In this month’s Finish Coach 9 to the Nines report we’ll take a look at some of the decorative details that have been added to coach 9 during the past couple months.

The exterior of the car is having its lettering and striping applied. Tom Fish has been hired by the museum to complete this task.

Tom is using gold leaf in the process of applying the striping and other details to the coach. The process begins by applying painter’s tape to set the boundaries for the stripes and to prevent paint from being applied where it shouldn’t be. Then Tom essentially “paints between the lines” formed by the tape.

Gold leaf doesn’t adhere well on its own, so the surface it is being applied to needs some sort of an adhesive to be brushed on beforehand. The adhesive being used is called sizing, which Eric Schade compares to slow drying varnish.

The lettering of coach 9 will be gold leaf with a shadow effect done in a shading of maroon and red. The process begins with Eric Schade designing the letters in a CAD program, then printing them out, with the correct spacing, on his industrial printer, in one long sheet. The sheet is cut into manageable lengths and taped to the letterboard of coach 9. The sheets are taped in such a way that they can be hinged downward. Once the sheets are taped up, Tom traces over the lettering with a pounce wheel, which pokes holes in the paper. He then wipes over the paper with a bag of chalk which leaves very tiny chalk dots on the coach. He follows the dots and applies the sizing, then “paints” the letters. After the gold leaf is applied, he can hinge the paper back up and repeat the process for the shadow lines. Below are photos of the process.

With the lettering and striping completed, the entire outside of the coach will get 2 or 3 coats of marine grade spar varnish to protect the artwork.

On 6/6/2025 Tom completed all the striping and lettering on Coach 9. Tomorrow, he gives us THE BILL. We know it will be over his initial estimate, but the work he did is outstanding and deserves every penny he will receive.

Can you PLEASE help us pay for Tom’s artistry? We need to raise $120,000 to finish Coach 9 to the Nines. Contribute at www.wwfry.org/coach9