The Job
The Columbia Carousel sits at the front of Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, the first thing most families see when they walk through the gate. It is a double-deck carousel with hundreds of hand-painted horses, chariots, rounding boards, and trim pieces, and it has been running since the park opened in 1976. Decades of sun, rain, and a few million riders a year wear the decorative paint down. Six Flags asked us to restore it.
Why This Job Is Different From a House
- It is looked at from three feet away. A house exterior is seen from the sidewalk. A carousel horse is seen by a child sitting on it. Every pinstripe, every gold-leaf accent, every shade transition has to be clean up close.
- The deadline does not move. The park opens on a date printed on tickets. Work happens in the off-season, in an unheated structure, and it is finished before the gates open or it is not finished at all.
- It has to survive the season. Thousands of hands a day, sunscreen, rain blowing in from the side, and a power wash at closing. The coatings have to be hard enough to take that and still look like decorative paint, not industrial enamel.
- Nothing is flat. Carved horses, scrolled rounding boards, turned poles, and cast ornament. Prep and paint are brush and detail work, not spray and roll.
How We Did It
- Documentation first. Before any paint came off, every piece was photographed and its colors matched, so the restoration brought back the original scheme rather than inventing a new one.
- Prep by hand. Failed paint was feathered out, bare spots were primed with a bonding primer suited to the substrate, and cracks in carved pieces were filled and sanded smooth.
- Durable decorative coatings. Base colors in a hard-wearing exterior enamel, detail and accents in matched colors, and a clear protective topcoat on the high-touch pieces so the detail work lasts the season.
- A crew that stayed on it. The same painters worked the carousel start to finish, so the hand that pinstriped the first horse pinstriped the last one.
The Rest of the Park
The carousel was one project in a multi-year relationship. Across Six Flags Great America and Hurricane Harbor we have repainted the Hurricane Harbor ticket plaza canopies and booths, themed buildings in the frontier and New Orleans sections, steel structures, and ride surrounds, all on the same between-seasons schedule.
What It Means for Your Project
If we can restore a carousel on a theme park’s deadline, we can paint your lobby over a weekend, your school over summer break, or your restaurant overnight. The same discipline applies: document, prep properly, use the right product for what the surface has to survive, and finish on the date we gave you. See our commercial painting services, including office and property management painting, school and park district painting, and HOA and condo painting.
Talk to Pete About a Commercial Project
Call (847) 564-4880 or request a site visit online. Pete walks every job himself and gives you a written scope, a firm quote, and a schedule we keep.