Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with restoration

Clock art restoration?

anti social order — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:53:39 -0800

How do I have an old unique art piece restored? I was given that clockwork car at age 6 or so (some 30 years ago) by my grandmother. I didn't treat it very well as a child and sort of forgot about it. Now I've rediscovered it, and some strong sentimental feelings about it, and I'd like it ready to last another 30 years or more.

The piece is old. the backing paper is yellowing and the glue is drying out and failing. You can see that some of the pieces have come loose and shifted around. The frame is worn and some of the clock pieces are starting to tarnish/corrode.

Where/How do you find someone to do this (D.C. area)? What can you expect when you do this?

I'd also be interested in learning anything more about the thing or the guy who made it. I'm not sure if you can read the text in those pics, it says "1911 rolls-royce landaulette G. Burress London". google hasn't been helpful to finding details about that person. I've been unable to even find a similar looking piece.

Looking for clay tile roof caps

octothorpe — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:51:38 -0800

Flat Roof Filter - We're trying to get our garage roof replaced and are having problems locating a supplier for the clay tile end caps that run around the edge of the roof. Here is a shot of the roof and here is a closeup of one of the edge caps that run around the parapet wall that surrounds the roof. We live in a designated historic neighborhood and by law need to keep the look of the house and garage the same (or go through a long hearing process with the historical review board). The two different roofers that we talked to both wanted to pull off those caps so that they could run the roofing membrane underneath it but can't guarantee that they won't break them pulling them off. Neither contractor knew where you could find these tiles and the one just wanted to put up metal flashing but I'm pretty sure that I'd never get away with that.

The tiles are 24" long and about 9" wide (three brick widths) and have a lip at the end so that they interlock. I've searched around the interwebs and so far have come up with nothing. If I can't find a supplier, how difficult and pricey would custom tiles be to get made?

How can I make my Oliver No. 5 typewriter shine?

katillathehun — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:28:16 -0800

How can I best make my typewriter look like this typewriter? I recently bought an Oliver No. 5 typewriter (with the ruling pencil feature!) in working condition. It looks to be in fairly good shape. It's dirty more than anything else, but there's a little rust here and there. What's the best and safest way for me to clean this beauty up? What products should I use? These things were made in the eeeeearly 1900s - should I be concerned about dangerous chemicals in the old materials when restoring? Any tips?

Note: I'm kind of excited about restoring this myself, so taking this to have it professionally fixed-up isn't what I have in mind.

how to restore a headstone

HuronBob — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:55:14 -0800

How do I restore a grave headstone. My son's headstone has faded over the past 20 years. The engraving (once highlighted with black) has faded, the writing is now hard to read. I could use a small brush and, with my shaky hands try and fill in the letters, but there has to be an easier (and more effective) way... ideas?

Name that vintage fabric!

skyscraper — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:56:24 -0800

Trying to restore a 1951 factory prototype auto (US). Need to match some seat upholstery cloth (printed canvas - image here). Any textile folk that can help track down the manufacturer or a source for high quality reproduction? Anecdote has it that the factory was known for their daring in design and manufacturers sent them samples hoping to have them used - this one was. It's a cotton canvas, two color print (not woven) and has a partial name in the selvage that appears to be "TEXTURA ?????" (even less sure about the 5 letter second word - thus the ?????).

The seats were reupholstered in the 60s, but pieces of the original fabric were used as scrap in the new upholstery - that's where the scanned image came from. We're looking for info on the manufacturer with the hope that we can find larger samples which have the complete repeat pattern so the cloth can be reproduced (or more ideally someone who has a roll-end of the cloth with enough fabric for the restoration).

How can I find out if there is mold behind my drywall?

cavalier — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:16:20 -0800

What is the least destructive method I could use to determine what if any mold might be growing in drywall? You see, there's this roof leak... ... that is very minor (the leak only showed up after 5+ days of rain in a row), and that's going to get repaired, but here I am looking at a wall with two pencil thin lines of moisture coming down about a foot and a half. Considering this leak has probably been here since before I moved in, as there is some minor discoloration I just now noticed elsewhere on the wall, I'm a little worried I might have something magical living behind/within the drywall.

I've googled around a bit and while there are several mold remediation companies that are happy to come in and rip out my walls and clean everything out -- no one seems to be in the business of, well, checking if there is anything there to begin with. I admit I'm being cheap and trying to prevent a $1,000+ remediation action without evidence of a problem, but am I just SOL here?

The best I've come up with is hiring a "water leak detection" company. Which is remarkable since I know where the leak is coming from -- the roof -- it's more, well, how leaky is it?

If it helps for anyone's anecdotes, I am in Florida.

Need professional TLC for an important old family photo

bonobothegreat — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:09:00 -0800

Can anyone recommend a photo restoration service in Toronto? My wife has a photo of her grandmother as a young woman in the 1920's that I'd like to have restored. I'm only interested in getting the actual photo cleaned up rather than a digital restoration. At some point in the last 80 years, somebody thought it would be a good idea to "matte" it with lengths of tape and then painted over the tape with silver paint. They had a shakey hand and the border of the image is painted over in a few spots and there are a couple of drips in the middle.

