While I was reassembling the wheels, I decided to prepare and repaint the undercarriage. That got done before the last wheel was completely done. It looks very nice.
I also applied some super glue to the places on the wheels where I used putty. The putty is so thin filling in the areas where the bamboo was splintered, I felt that it could use more help sticking to the wood so it does not flake out. Later today I'll finish sanding all the wheels, reboring the axle holes, and cleaning off any loose paint so I can repaint them. As soon as the wheels are done and on the undercarriage, I'll post a photo so you can see the difference in appearance. It will be striking, I guarantee it.
Last night, my neighbor planed down the piece of oak I bought to make a new floorboard for the wagon. The thickness is just about 3/16 of an inch. Thank goodnes he's a hobby woodworker and has a lot of toys in his workshop that I drool over. I traded some beer for his work....standard bartering pay for all us guys in the neigborhood. After all the painting is done, I'll begin on cutting the oak to fit. Not only are the sides of the wagon compartment slanted, but the compartment is not perfectly square. So cutting it to fit will involve a lot of sanding, planing, and trimming by hand to get a good fit. I bought a large piece of wood so I can make at least 8 if I had to in order to get it right.
Speaking of powertools, so far, the only powertools I've used are my neighbor's planer, my Dremmel for the nylon brush to remove flaking paint, and my cordless drill to clean out the holes in the wheel hubs (after soaking and drying, the holes were a snug fit on the axles). Everything else has been by hand. I will use my table saw to cut the floorboard piece and my orbital sander to smooth it out after the planing, but fitting it will be done by hand with a miniature plane, scalpel, and sandpaper. The wood pieces are so small and old, doing things by hand as much as possible will save me the headache of breaking something. I also have more control doing it by hand.
My cousin agreed to let me replace the screw eyelets used to connect the harness/yoke pieces together. The original ones were fairly rusty, and with a refinished wagon, it would look out of place. I was able to find the exact size eyelets at my local hardware store. I am not going to polish the brass screw heads, though. I'll buff them a bit, but I like the patina they've developed over time and they make a nice compliment to the aluminum trim, which has dulled over time because of the aluminum oxide that developed on the surface. Again, I'll buff the aluminum a bit with the Dremmel and the buffing tool, but I don't want them to be shiney. Thankfully the eyelets I bought have a dull zinc plating on them, so it should all match up well and not look out of place.
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