is on about chapter 18 and 19 that we see the panelling in all it’s glory.  
So the workout continues, pallet wood is ordered for phase 1, downstairs = 140, 1.8 meter by 10cm x 2cm planks collected from Jeremy.
Load the van,  unload the van, store the wood in the dry.  Sand the wood, Paint with undercoat,  Experiment with colours for the topcoat.  Thank goodness it is a double-decker, rain doesn’t stop play and Im happily painting the wood after carrying it upstairs while Steve works downstairs.

All the pallet wood now has a white undercoat and is ready to cut to size and panel the downstairs walls.  My arms are killing me and just as I begin to feel pleased with myself I realize… that is just the wood for downstairs.  Wondering if I want to do this again for upstairs or use ply sheets…tempting.

Destruction before Construction

The first problem with an angle grinder is that when kitted out with my COVID19 mask, goggles; steaming up from the mask, and gloves are that I can’t turn the bloody thing on.  I have spent the day finding Ali or Steve to turn it on! Grinding for about 10 minutes until my arms start to shake, taking a 10-minute break, then finding Ali or Steve to turn it on again. Repeat, Repeat…

Anyway, apart from that it has been fun grinding the paint from the overhead struts ( yes overhead, that’s why 10 – minutes is my max.  Great for the inner core ladies,  maybe I should do a post about building strength and diet for the female bus builder!  Ahh, I digress, let’s see a video.  The video is of Ali not me, but you get the idea.

Week 1 Over view

Inside, downstairs, week 1

So I thought it may be useful to view achievements and the bank account at the end of one week.  Eekk.

Phase 1 – Inside, downstairs Week 1

Removing all excess materials.        
Polishing ceiling spars
Cutting and sanding ceiling and wall wood.
Painting ceiling and wall wood with undercoat

9mm ply far Eastern 9mm 20
Roof tile baton 25x50x4.8= 10lengths 50m
Floor skin T+G chipboard w/r 24
75 x50x4.8 Baton 25m
45x50x4.8 Baton 25m
849
Enamel paint – outside 330
Pallet wood 1.8m 140 140
countersunk self tapping screws Wrong type, anyone want them?? No refunds during COVID 19 1000 50
sanding sheets 24 15
4 foam rollers 3
Silicone – sticks like… 20 120
Self-drilling screws 60
Nails, Undercoat paint 141
1728


Conversations with the bus company about window sealing and
extraction
Installing 12v and 240v cabling lighting and appliance plans.

OK,   Week 2 bring it on.  Light mint paint on the ceiling
boards. 

Total to date = 7398 GBP

Walter’s History

Hello everyone,

So today I was going through/ tidying everything out of the bus, ready to begin transforming Walter when I came across a Daily check pad from 2012.

How exciting, I now know Paulo Silva drove the bus every day apart from 16th and 19th of March when Philip James drove him and for 2 weeks from 26th of April until the 18th of May 2012 when Patrick drove him. Mmmm intrigue, or maybe just nosey.   
So to satisfy my curiosity I have messaged the company to find out more about them and Walter the Denis Dominator.  Let’s see what transpires.
A friend has also wondered where Walter was built, stating that most British coaches are conceived at Walter Alexander in Camelon.  Thanks, Kenny, further evening investigating when my arms are too tired to do any more work.
Ok, that’s all for today.  Roof struts to polish with an angle grinder – more about that tomorrow.  See you then :))

The Double Decker Dream

Upstairs plan for Walter

Upstairs will include a bright seating area and a library full of lots of my father’s books.  Hush don’t tell him, we haven’t asked him yet.  He has super picture books about volcanos, fauna and flora, steam engines etc. ideal for browsing on rainy British summer days.  There will be a shower room and bathroom and at the end of the top deck a spacious master bedroom. See below for the 3D plan looking from the left and the right.  

Any ideas for space-saving in the bathroom, it’s a bit squidged.?
Tomorrow I’m going to order wood and supplies for phase 1 – ceiling, walls and floor panelling, get some idea of what this little lot is going to cost.  See you tomorrow :))

The Double Decker Dream

Planning the inside of Walter





Downstairs birds-eye view.

Here it is, the post you have been waiting for Today,  tape measure in hand; one of those 5 m long twangy ones; that take off a finger if you let them coil back in too quickly, and two lengths of A4 paper stuck together, I measured and drew an inside floor plan of the top and bottom deck. We still want to to be like a bus inside so the finished layout will include the driver’ seat and steering wheel, original first aid kit and extinguishers.  Seats will be reupholstered and used within the dining space and the back seat cinema.  Below is a 3D side view of the bottom deck, looking left and right.

The layout is more or less finalised, but if you have any ideas for the final decor or space-saving ideas, I’d love to know what you think.  Tomorrow I will share plans for the upstairs area.  See you then 🙂