At the end of February 2012, after taking on the responsibility of running the British Show jumping Jump Store, from the beginning of the year, My Brother also dropped the bomb shell that we also had the task of making and finishing many of the Olympic show jumps.
All he had as reference was a folder with a picture and sketch of each fence that was to be produced. We only ever got a quick glance at that, as all the fences were top secret.
There were 240 poles to paint and finish, this became later over 300.
Who do we get to accomplish this job? after thinking about it for a day, I could only think of one person that would fit the bill and suggested to my brother that Lyn with her background in art and design, would be the perfect candidate? Ask her my brother said, and after a meeting at the yard, she got the job.
Now for a week or so we had pondered the idea of making a pole-painting machine. That would help speed up the painting process. This machine would simply turn the poles slowly to help with masking and painting.
I came up with one idea my brother came up with another. And when I arrived at the yard one morning he had started to make his version.
He had used a second hand elevator electric motor and gearbox that we had knocking about. He had been to an old electrician mate of ours, and he had come up with a speed adjustment for the motor. Plates with spindles were made up and screwed to the ends of the poles, one end was square so this slotted into a socket to turn the poles.
I made up a rack that fitted in front of the pole so that Lyn could mark out where the rings on the poles were to be masked.
After first priming and sanding the poles, they would then have a white finished coat applied before masking for the colours to be painted. This usually took about two days, for each set of poles. If the poles were to have fades from one colour to another I would spray them, with Lyn’s guidance to what she wanted to achieve. They were then placed on racks for one week, before I lacquered them with 2K clear coat as used in the motor trade. After another few days on the racks, they were then placed into polythene sleeves and labelled with the appropriate fence name and number. Then they were stacked onto specially made pallets to await delivery to Greenwich Park. (To be continued) the all ready famous Penfold Pillar-boxes and the (now famous) Tower Bridge.
Guest post by Charlie Prescott who worked on the Olympic show jumps.
Images: London 2012
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london 2012 Olympic Show Jumping course and fence plans
Olympic Show Jumping Course designed by Bob Ellis
