My son Glen and I worked in the Prop Shop at the Wings of History Museum over the weekend. What we were doing was painting something. It is not exactly a prop as in airplane propeller. Yet it is a prop in another sense: We were painting a piece of furniture that will be used to prop Glen’s new aquarium up off the floor and provide room for the filtering equipment for keeping the fish and corals happy.

This project started at Christmas time, 2009. This link will take you to Glen’s, “Salty Geek” blog for commentary on the construction details. After waiting for a couple months for the paint to dry, Glen decided to strip the latex paint off and we have now opted for automotive paint. That brings us to the Prop Shop. Gary and grandson Patrick are volunteers at the Wings of History Museum. We got permission to use the Prop Shop paint booth and spray equipment to do the project over the weekend. The project started when Gary and Patrick drove to Hollister, CA on Friday and assembled the supplies to paint a primer and Raven Black Acrylic finish on the cabinet.

On Saturday Glen and I worked through the afternoon getting two coats of primer on. Then on Sunday we sanded most of it back off to get a nice smooth substrate for the finish coat.

Our quart of Raven Black was barely enough to coat everything. We spent most of the time Sunday afternoon watching paint dry. Even at that we rushed the last coat on the doors. We had used paper towels to protect the stool we were using to position the doors for painting. You guessed it; the paper towels stuck to the paint on the back sides of the doors. We saved the last of the paint in the gun, (about an ounce,) and we will sand the fibers out and blend the scarred area with a paint pen. (I hope) Our fall-back position will be to create a vibrant graphic in two panels detailing the operation of the filters. We will laminate them and mount them strategically on the backs of the two doors. It is cheaper than buying more paint.

If any of our readers are going to be in the Gilroy, (San Jose,) area of California this weekend we invite you to drop by and visit us. We will be helping out at the Wings of History Museum’s annual open house and fly-in. It is beside the South County Airport in San Martin, CA. Here are the co-ordinates, N 37 04.721, W 121 36.064. Yes, you can fly-in, but there is plenty of parking also. We will be glad to show you around the museum, even the Prop Shop and paint booth. Here is a link to Wings of History. After volunteering we will once again start moseying back toward the Pacific Northwest.

We will see all of our Oregon friends when we get there.

Gary and Judy