Some sub-assemblies of the carriage are wonderful examples of highly developed technology; wheels for instance, and springs. Some of these technologies are lost to our knowledge forever. Wheels are of the utmost importance to the safety and usability of a horse drawn vehicle and few untrained persons possess the technological skill to assess the soundness of old carriage wheels, much less repair those wheels. If this includes you, send the wheels to a qualified wheelwright for evaluation and repair or replacement.
It may take a long time to get your wheels back, so I like to send them away as soon as I start on a restoration project. There's plenty to do in the meantime!
I can't believe my great good fortune! Our wheelwright has put us in touch with a local party who is driving their own wheels to his doorstep TOMORROW! (7/9/14) These good folk agreed to toss our wheels in with their load and take them along. So we spent the morning scrambling to get the wheels loaded and make the one hour trip to their farm. We have contributed to the gas and are saved a tremendous amount of bother! I should know shortly the state of the wheels, but I think it will mostly be favorable.
New shafts and assorted other delights are on order and should be here in a couple of weeks. My plan is to assemble the shafts temporarily and, when the refurbished wheels arrive, go for a mad dash around the neighborhood in the buggy!
After that, serious work can begin.
These whip sockets are available new quite readily, but this one is in such good shape, and has such dandy mounting hardware, that I decided to "dip my toe in the water" with it. These whip sockets were available from the 1906 Sears, Roebuck catalog for nine cents apiece. They're probably $15-20 new now.
The whip socket represents one of those sub-assemblies mentioned above, as well as a snapshot of what will be involved in refinishing the rest of the carriage. It's a small thing, and a great way to restore something straightaway, to get a feel for the rest of the project. The work will proceed over the course of several days.
Anyway, I decided to try out hubby's heat gun to strip the paint off. I think the whole thing was originally assembled and simply dipped in black paint.
Set at the 1,000 degree setting, the heat gun worked a treat after a little trial and error with a scraper. A little steel wool, picking and sandpapering yielded the above object. Rinsed in solvent and set aside.
While cleaning the wooden socket, the mounting straps and their nifty little buckles were soaked in paint remover. As you can see, rust is only beginning to damage the business-card-thin metal straps. After soaking for 15 minutes, they were wiped off and sludge blown off with compressed air, then neutralized with paint thinner. When dry, "Rust Mort", a rust converter was applied.
Then I tackled the only real damage to the wooden socket, a chip knocked out of the lip. It was an easy matter to scrape away a wee bit of old wood with a utility knife to get down to a clean surface for glueing. The groove under the lip retained a rubber ring to prevent the whip from rattling. I'll replace it with a suitable O-ring.
A wee scrap of wood, about a quarter inch square, was carved to fit the damaged area and glued and clamped to the damaged area.
Everything was left to dry overnight. The wood chip will be carved to follow the curve of the lip once the glue is dried.
NEXT DAY...
Some shallow irregularities , as well as some fine cracks remained. These were filled with 3M Acryl-Green Spot Putty and allowed to dry. When fully dry, the spot putty was sanded back with 150 grit sandpaper, as 100 was too coarse for the job.
One more tiny crack at the bottom of the whip socket was filled with Acryl-Green and sanded flush with the surrounding surface. Now the entire object is sanded with 220 grit dry sandpaper.
Now there is a decision to make...whether to prepare the surface further by filling the grain for a mirror smooth base, or accepting a less-than-optimal final paint job.
Since I believe in something called "over-restoration", I have decided to forgo filling grain on a nine-cent whip socket. I have also decided to forgo dirtying spray equipment, and this whip socket will be painted with Rustoleum rattle can paint. Do not smirk. I have superb results with Rustoleum on small parts.
The wooden body has been wiped with a clean rag and paint thinner and allowed to dry.
The next step will be to brush-paint the wooden body of the whip socket with clear wood sealer.
The repaired whip socket body has been brushed with a single coat of Pettit's Clear Wood Sealer and left to dry overnight.
I like to use wood sealer because it makes for effective sanding, it seals grain to keep substrate layers from soaking into the wood, and I believe it helps stabilize moisture content in the wood. I have never had an adhesion failure as the result of using clear wood sealer.
The mounting straps have received a couple of coats of Rustoleum gloss black...
