Cyclopedia of Painting/Carriage Painting
CARRIAGE PAINTING.
After the body is completed by the wood-worker, the painter gives it a thorough dusting inside and out, and proceeds to prime it. Pouring from the can a small quantity of filler with an ordinary paint brush, perfectly clean, or one kept for the purpose, and not used for paint, he coats over a portion of the body, the back, or one side, taking no great pains to spread it evenly, he may daub it on, then immediately wipe over and rub in every part with rags. This rubbing with rags spreads the priming evenly, and forces it into the pores. Go on in this manner until the whole is done, over wood and iron alike, leaving no surface coat as of paint or varnish, the hand should scarcely be soiled or greased if passed over a finished portion of the work. The canvased parts inside, if any, may be painted with slush paint, for they would absorb a great amount of filler with no corresponding benefit. It cannot be too strongly impressed upon the mind of the painter desiring to make a successful use of the filler, that it must be put on sparingly and be well wiped or rubbed into all parts of the work, and that only one coat should be applied.
The body should now be set aside to dry, and forty-eight hours should be given, unless the weather is favorable, when the time may be shortened to 36, and even to 24 hours without detriment. There will be a thin film covering the hard parts of the wood, and the iron work, and the filler being-composed principally of oil and a gummy or filling substance will have entered the pores and sealed them against the entrance of dampness or the liquids from subsequent coats of paint.
Priming the Wheels and Under Parts. When the wheels, beds and bars are finished by the wheelwright, and before the grain of the wood is raised by the atmosphere, a coat of filler is put on every part in the same manner as the body, wiping it well with rags, being careful to coat the bottom of bars and tread of wheels, for this material is a bar to all dampness, and will thus render the work more durable. This preliminary coat is not properly the priming, for it is put on to prevent the grain of the wood from absorbing oil and dirt from the smith's hands, and to prevent the rims or felloes from swelling with the water used in putting on the tires. When the ironing is completed, every part of the wood is sandpapered and filed down until nothing but clean wood and iron are seen, and every trace of filler is removed from the surface—for the preliminary coat has fulfilled its mission.
The preparation of the gears at this stage is the main operation, for if they are well done, but little labor remains to be accomplished. The priming is now in order, and going over every part with the filler in the same manner as at first, this is soon ready for standing aside to dry. The wood pores are sealed up, the surface of the wood has a thin film covering it as also the ironwork, and a more tenacious coating is not easily found. The time employed so far upon the gears has been trifling, compared to the old-fashioned method of filling up with white lead and oil.
White Lead Priming. White lead, the base or foundation, should be pure, but dealers have many means of adulterating it with sulphate of baryta, or barytes, gypsum, or plaster of paris and carbonate of lime, or common chalk, all of which are detrimental. Linseed oil, the purest raw oil, should be used, but this is often adulterated with fish oil or cotton-seed oil. The next requisite is pure black, in order to form a gray or lead color. With these ingredients the priming is formed. The white lead is beat up with the raw oil until of paint-like consistency, then a little of the black is added to form a clean lead color. Some add driers, such as brown japan or japan gold size, but many 
Fig. 9. Sash Brushes.
prefer to use none whatever. The priming thus made is now spread on the wood, and the painter runs the job out in the drying shed or other convenient place to dry. The oil of the priming gradually leaves the pigments, white lead and black, and seeks the interior of the wood, sucked in, as it were, by capillary attraction, and the pigments are thus virtually strained and left upon the surface in a semi-dry porous state, while the oil that entered the wood, not being a gummy or filling substance, stains the interior of each little pore only. Next, a coat of white lead and oil of similar consistency is put over it. The oil from this coat is absorbed in by the porous pigments, through which it passes and spreads itself over the stain which the first coat gave to the pores, and the second coat pigments are strained and left porous, so on until possibly five coats of lead color are given, by which time the pores may have become filled by the successive layers of oil, and the pigment on the surface too, is finally cemented together or partially so. This is called the foundation, and it was the only known way to paint a carriage for many years.
Rough-Stuff. The leveling or rough-stuff coats consist of a coarse mineral paint, designed to level down or fill up all imperfections in the surface of the carriage body, such as plane and file marks or brad holes.
The pigment is mixed with oil, japan varnish and turpentine, and although the painter may have a good recipe for this paint, and may mix it himself, he cannot rely upon getting exactly the same amount of elasticity at one time as at another time, if mixed in small quantities. Therefore the ready-prepared paint, mixed from a formula, which experience and careful tests have proved best, and mixed in large quantities by weight and measure is by far the surest and safest to use. The filler priming on the body being dry, it only requires a good dusting when it is ready for the rough-stuff. This for the first coat should have a very little raw oil added to make it more in keeping with the elastic priming, and it must not be spread too thick, thick coats are apt to show brush marks, and brush marks in the rough-stuff will show in the finishing varnish. Put the rough-stuff on smoothly and set the body away for 48 hours to harden, or, if preferred, when 24 hours have passed the largest holes may be puttied part full, then give the other 24 hours for drying.
The second, third and fourth coats of rough-stuff may be put on one day apart, then a thin coat of stain, to guide the workman while rubbing, some yellow ochre or other cheap pigment mixed in japan and turpentine, may be added.
Rough-stuff will always give better satisfaction when applied in a medium thin coat. It is entirely against common sense to plaster on a great mass of this paint, with the desire to level the work quickly.
