The Unofficial Mamod and Other Steam Forum

Mamodman123 · Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 11:42 pm Post subject: SE4 Restoration

As you know, I bought an SE4 about a month ago now. Well it had been restored by someone (they will remain nameless) *cough* Steam4fun *cough*. Well to cut a long story short the paint job wasn't up to my standard, so I've been working hard over the past 3-4 days to get it re-done.

I started with the base which wasn't too easy. The problem with old metal is it rusts. When someone doesn't remove rust correctly it can prevent a decent spray job. From what I could see the base had been sand blasted, and the sand blasting had taken away the rust and left a lot of pitting

. I stripped the paint down with nitromors. The paint actually ran away with fright even before I'd put any on. There was no primer on the base either. There were one or two small elements of original paint too

. Some of the pitting was deep, but I managed to get a lot out and primed up. Once it had been primed the pitting was gone. The red was an ok match, but I found a better one, my car

. There is more of an orangey tint, which is common with pre-war Mamods.

Picture after priming up!

The red went on no problem. I did roughly 6-8 coats until I was happy with the finish. I read up about painting and asked advice from Wallace who is the paint expert. I decided to bake it at around 125-150 degrees for roughly 3 hours. The paint hardened/Cured really well and made it rock hard. The finish is miles and miles better than it was. Plus I know it can handle some heat

Just out the oven, dinner is ready

This is a few hours after, a really good gloss finish. Exactly what I wanted. They must have baked it in the factory for sure!. I would definatly bake paint again, but make sure my mum doesn't find out, otherwise all my engines will be up for auction, and i'll be 6 foot under

The firebox was the most difficult. The firebox isn't thick metal. It has severe pitting where it had been sandblasted. I sanded/filled as much as I could. It took me a couple of attempts to get it right. Basically hammerite wasn't good enough to cover the pitting, so I 'primed' it with BBQ paint, then on with the gloss black. Into the oven and baked at 175 degrees. We'll see how it hold up eventually. I did a small test with a wick burner and it seemed fine. Although the real test will come when I fire it for the first time. The boiler strap was also done this way and baked too!

I managed to do a little solder work while it was apart. The steam pipe to the first cylinder wasn't soldered in at all. Bit of flux, heat and it went in easy as pie. There was also an unsucessful solder job on the pipe leading from the steam dome to the oiler. I checked, it wasn't steam tight. A bit of flux and that's job done again

. All joints look ok now so i'm almost ready to test.

Here is what it was like before (difficult to see the imperfections on the first job, but believe me, not to a good enough standard.

Firebox was basically just like over spray

Here is what it looks like after the work:

There is a strict advantage. I know it's heat proof! and i'm much happier with the spray job. The green frames I left

. Now there are a couple of things that need sorting. The oiler cap which is being made for me, and the burner i'm just waiting for the materials to be delievered and i'll be making that up

I'll get some more shots of the SE4 tomorrow outside, so I can get some pictures without flash

That's about it!

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IndianaRog · Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 11:52 pm Post subject:

Gorgeous job MM. When one is not happy with a prior restoration, it makes it easy to really dive in and do it right. I can't imagine anyone could make an SE4 look better than this. Congrats.

Roger
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Mamodman123 · Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 11:57 pm Post subject:

James · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:01 am Post subject:

That looks a million dollars baby yeah (said in Austin Powers voice)

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Mamodman123 · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:02 am Post subject:

James · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:04 am Post subject:

I was gonna put that, but I thought it might give people the wrong impression of what I use my engines for

Steamy

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Mamodman123 · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:07 am Post subject:

James · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:19 am Post subject:

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Forum Founder, Owner and Admin.
Yan, tan, tethera, tethera, pethera, pimp!

Lincolnshire!
"Rags Make Paper
Paper Makes Money
Money Makes Banks
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Loans Make Beggars
Beggars Make Rags"

oldstuff · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 1:44 am Post subject:

What a beauty, MM! I know you're chuffed. Super job, MM...that base is gorgeous.
Be interesting to learn if Mamod used primer or not?
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Twin-cylinder, CSE-3

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flywheel61 · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 3:03 am Post subject:

Pant, Pant, Drool Drool, this is much better than ..x, well almost,

. Brilliant job on the paint work and you only need one thing to finish it off,

.

Cheers

Chris
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SPOKESMAN · Guest

Looks better MM, makes me wonder if STeam4Fun's other 'blow overs' are as poor or if they would stand up to a reasonable amount of steamings. Ie like Chris's Mike Nicholas trouble . . .

Manxman · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 7:08 am Post subject:

Sometimes, taking your time and putting in the effort is worth it. This is one of those times. Now that is looking good. WEll done MM
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Steve_S · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 9:42 am Post subject:

It looks fantastic MM!

James · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:52 am Post subject:

Mamodman123 · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:18 am Post subject: