The De-Robing of Leonidas…

My inactivity here lately is directly related to our preparation for putting our home on the market as we have decided to move this summer to a neighborhood about 5-8 miles north of where we are now.  Not a big move in distance, but we expect to add about 30-40% more space.

So, work on Leonidas has been somewhat stalled (I still work on him almost daily, but only for 10 or 15 minutes) and quilting has completely stopped for now...

Once the dis-assembly was complete, it was time to start stripping him down to bare metal in preparation of adorning him with some new Regal Attire.

Once again, This is not intended to be a tutorial, nor am I encouraging you to do to your machine what I have done to mine.  This is simply me sharing my experience.

I started by stripping all of the parts I had removed that were not chromed.  The Motor Housing, the Foot Pedal, the fly wheel and the belt guard.  I used Jasco Premium Paint and Epoxy Remover and Odorless Mineral Spirits to do the job.

As you can see, the Jasco starts working immediately.  It makes the paint and the finish just bubble up.  After about 5 minutes this is what it looked like..

 

The Foot Pedal is made with black metal so stripping wasn't much more

than removing a glossy layer.  I then hit the slight surface
rust with a fine grinder and sand paper.

For those small curved spaces I had to use a brass brush, but when all was
said and done... the pieces cleaned up nicely.

Then after cleaning with the Mineral Spirits and some fine grade Steel wool, he was looking rather nice all silvery and shiny.

Once the removed parts were all cleaned up it was time to start on Leonidas’ body.

Before Starting with the Jasco, I had to fill holes in Leonidas' Body so as
to not allow stripper into holes that don't need to be stripped.  I used Q-Tips...

Rolled paper...

Blue Painter's Tape...

And paper...

Then, after he was all properly covered and plugged, it was time to paint on the Stripper.  Due to the fine layer of gook that was all over  him, the Jasco bubbled up differently than on the other parts.  

For the first pass, I completely covered him in the Finish remover.  I’ll never do that again!  It turns out that between 15 and 40 minutes after you apply the Jasco, it NEEDS to be removed.  The first quarter of the removal was smooth and easy, after that, it started to get harder and harder and less and less effective…

So, for the second coat, I only applied to about small part of the machine each time and then scraped that section clean.  I will do a thorough cleaning with Mineral Spirits when I have completed the paint removal.

After two sections of the second coat...

And after a third section...

And then I did another small section, and another, and another, and now I have only one small section left...

Almost Done... One more little patch of Black, and then a thorough cleaning
with the Mineral Spirits, and then it's time to start finishing.

One thing the Spartan didn't come with, but should have, is a light.  I could have simply purchased a light from a 99, and finished it to match Leonidas, but I decided I wanted to do something different.  So I talked to a co-worker of mine who builds custom Themed PC cases, and he gave me a strip of 21 little tiny Super Bright LED lights on a flexible strip...

 So, how bright is Super bright?

And THIS gives you an idea of what they will look like on Leonidas...

 

 I don't think I will EVER have trouble seeing what I am doing!

Thanks for Reading!

Until Next Time,
Paul