Oh shucks Rick, I was just funnin' atcha. But shirly there is some machine you have restored that you can toss in the van that has not won a ribbon yet? The machine, I mean...the van is notorious enough.
"and I have been fortunate enough to have been exposed to a lot of different things in my life"
Same thing with myself and I work at a live Theatre complex with full shops where techniques can be asked about and learned. I took great care to do everything myself after advice was given.
"It's not talent. It's patience"
True words and I wish I'd had a bit more of it...and time...when I mustered the courage to dive into my project. Had I known how the paint was going to cure I'd have taken more care with the floor nozzle case to smooth out the corrosion imperfections and under-paint flaws - the pn was my first piece and it was too late to strip & do it over.
Assorted hammers, prybars, Sandpaper, Kurly Kates, grinder, steel wool, various metal files...and wrist aching patience did a bang up job on the main vacuum cans but still, in order to preserve the ink-stamped serial number I had to leave the rear caster casting's corrosion bumps and lumps as is under a fresh coat of paint. With the tools on board camouflaging and distracting perhaps the glaring flaws will be forgiven...
Ah well, it looks a dang sight better than what I started with and it was well deserving of every effort to resuscitate.
I too, took many pictures of the before, during and after and in the end, it is a vacuum restored to actually be used as intended, subject to the wear & tear that inevitably results.
This ain't no Trailer Queen. But for her Convention Debut she shall be beautiful.
Dave