Busch Gardens Tampa Bay: Sheikra Being Repainted

The slow season has finally arrived, and all Central Florida's theme parks are starting to close down select rides to be refurbished. Busch gardens Tampa Bay, for example, is currently taking care of one of their most popular roller coasters: the mighty Skeikra. The coaster is currently being completely repainted. Here you are some very interesting insider's information about this project, from the official Inside Busch Gardens blog:

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SheiKra Painting Project: 5 Questions With an Insider

Most of us take on painting projects at our homes at some point of another. We’ll spend hours debating over paint swatches and use yards of masking tape to avoid painting the floor or ceiling. There’s no doubt that repainting the kitchen is an exhausting task, but what about painting a roller coaster the size of SheiKra? Bill Rothenberger, Rides Maintenance Manager at Busch Gardens, was able to crunch some numbers for what it takes to complete this mammoth task.

1. How many gallons of paint will it take to cover the entire rollercoaster?

It will take more than 600 gallons of paint to finish this project. There are 165,000 square feet of surfaces that need to be painted. Any part on SheiKra that is red or blue will receive a fresh coat of paint.

2. How many people does it take to paint it?

We have about 40 professional industrial painters working on it. They take two 12 hour shifts throughout the day and night.

3. What kind of paint will you use?

The long answer is that we use a high performance industrial polysiloxane coating system designed for industrial and offshore applications.

The short answer is that we're using same red and blue as the original colors.

4. Will you use any special equipment to paint SheiKra?

We use 12 boom lifts ranging in heights from 40 to 150 feet. These aren’t the kind you find at Home Depot, these are four wheel drive and self propelled (some with all wheel drive). For SheiKra’s highest areas, at 200 feet, a two man basket is attached to the end of the 240 foot long boom of 165 ton crane. This crane requires two semi trucks to carry the counterweights which have to be attached to the crane. We also require two high capacity air compressors, several light towers and an entire truck load of portable lighting.

5. How many total hours will it take to paint SheiKra?

The project will take 6,000 – 7,000 man hours. There are multiple shifts scheduled around the clock, 7 days a week.

SheiKra is currently closed for the project, plus some general scheduled maintenance, and will reopen on February 16 looking brighter and better than ever. Thank you for your patience.

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It is always great to see these much-needed refurbishments taking place in the parks.