When the work of rubbing is completed, the body should be washed clean, and well dried off with a chamois skin, then set aside for the evaporation of moisture from the porous paint.
This drying out is of vital importance, and should never be neglected.
Rough-stuff, providing it is good-rubbing rough-stuff, is necessarily porous, no matter what pigment or vehicle is used, and a portion of the water used in rubbing is absorbed by it, therefore it is essential, after the moisture has all been evaporated, that the pores be closed, in order that the oil of subsequent coats may not be absorbed by them.
It is the aim in this system of painting to form a non-absorptive surface, and it will be seen that if the filler closed up the pores of the wood it will assuredly close up the pores of the leveling paint, therefore, a coating is applied to the rubbed surface of paint in the same manner as in priming the wood, wiping off all that will readily leave the surface, thus rendering the paint elastic, yet proof against the entrance of oil from all subsequent coats of color or of varnish.
Coloring the Body. The filler put on over the rough-stuff having been allowed from 24 to 48 hours for drying, the coloring is now in order. The surface must not be disturbed by sandpaper, but a simple dusting off may be necessary. It is customary with some painters to lay on a ground coat of some color corresponding with the color they intend to make the job, but this is more to economize time in making a solid job and to save expensive color, and with the exception of a few extra fine or transparent colors, which are intensified or made more brilliant by application over
Fig. 10. Stucco Wall Paint Brush.
particular grounds, the color proper may be laid directly on the prepared surface.
For black, either lamp black or coach black may be used for the first coat, having sufficient oil in the mixture to cause an egg-shell gloss, lay it on with a camel's hair brush and give 12 hours for drying.
To better illustrate the painting of a body, take, for example, a job to be painted a dark green, which is a standard color and one of the most durable colors used in carriage work, and carry it through to the finish. The panels only are to be put in color, the remainder to be black. The first duty is to prepare a ground or preparation coat, and the following will be found a good formula:
To produce a dark green ground, mix lamp black and chrome yellow, with coach japan and turpentine to a proper consistency for grinding in the mill, approximating as nearly as possible the desired shade of green. When ground add a tablespoonful of raw oil to a pint of paint, and when well stirred together test its drying qualities by spreading a little on the thumb-nail and blowing upon it to hasten evaporation, if it dries dead add a few drops of oil or rubbing varnish, or if too glossy add turpentine until an egg-shell gloss is obtained.
This ground work or preparation coat should be put on with a camel's-hair brush as smoothly as can be, allowing no laps or brush marks to remain visible.
The black portions are next to be done, and this paint may be mixed in the same manner as the green, of lamp black or ivory black. When all is coated set the job aside to dry until the next day, at which time it should be well inspected and if any scratches or indentations are found, soft dark putty must be used to fill them, then rub over gently with No. 1 sandpaper, partly worn, to prepare it for the color proper, dark green and ivory black. The dark green may be made as follows:
Pulverize, on the stone, some Dutch pink, and mix it with half and half japan gold size and turpentine and grind it fine. Then mix in the same manner some Prussian blue and grind it into another cup. Now, little by little, add the blue to the Dutch pink, stirring it constantly, until the desired shade of green is obtained, and temper the mixture with raw oil in the same manner as explained for the ground coat. Apply with camel's-hair brush. The back parts may now receive another coat of ivory or drop black. If ready-mixed colors are used, instead of mixing them as above, take royal green for the green parts, and jet black for the black portions, tempering them as described with oil.
It is the usual custom to make color-and-varnish by adding to a partly filled cup of varnish a little color, but it is considered best by some of the first-class painters to grind the dry pigment directly in varnish, and thus overcome the objection to the oil and turpentine in the color-and-varnish. However, in the work in hand it is desired to produce a rich or deep shade of green, and to carry out the plan, the color is glazed, instead of putting on color-and-varnish, in its ordinary mixture. Yellow lake possesses the power, when used for a glazing over green, to increase the intensity or depth of the color, and many handsome shades are made in that way. It may be mixed as follows:
Pulverize the lumps and mix it in hard-drying body varnish, grind fine, then add a very little of the Dutch pink
Fig. 11. Painter's Duster.
color. Stir well and apply with badger-hair varnish brushes.
The black parts are now ready for color-and-varnish and as in the case of the panels, a first-class black is desired, so, instead of using ordinary color-and-varnish, black japan is used. Three coats of this well rubbed with pulverized pumice between each coat, will give a good, jet-black surface for finishing over.
The glazed panels having been rubbed lightly with pumice-stone, and a coat of hard drying body varnish given, at the time the black japan was applied, the whole is now ready for a final rubbing down and finishing coat of wearing body varnish.
The Gears. After 24 hours apply either a thin coat of lamp black color, or a thin lead color, the object of which is to see the open grain and imperfection so that putty may be used to plaster over and fill them. The surface of the filler must not be rubbed, the paint should be applied as smoothly as possible, for no great amount of sandpapering is to be done. Putty all imperfections after the paint has dried, which will be about 48 hours, for this first coat over the filler should be a little more oily than is necessary in any other coatings.
When the putty is dry, gently rub over with fine sandpaper, but do not cut through the paint. When done, dust off, apply the color and color-and-varnish, as usual, moss down, give a second coat of color-and-varnish, rub this latter with pumice-powder, wash off, stripe, and give a coat of clear elastic leveling varnish, let dry, rub again and finish with elastic gear varnish.