After much prep work we laid the first 50 feet of rubber on car 57s roof today and we're really happy with both the process and the look. The tin roof which we uncovered several years ago was rusted through in many spots and had hundreds of holes every few square feet from roofing nails driven in when it was a house from 1954 to 2008. The roof ends which we thought would be difficult due to the curves took the rubber so well and only required one small cut to ease the creasing....and u can still see all the seams underneath.......4 more 20 ft rolls should see the roof completed. She will be 130 next year and out on show again in Cheyenne.

And I should add that the good news is we have purchased 8 1880s restored passenger car seats from the West Chester railroad preservation association and the Jackson and Sharpe car they recently posted about......you see RYPN works.

Mike, The car is looking good. I hope the Dayton Car Co Walk-Over seats arrive to you soon and work out for you.

Fred Heilich

Nice job, we have been doing those roofs where I am as we can and get around to it.

Seeing the difference in maintance and keeping a car dry compared to other roofs we have I feel this is the way to go for any wood car that has to spend time outdoors. While not original it's a concession made to protect the car much better from weather damage and being a higher maintance item.

And, I believe, it is relatively easily removed at any time work needs to be done on the underlying structure, or the need/funds/etc. become available for a more 'prototypical' roof to go on the car. Think of it as an essentially-permanent, esthetically suitable version of cocooning.

I'm beginning to wonder if there might be a use for some of the advanced surface coatings for other parts of the car, including parylene conformal coatings or some of the commercial hydrophobic "water and dirt just slide off' packages. If the wood can 'breathe' properly to the inside of the car, and some care is taken with humidity management inside, these products might be able to arrest problems like further exterior rot at much lower cost than a necessary 'presentation paint job' using historically correct (or reasonable facsimile thereof) coatings and the associated prep.

Folks,
Is there any further news on your project?

Have you had any success in finding the trucks for under the car?

ted66

No major news to report roof work is still progressing slowly and we have purchased a further 8 seats. No trucks yet although we could have had some from PA but that all fell through.

Mike

As it was a balmy 52 degrees today we hit the roof hard on 57, next week it will be -52 so we installed 40 feet of side roof and 40ft of main roof membrane.....immensely satisfying day.

Mike Pannell