The gasket completely twisted up last time we opened the sunroof. Water had gotten under the gasket and the rust caused it to pop out of its seal. The sunroof began leaking when it rained.
Before I went and bought a new gasket it looked to me like this was an easy repair. I removed the four screws holding the sunroof in and brought it into the garage. I brushed off all the rust bubbles then made sure that the gasket would slip back into the channel and lay flat. I needed to use a flat headed screwdriver to help push the gasket into the channel.
I pulled the gasket back out and filled the channel with some silicone sealant before pressing the gasket back in neatly all the way along the back. I then reinstalled the sunroof.
New house didn’t have a workbench so I decided to build one.
Of course I forgot to take into account how much the foundation stuck out so I ended up having to move the legs on the right side. Still turned out pretty good.
I started as a temp at Hasbro back in 2006. When they moved my department to a Dedham office in 2010 I left, only to return to Hasbro in 2011 once they moved my department back. At that time I thought I’d never leave Hasbro again. But things change. Today was my last day at Hasbro for the second time. I’m off to start a new adventure. Leaving Hasbro again was twice as hard as it was the first time I said goodbye. To all my Hasbro friends, I look forward to meeting up for a drink once Covid is over.
Me on my first day as a temp at Hasbro in 2006Me at Hasbro’s Diwali festival in 2019Saying goodbye to Mr. Potato Head, October 2020
Oh man. I’m old now but back in the day growing up we all wanted one of these. Old man Smith had one with an extra pair of chrome bumpers and tail fins that scraped the sky. Sure they got 4 gallons to the mile, but gas was a nickle a tank and these wagons were the coolest.
Now that I’m older, I scouted around the collector sites looking for a low mileage wagon. I kicked the tires on a few, but it wasn’t until I saw this one that I knew I had found the perfect restoration project.
It was a barn find. Another tale of a young kid putting his wagon in the back of a barn and forgetting about it.
It was is perfect condition considering its age, 12 long years. The deck had rotted out, the paint was flaking, all the chrome had been stolen, and the gold lug nuts had been been lost at some point in the past, but the soul of the wagon was still there.
I got to work. I started by first sanding down the frame with 5 grit sandpaper and easing slowly into 1000k grit for a smooth finish. Unfortunately there was not much left but sawdust after this. But it was factory original sawdust.
Once I had smoothed out the frame I brought in to the professionals for an acid bath and finally a blessing at a Shinto temple to ward off evil spirits.
After that the difficult work of assembling a numbers-matching frame-off restoration began.
The dealer sheet says the wagon should’ve come from the factory with the XLG21 Sports package, but after further investigation this was most likely installed afterwards by the dealer and was in fact the GXL20 Sportsman’s package which was a mid year replacement for the popular PLX67 package. The “G” stands for gold. You can tell the difference easily if you still have the gold lug nuts as the former package uses a star pattern while the latter package uses a standard 1 lug pattern. As i did not have the gold lug nuts I could not determine the package. Instead I decided to use the VIN as the guide for this restoration. And that meant no gold lug nuts, no chrome. Just the stock wheels. It would be a sleeper.
A similar vintage Radio Flyer ATW with XLG21 Sports package. Note the gold lug nuts
First thing was to replace the deck. The original was 1/4in plywood, but I only had 1/2inch. The wagon will be sturdier than the day it came from the factory.
Now to put the wheels on…
More reassembly…
She’s looking good.
To really finish this project I just need to apply a five coats of paint and 678 coats of polyurethane. But for now I have my summer driver!
Since setting up the jar aquarium two weeks ago the water level in the jar has been rising. I removed water multiple times to lower it back but it kept overflowing which had me very befuddled last week. I even marked the neck of the bottle with the height of the water at different times of the day. The water does go up when the sun warms the bottle, but it does not return to the starting point the next morning. It slowly continues to rise.
But I think I finally figured out the cause. Can you see it in the image below?
Bubbles. There is a large amount of gas trapped beneath the mud. These bubbles are created during the process that is breaking down the decaying plant life within the muck. The process probably goes faster when the sun hits warms the muck.
In the image above you can also see the tunnels that the worms have been making in the mud. I haven’t been able to capture a good photo of them.
I gave the bottle a good jolt and tons of bubbles streamed to the surface. Releasing the built up gas lowered the water level nearly back to its starting point.
Pirate Gaspard 