Restoration Help In Triangle

Wiley's Woodworks

Wiley
Corporate Member
Good friends of mine have acquired a family heirloom--a large steamer trunk that's about 200 years old. It's in remarkably good condition; there are no broken pieces and all the plate metal connectors and braces are there and in good shape. Only significant issue is the lid hinges don't function properly. They are made of wrought iron and probably need to be repaired (1st choice) or replaced. Species of wood is unknown. The challenge is that the entire trunk has been painted over in a hideous shade of green. My friends want to strip it down to original wood and refinish with a clear satin finish. Refinishing is outside my strike zone, so I'm reaching out for both advice and quite possibly a commission to do the entire refurbishing project by a fellow member in the Triangle area.

My immediate ?s are:
  • Can the stripping and refinishing be done properly without removing all the metalwork on the trunk?
  • What is the best method to clean and protect from future rust the metalwork. They believe it is iron, but it might be super tarnished brass. Your guess is welcome.
  • What is the best method to strip the multiple layers of finish and paint?
  • What is a good source for visually matching replacement hinges if that is the only solution?
If you are interested in doing the whole restoration let me know. I will connect you directly. The middle photo is the way they would like it to look after restoration.
 

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Hmerkle

Board of Directors, Development Director
Hank
Staff member
Corporate Member
Wiley,
Do you know if they have a budget for this?
Restoration can get expensive, I would say sight-unseen their starting point is $1000 and likely $2000-$2500 - that is for a quality job...
As for the hinges, they could likely run hundreds of dollars in and of themselves without the old ones being removed and "new" ones being installed...
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
If there were several layers it may be easier, what I think is there was some old varnish that was worn, chipped, and scratched through. In those places the paint will stain the wood and may need a lot of sanding to remove.

Working around the metal, under the edges of hardware, and down in the cracks will be the time consuming parts. Could take days to do a complete job of it. Rivets are not easily removed nor easy to replace without being noticeable.

I had my great aunt's steamer trunk that went to WWI with her. It was in decent shape but needed a good finish.
My MIL took it to a refinisher to have it redone and it was not what I would call an authentic refurbish.
More like a quick clean up the wood and paint the hardware with brass paint. She paid close to $600 25 years ago.

Kinda made me sick knowing how much it would take to undo.

But, my daughter likes it and uses it so not all lost.

Most likely the hinges are stamped metal like the rest that I can see.
Might try Restoration Hardware.
 

Wiley's Woodworks

Wiley
Corporate Member
Wiley,
Do you know if they have a budget for this?
Restoration can get expensive, I would say sight-unseen their starting point is $1000 and likely $2000-$2500 - that is for a quality job...
As for the hinges, they could likely run hundreds of dollars in and of themselves without the old ones being removed and "new" ones being installed...
There is no fixed budget. Whoever inspects the trunk will set the budget. If I could look at it I wouldn't make the call on whether the hardware had to be removed until I was looking at it, and I realize removing the hardware could double the price.
 

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