Bad Day For Flaming Cap Dude

Everyone has good days and bad. During the filming of “Public Enemies” in little old Columbus something was obvious not going well for flaming cap dude. It was right in the middle of a coffee break. Who knew John Dillinger drank coffee out of a to-go sippie cup. Maybe that was a big problem for flaming cap dude. Perhaps he’s the Universal Studios Director of Historical Accuracy. Who knows.



Watching the filming of this movie in our community was really a blast. Maybe having a front row seat helped make it a little more fun. Interesting process but extremely slow. And that's coming from a guy who restores carriages for Pete's sake. Same take, over, and over, and over, for hours. Just for a five second segment in the movie. Incredible.



Work is progressing on the Kimball Brougham. On a bigger project such as this we will often do as much as we can without dismantling the vehicle. So we start in on the wheels. All four wheels are hand stripped and sanded. They will be getting new channel and rubber so not much attention to details in that department.




We begin stripping the body. The back panels are in good shape and are stripping clean. There are a few cracked panels that will need replacement so obviously as we go those panels will not be stripped.



When this carriage was last restored some parts of the body were stripped and some were not. It appears to me the big flat surfaces were stripped and the smaller detail areas were not. Sometimes that’s good. Often people get too aggressive with the details and damage those areas during stripping. Not the case here. We will carefully hand strip the body completely.



We work at stripping as much of the vehicle as possible while it is together. It’s just easier to work on while it’s up on it’s feet so we will keep picking away at it as long as possible before we start taking it apart.



The bottom. The worst part. Laying on his back Bob stripped and ground off the old paint from the bottom of the body. It’s always dirty and a mess but nice to have it behind you.

Columbus has a huge July 4th Celebration every year. Big parade, carnival, and huge fireworks. People have been roping off their territory along the parade route for a week now so if you have not staked your claim by now you’re screwed. Back row for you pal. I have probably seen the parade oh I don’t know, maybe 35 times. I just might skip it again this year.

Have a great day and a Happy July 4th.

Best!
Todd