Restoration of Hull 731- Carrier, MG (Aust) Mortar Carrying

[Darrin Wright]

for the last few weeks I have been watching the weather reports and having discussions with the sandblasting company about how/when to get the hull to them for sand blasting.
Have to do it before winter stes in.
Well the weather reports are all looking good for the end of the week, so I rang the sandblasting company only to be told that they are booked out until Tuesday next week. Since when did they start to plan and schedule work? Oh well, find a back up plan.
I contacted Dave at Border Sandblasting 0418 578 392, Wodonga, to see how busy he was. I had used him several years ago to blast my MBT trailer and he did a very good job. Luckily he was free Friday to sand blast the hull.
I then rang Raff Fabrications who have a crane truck and organised him to collect and deliver to the sand blasting place; and collect when blasted and undercoated. That should be Friday at approx 4pm.
So today, Thursday, the hull was collected from home and dropped off at lunch time.
Tonight it sits in the blast chamber for an early start in the morning. Dave beleives there is about 4-6 hours blasting. We will see, as I think it would be closer to 8-10 hours. At $200 per hour I hope he is right.
2 pics showing the hull at the yard.
Tonight I cleaned and swept the shed out so that I can paint tomorrow and Saturday, the Dodge now sits in the BGC work bay.