The
weekend following the trip to Hillsboro, I
was able to put together a work crew to help
prep the cab for paint, so early Saturday
morning we gathered at the paint shop at
H&W Emergency Vehicles. My brother
Larry, my girlfriend Liz and my friend Todd
Powers, who I have known since 2nd grade,
all came prepared to sand and scrape as
needed. The cab was pretty well stripped of
paint, but there were still many areas that
needed attention before the primer was
applied. While Andy Caranza, one of the
painters from H&W whom I had hired to
apply the paint, took care of the
miscellaneous dents and dings, we all found
places to work and had it ready for Andy to
lay the primer on the cab that night. Over
the next few weeks, working evenings and on
the weekends, Andy and I sanded and prepped
the body for primer, including inside all
the compartments and inside the hose bed.
Originally my goal was to hand the keys to
Andy and say give it back to me when you are
done, but it did not take long to realize
the complexity of the project and that it
was way too much work for him and that I
needed to spend my spare time helping him
out. Before
the end of the month, we had not only the
whole exterior primered, but the inside of
the cab painted Wimbledon White, the
original Ford color. It was an absolute
thrill seeing the first bit of new paint go
on, making it look like a brand new
vehicle.
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