Jebus

What is the Jebus? Its not like the Matrix, thats for sure. It did however provide a handy platform for the last two pictures in this entry.

We spent quite some time painting this weekend, normally I tend to work on other things, but thought I'd better chip in this time. I must admit, painting seems easier when Mary does it all, and I just fiddle with other things.

Despite the sunny weather, I spent most of the time in the front cabin painting anti-rust treatment on the steel there.

Some more work had been done on the interior, we now had walls and doorways.

Mary put some more coats of black on the wheelhouse windowframes, and also put on a couple of coats of undercoat. This won't be the final colour, we'll do that next time hopefully.

I took some pictures from the Jebus on the bank, its starting to look more like a barge and less like a wreck. Note Mary's new outfit, she now has a work ensemble for every season. :)

Thats it until next time!

Part 16

Of Mary's view here.

Le Mans

Not an obvious title, I'll grant you, but the weekend just gone was the Le Mans 24 hour race. This year is the first one in the last six that I've not gone, either to the main race, or last year, to the classic one. I was feeling a bit out of sorts on friday and Mary commented on it too. I guess a clue was when we got back on friday evening and I started watching videos of the Mulsanne straight on YouTube and listening to music......

Anyhoo, we managed to re-create some of the atmosphere on Misterton this week, as we spent our first night aboard!

We had a BBQ on the front deck on saturday night, along with refreshments.

We spent quite a lot of time chatting about different ideas for the barge, as now some interior walls have started to go up, its much clearer how the final shape will look.

Sunday was very social, my parents came up from Norfolk to see the progress for themselves. I explained they'd get a much better feel for the whole thing by the application of paint......

Our friend Dave also visited and commented on the progress. A couple from Leeds who occasionally drop by, Dennis and Jean had a look and inspected the work to be done. My sister, brother in law and nephews also dropped by on the way back from a weekend with friends in Yorkshire.

Tom even helped me start the engine and was quite keen to get his picture taken with it.

Mary did some more painting, finishing off the coamings and starting on the window frames, which are also going to be black.

I did some more cleaning in the engine room and measured up various things that we'll need to order. its all quite tiring, working during the week and then driving to Yorkshire to work on Misterton. Next weekend we're having a rest in Wales of all places. Looking forward to it.

Motoring

Since the insulation was done the work on the lining has begun. Hopefully this will go up quite quickly now that the preparation has been done.

Mary spent the time continuing the painting on the coamings on the outside as much as possible given the weather, which was pretty unpredictable at times. She took shelter for the most part, and put a primer coat on the new linings. This went on a bit better when I read the tin that said the first coat could be thinned by 25% for new surfaces. :)

I spent pretty much the whole time working on the engine, changing the oil, cleaning the filters and re-connecting pipes that had been moved. Doesn't sound like much and I must admit I thought I'd be done on saturday. Sometimes things take longer and this is the first engine like this I've worked on, so I was getting to grips with pre-war design and whitworth spanners.

Finally, I got everything connected up and the fuel system bled, but it wouldn't start. I'd worn myself out turning it over (hand start only) and was a sweaty mess by the time Mary had got back from the shops.

As a last ditch effort before we had to go, I got Mary to help me.

1948 Lister JP3M from Simon Sparrow on Vimeo.

Guess some things just need a woman's touch..................

The week that was....

Mary and I have just got back from a week up in Goole working on Misterton (it was half term for Mary, I took a few days off). We've managed to get quite a few things done, despite some setbacks.

First up, was painting the roof. After de-cluttering the roof, including throwing away my carefully covered pile of old wood from the previous fitout, things were already looking better.

Mary was gracious enough to only point out two or three times how she questioned my decision to keep the old wood in the first place. :)

We had a look round a converted Belgian barge in London a few weeks ago, and the owner gave us a top tip about using solar reflective paint to keep temperatures down inside. Certainly, the old green paint was too hot to touch after a while in the sun, and we had steam coming off after washing it down with sugar soap.

Did I mention it was silver? It was very bright, almost like tinfoil. This will fade a bit over time and even a few days later was less bright, but sunglasses were definitely required.

Several locals questioned our colour choice, but it does make a real difference.

 Once the weekend was over, it was ok to use the needle gun (its very noisy, so we don't use it on the weekends). Using a float between Misterton and Service, I was able to clean out the top area of the hull where there was the most corrosion. Just as well I did, as I managed to find 20 holes and rivet heads that needed welding up.

Alan's team got on with fixing these, as they needed to be done before the sprayfoam insulation could be applied. Mary prepared the cargo area sides for painting using car body filler ('like spreading icing on a cake') and sanding back ('like doing your nails') to fill in some voids in front of welded patches. She then was able to start painting.

Note Mary's stylish painting gloves.

I spent most of this time getting filthy needle gunning the loose rust from the front cabin where the water tanks will go.

Mary got a chance to put a second coat on during the week,

and here is the finished result.....

Mary said she wasn't too sure of my colour scheme initially, but we're both pleased with it so far.

The main focus of the week was to get Misterton sprayfoamed, and this required a certain amount of guidance from us on getting the last of the welding and battening completed.

The sprayfoamers (Websters) were meant to come on thursday, but due to a job overrun asked if they could come on friday. Although we thought we were ready, its just as well we had the extra day, as we found two more areas that needed welding.

This picture shows what things looked like on thursday evening.

Friday was a busy day, as well as sprayfoaming Misterton, there was a large crane that was lifting some historic 'Tom Puddings' (coal carrying pans) onto the car park by the Waterways Museum where they'll be restored.

This is what the insulation looked like part way through.

This is the finished result, it seems a lot cleaner and brighter inside now.

All in all, it was a lot of work to get to this point, but it means that work can really progress on the interior now.