And the repaired whip socket body has been lightly sanded with dry 220 grit sandpaper, wiped with a tack cloth* and is receiving a couple of fast, light coats of dark gray Rustoleum sandable primer.
Because of the nature of Rustoleum spray paint, the primed whip socket can be top coated as soon as dry, about 30 minutes. The top coat itself can be sprayed on, then sprayed again within an hour, or after two days.
*A tack cloth is a piece of cheesecloth which is coated with a special non-drying varnish. It is used to remove bits of dust from a surface which is about to be painted. It is used gently, so as not to transfer any of the varnish to the prepared surface.
Why wait? The whip socket has received two coats of Rustoleum gloss black.
That's pretty much it, a reasonable result with the minimum of preparation. The parts will HANG to let the paint harden until I'm ready to reassemble them.
Soft new enamels will take an imprint of any material they are laid upon.
I once imprinted an important object with the weave of cotton socks that I had used to protect the object soon after the paint had dried.
Now that I'm "limbered up," I'm ready to start the really dirty work.
TIPS:
- Antique paint can be removed from wood effectively with heat. A heat gun seems to be effective without scorching as readily as a torch. Alternatively, a small propane torch can be used. Practice heating, blistering and scraping the paint with a metal scraper. Some people use a piece of broken glass to scrape. Be aware that antique paints are loaded with lead, so take precautionary measures to avoid exposure.
- Never touch your project at any time with a rag that has fabric softener, or especially silicone on it.
- Compressed air blown on a part may be contaminated with oil and/or water, so it's best to filter the air.
- Automotive spot putty can be used to fill extremely shallow defects in the surface, or fill wood grain. In this case I have used 3M Acryl-Green spot putty, which can be used between paint coats to fill very small voids. My favorite spot putty for filling grain is Transtar Buff Spot Putty, an automotive product. Spot putties and glazing putties are for VERY SHALLOW REPAIRS.
- Decide on a line of paint and preparation products and try to stay with it, as many paints are not compatible and mixing them may ruin your project. Some product lines that seem to be compatible, and which I use regularly are Rustoleum, Pettit's Marine paints (clear wood sealer, Easypoxy top coat) and paints from the Schwartz Mfg. LLC line of buggy paints.
- Never buy inferior sandpaper! Sanding is Job One in carriage refinishing, and high quality sandpapers will save tremendous amounts of time and disappointment.
- When sanding, start with the coarsest sandpaper that seems appropriate for the job, and work down through the various "grits" to the finest grit that you intend to use. The whip socket project starts with fairly coarse 100 grit, then finer 150 grit, and will finish with 220 grit. Starting with 220 grit would take too much time and waste too much sandpaper.
- 220 grit is a good grit to end up with when preparing the surface for paint, or sanding primers and between layers of paint.
- Glues, fillers, etc. may shrink as they cure. It is best to do any gluing of wooden parts as early in the project as possible.
- OBSERVE DRYING TIMES for paints and glues. Many problems may arise in the finish of the paint if solvents etc. are not allowed to escape through drying before applying additional coats of paint.
- Wherever possible, when glueing wood pieces in, do not be afraid to scrape old surfaces away to reveal a clean surface for correct adhesion. Gluing a new piece against an old one that is covered with a century of dirt and filth is a recipe for disappointment. Yes, the void will be a little wider. But the likelihood of closing it permanently will increase exponentially by paying attention to this detail.
- Try to avoid handling the object with bare hands once the object is ready for painting, to prevent transferring contaminants to the surface which may spoil the paint.
- Use an automotive wax/grease/oil remover if surface contamination is suspected.
- Use a tack rag to pick up stray dust, etc. before applying coatings.
- Fresh, soft paint will take an imprint of anything that it is laid upon, such as a rag or towel.
- Paint stripper for small metal parts
- SEM Rust Mort to stop corrosion on metal parts
- Elmer's Wood Glue Max (carpenter's glue) for gluing small chip of wood.
- 3M Acryl-Green Spot Putty for filling shallow imperfections
- Pettit's Clear Wood Sealer for sealing pores of wood in preparation for building paint layers
- Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer on metal parts
- Rustoleum Industrial Quality sandable primer on reassembled whip socket
- Rustoleum Industrial Quality gloss black paint for top coat.
- Wipeout Automotive finish wax and grease remover.
- Tack cloth, to remove dust from surfaces which are about to be painted.
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