Bolsters

What I am referring to as a "bolster" is the red wooden block, just under the blackish-colored body (directly below the seat).  There is one on each side.

Someone else might call it a spring block.  At any rate, the bolsters are the "body mounts", between the body and the springs/running gear.

Well! After getting to the point where I thought I'd lose my mind completely if I ever looked at another piece of sandpaper, the restoration project was set aside for the fall, just in time to move out of the work space so that the tractor could get its 30 year old cooling system refurbished.

Driving weather has been reasonable, and now that the novelty of driving Laddie has worn off, I've terminated Spunky's vacation and put her back to work. She is my 14.1 hand Morgan mare, for whom I purchased this buggy!

Driving Spunky has caused me to daydream of dashing along with her and her little "speeding wagon". That has led to stirring up the restoration juices again, so I got back to work today!

Only in typical fashion, I didn't resume the task at hand (sanding the body). I have been itching to start dismantling the gear.

I had a very good reason to want to get the bolsters off and get to work on them.

They don't match.

And soon after I had removed the body, I realized that one was taller than the other!

So the slightly unlevel body was due to the right hand bolster (in this picture) lifting the right side of the body higher than the left!

More evidence of some major rebuilding in the past.

While the right hand bolster is one solid piece, the left hand bolster is made of two pieces. Here I've pivoted the upper half out of alignment with the lower half.

So which is the original?! If either one. My money is on the right hand bolster.

I've been pondering for months how I'm going to deal with the problem.  Especially since, after taking them off, I can see that they are another hand-fit nightmare.

In this photo I've got the bolsters off and have laid the left one - you can see its two halves here - on top of the right one.

There is a full 5/8" difference in height between the two.

By the way, note how the bottom corners are notched at an angle, and how the mounting bolts are canted inward.

All this wood, by the way, is rock hard oak.

Well, there's my answer. I will glue a 5/8" oak spacer to the underside of the top half of the left bolster, so it matches the right.  Problem solved.  Getting this done NOW will mean the glue will be well cured when it is time to paint the bolsters...which isn't that far off!







After these satisfying little revelations, I got back to work on sanding the body and finished another large section of the inner surfaces.  I am only a few hours from being ready to top coat. I have sworn I will NEVER brush-prime a carriage again.  Topcoating, yes, priming no.  The sanding is just too spirit-breaking.

I finished up by cleaning the bolster bolts, chasing threads, coating them with Penetrol, and adding them to the "bolt board".  Every one of them has a peculiar bend to it, to custom fit its own hole.

One thing I came to appreciate today, is being ESPECIALLY careful to keep the nuts with the bolts they specifically came off of.  The reason for this is that this carriage has been heavily overhauled during its working life, when threads were non-standard.  If I take a nut off a bolt on ONE of the bolsters, the threads may not fit on a bolt on the OTHER bolster, which may have a different thread pattern!

Considering all the indifferent repairs I've encountered on this lovely vehicle, had I been the original owner, I would DEFINITELY have fired Joe the Buggy Fixer by how!