Posted 11 years ago
JessTheNew…
(4 items)
Hello all.. I am new to this site and thought I could ask for a bit of help. I bought this trunk on a whim after I fell in love with it. It is in horrible shape and needs a lot of work. I love it, plan on keeping it in my home and I am toying with the idea of fixing it up myself. I have ZERO experience but I figure I have to start somewhere.. I consider myself to be pretty crafty after all ;) The only things I know about it came courtesy of a Google search. I imagine its late 1800s or early 1900s. The lock reads "Yale Towne Mfg Co Stamford Conn - AB" There is no label. It has wheels on the bottom. At some point in its life it was ruined by a horrible paint job. I am really interested to see if I can remove the black paint that was sloppily placed over the beautiful original yellow/red filigree. Given that I have no idea what kind of paint it is can someone offer any suggestions to remove it without harming what is underneath? The same applies for the rest of the trunk. How can I remove this paint from the wood, locks, metal sides etc.? The inside is a mess.. I saw some ideas on here to line it with cloth.. I may go that route. I imagine there once was compartments inside.. maybe like the ones I have seen here with the beautiful lithographs. Thanks again for your time.. All feedback is much appreciated! :D
You have chosen well JessThenewbie and have entered the antique world through the same route that I choose those many years ago... it will not disappoint you! Thee are two routes to take with getting the paint off. The first is to try paint remover for furniture -- use it with a lot of steel wool. Usually when a tin embossed trunk gets painted it means the tin has rusted somewhat and a lick of paint is an easy fix. My trunk that you liked was painted black like yours -- I tried furniture stripper but it was too far gone and rusty underneath. That brings us to level 2 treatment -- which is radical surgery. I had to take a drill with a metal circular brush attachment and grind off the paint and rust to get the shinny finish -- not for the faint of heart. The sides of mine were too far gone even for that treatment so I could only do the top. The third option -- and there are some nice examples of this on this site - is to repaint the embossed tin two-tone to your taste highlighting of course the embossing. Depends on how lucky and how brave you are!!! Nice dome top trunk looks to be from the 1890's era. Welcome to Collector's Weekly and good luck with your project -- make sure to post the results.
Welcome to CW, nice to see someone eager to learn & try their hand at restoration.
Trunkman has a wealth of knowledge, he will not lead you astray!
Thanks for the good tips! I think I will try them in that order.. I am curious to see how bad the rust was..
I will definitely post pictures of the finished product, though I imagine it will take awhile..
P.S. thanks for verifying the age. I have to accept the fact that with no label I will never know its details lol thats ok.. adds to the mystery I suppose. :)
Thx walksoftly! I have read some of the other posts and its obvious he knows trunks! :)
I'd like to add some encouragement. I do not think this trunk is that bad off. You will be delighted by the result of your effort. Keep at it and most importantly have fun.
Thx JayHow & trunkingforfun. I will post the pictures once I am finished! :D