The straightened and repaired equipment access doors have been rehung on the superstructure and the crew is nearly finished installing replacement car body panels.
Panels rest on lugs that are welded to the superstructure frame. Aluminum extrusion battens retain the panels in compression, separated from the carbon steel panels by neoprene gasketing. New batten replicas were formed at an extrusion shop then at the Museum, they were cut to the various lengths required and milled at the places where they bridge the panel support lugs. The vertical battens are capped at the top and bottom. Caps were cut from flat stock, TIG welded to the vertical extrusions then hand worked to blend an edge radius. The many, many attachment hardware holes were accurately located using dimensions from the original drawings then located for drilling using an indexing plate set up on the table of a single spindle drill press. Only a couple of holes were off, just slightly. Considering accidents and the corrosion that occurred over the locomotive’s service life, that is amazing.
Retro 'engineering' continues to restore such as-built features as classification lights, inside access to the number board lamps and the steam generator hatch vent and exhaust stack.
As a result of an accident, 108 received a plow in place of its distinctive F/ FP45 pilot. The contour sculpted pilot is sort of a heritage link to predecessor full width car body Electro-Motive 'E' and 'F' design and so a pilot was 'hunted down' securing a key visual element needed to depict the locomotive as it was delivered to Santa Fe in December, 1967
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