a fairground life

I took my daughter to school and then carried on out to pick up paint from a nearby supplier. I got some silver for the cheque plate on the miami, pink for the interior of the funhouse and white for the roof of the wagon. By the time you add in a couple of liters of white spirit and a roller that was nearly a £100 pound spent. The cheque plate on the miami has lost it's sheen, washing may leave it clean, but you cannot remove the rust or pit marks. So to spruce it up I got "r" to paint it silver. I would have done the skydiver floor aswell but since it will be getting re-newed shortly it seemed like a waste of time. I spent all day on the roof of the wagon preparing it for the winter. I gave it a good clean at the seems and painted the entire surface with gloss white paint. Oh! my aching arms and shoulders, I did it all with a four inch brush! It looks very clean and will prevent any leaks during the miserable weather that we will be sure to get in the next few months. Painting is something that seems to be done less and less these days. I suppose it is because of the change in materiels used and the finishes on them. For instance nearly all construction is of steel or alloy now. If it is steel then it may be stainless , galvanised or powder coated- so no paint required here. Other materiels used are colour inpregnated fibreglass. Any panels are mostly aluminium and paimted with tougher chemical paints similar to the ones used on cars. The backflash on the skydiver was painted ten years ago. I have never polished it in all that time and it still looks vibrant. Also because most parts are fold up now there is no handling them and causing dents or scrapes. Compared to the old upright paratrooper where all the arms and components had to be dismantled, man handled to be packed onto racks on the lorry. The radial arms were so heavy that the only way to move them was to drag them into position. One build up and pull down made the paint look like it had been set about with a ball pien hammer! The old wooden front handrails and head boards were painted by sign writers (Hall & Fowle) with oil based paints. The flamboyant faded terrible. To try and stop this the panels were rubbed down and varnished nearly every year.This was also good for keeping the wood from rotting. Unfortunately varnish eventualy made them look yellow and the wood rotted after a few years. Painting the arms was a horrible job. All those spars in a narrowing shape. I used the spray gun for the job in latter years. This meant using more paint and the over spray coloured the whole top deck floor of the lorry in bright yellow. I wore a balaclava to try to protect my face and hair but I always looked like I had jaundice after that job. Wonder how much over spray I inhaled over the years?????? This is why I made those fibreglass hand rails and stainless steel headboard panels.