Antique Steam Trunk Restoration

[coolhandluke]

I recently took on the project of cleaning up one of my great great grandparent's steam trunks for my mother as her birthday present. From the little research that I did on the trunk it looks like it was manufactured back in the 1880's or 1890's. The patent dates on the hinges and other hardware range from 1877 to 1880. The trunk had been given a pretty poor paint job over the original wood, tin, etc by my mother's uncle 30 years or so ago and looked (and smelled) pretty rough.

The restoration wasn't nearly as detailed or correct as it could have been, but still took a better part of 50+ hours. All the paint was stripped from the hinges, hardware, tin and wood. Rustoleum stop rust primer and paints were used on the tin areas. Fiebings medium brown dye was used to stain the wood before coating with a BLO / turp mix. The interior of the trunk was stripped completely bare and coated with BLO / turp after several cleaning treatments to get rid of the rotten wallpaper glue smell. The exterior base of the trunk wasn't salvageable. The wood slats were rotted and the tin was nearly rusted completely through. I just ended up removing the wood slats, cutting out the rusted tin, and attaching an oak plywood base to the bottom that was stained and aged to match.

Here are a few photos of the trunk start to finish...

Before pics (had started removing paint from the wood trim):

After stripping paint and before rust removal:

 

[coolhandluke]

After rust removal, painting, and cleaning hinges and hardware:

Pics of finished trunk:

 

[berettaman]

Excellent Restro job,CHL

 

[landman873]

I'd love to find some old trunks and restro them or keep them original. Seems like all this kind of stuff has gone through the roof $$$ wise.

 

[264killer]

good job on a big job

 

[Popjim]

I have refinished antiques for over 50 years, and you should be proud of the restoration on the Steamer Trunk! it looks great.

 

[orangeRcode]

Nicely done.

 

[coolhandluke]

Thanks for the comments guys.

This was my first resto job on anything other than a firearm. I still have a second trunk to refinish, but it will probably stay on the to do list until the summer is over when work has slowed down and the garage is a little cooler.

 

[druryj]

Awesome! I did one years and years ago and it was so much work, I said never again. Plus I made such a mess, my wife also said never again.

 

[OkieMoe]

Very nice job!!