Hi again NGDF!
Yes, work has continued on the 1008 bobber. While the pandemic has inhibited my travel to A. California, progress has been made over the last several months.
The frame preliminary assembly, locating and drilling many hardware mount holes, and test fitting had taken place out of the sun Richard's patio roof. This shows how that looked in 2019. Then the frame was disassembled and we prepainted those portions of the sills, end spacer blocks, and end beams that would be visible, and that were originally painted based on study of 1008's frame and 1006 several years ago. No traces of original paint appeared on the interior frame parts, suggesting that the bobbers were not spray painted, and not painted completely underneath.
Here is the frame being assembled on the roof-less side patio, a place from which it could be moved someday. The painted portions that will be under the end platforms and the intermediate sills can be seen. The frame was assembled from the center sills outward, with a row of spacer blocks placed, and the next sill slid along cribbing onto the spacer block tenons. The horizontal tension rods that hold it together will also pushed through as the frame assembled. In these pictures, the outer sills are still to be mounted to complete the frame.
Next, the white oak end beams are shown after primer and color coat. It was easy to get a smooth consistent coating on all four sides with the beams conveniently rotated on sawhorses.
This paint is an oil-based semi-gloss, industrial-grade enamel that was tinted to match the Princes Mineral color that appeared in the U.P. color guide for the era. It appears to be the color used on the cabooses after the addition of cupolas in the early decades of the 1900's, thanks to research for us by Randy Hees of the Nevada St. RR Museum. Here is Andrew Brandon's rendering of the bobber in Princes Mineral, and the piece of 1008's platform roof that was examined by sanding to reveal the various layers.
See next post for more!
Bob of AZ