My googling so far seems to mostly be for digital retouching (and I don't much care for the samples I've seen). I just want to preserve the original photo and give it to my wife with a nice frame. I'd really like to take it someplace in Toronto if possible.

Piano parts online?

Benjy — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:43:09 -0800

I'm restoring an upright piano and need a good online source for parts. I've googled for some piano part suppliers and the sites that I've found so far set off my "Don't deal with this business" alarms. I really don't want to trust a site that looks like this with my credit card information. Plus they're hard to use or require *ugh* calling the company to order. How 20th Century...

Mostly I need small, cheap parts like bridle tapes, some felts, and plastic key coverings that brick-and-mortar stores seem to have no compunction about marking up.

If it turns out that I'm disregarding some good sites because they have circa '98 designs, feel free to tell me. I'm being picky, I know, but my scam sense has never led me astray before.

my old bag

happy scrappy — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 13:05:58 -0800

Please help me restore the shape of my Coach bag. I've had this Coach bag for over 10 years now. It's time I cleaned it and tried to restore some of its original shape. The bottom is bowed out a bit from the weight of stuff inside, and the front is curved in and the back is curved out, from being stored on its side for extended periods of time. I don't think this is the kind of thing I should send it to Coach to repair ... or is it? Should I just put sturdy cardboard inside, fill it with tissue paper and stand it upright while storing it? Or is there a better way? Thanks in advance for your advice.

Old Quilt, New Problem

nkknkk — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:02:17 -0800

I have a very old patchwork quilt (est 1910) that my mom bought as an antique. It's been stored for many years now, and is looking really stained and sad. How can I bring it back to life? The quilt is very simple - red and white squares around larger patches of white squares, and an all-white backing. Some of the smaller squares are frayed through to the batting, and the edges are frayed. There is lots of discoloration on the white parts, which are now yellowish from age and/or being stored in a cardboard box.

I took it to a "specialist drycleaner" here in DC and they said it was probably too far gone - I was willing to put up with some additional fraying in the process, but they claim that even immersing it in water would damage the fibers and the thing would just fall apart.

I thought of laying it out on a hot sunny day (next time we get one of those) and letting the sun do its work... but it may not make a bit of difference.

Any ideas?

How can a beginner restore a vintage bike?

mippy — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:56:49 -0800

I'm learning to ride a bike and have a vintage Raleigh Caprice. How do I ensure it's roadworthy and get it all ship-shape? I bought the bike second-hand and from what I can see it just has a few spots of rust, some inside the oval bit between the back wheel hub and the frame). I tried scooting along on it and everything turns fine. But is there something I need to do to ensure things run smoothly? It feels like the perfect height and shape for me (previously I was trying to learn on a diamond-frame which was too high for me and felt really awkward) and is gorgeous (the picture linked to is not my bike, by the way - mine is blue).

I'd also like to touch up the scratches on it but it's a kind of metallic turquoise-y blue which would be hard to match. I remember my dad used to get these little paints to match cars - can you still get these, preferably online or somewhere easily accessible in the UK?

Important book damaged, how can I fix?

arniec — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:18:35 -0800

A book that is very personal and valuable to me got damaged due to a leak in a car which allowed rainwater in. The book cover acted like a sponge dragging up the water as well as dirt from the upholstery. I've talked to two book repair places, but I have my reservations. Any suggestions? Even more desired: anyone have EXPERIENCE with book repair shops? The damage is mostly to the bottom corner of the book where the spine is located, though the other bottom corner has some discoloration and some warping. The pages of the book closer to the cover (beginning and end of the book) have perhaps 3-4" diagonal of warping and a brownish discoloration that looks like iced tea (though it was water and dirt).

Towards the middle of the book it is about one inch diagonal.

The book is oversized with coated pages.

Now this book is still in print in its exact format, however I have had many pages of this book autographed by some people who no longer sign. So I am thinking the best solution would be:

a) get a new book
b) Repair only the pages in the old book that contain autographs
c) Merge autographed pages of old book in place of non-autographed pages in new book.

My wife and I have found some book binding places online. The first, http://bookrestoration.net/ seemed great online, but when we sent pictures they said they "can't work miracles with coated pages" and said they were unable to present any type of quote without seeing the book first-hand.

The second, http://thebookdr.com/ seemed good at first, we provided pictures of the damage as they asked, and then they stopped replying to our e-mails.

We are both very upset about this book being damaged and would like to restore it to original condition as much as possible. I can't say "cost is no issue" but the book is very valuable to us, but we want to get service worth the price we pay.

Can anyone recommend a book repair place, perhaps some that specialize in coated books? Please, no "do-it-yourself" options...neither of us are very handy and would likely make the problem 1000 times worse.

Thank you!

Help me clean and value my great grandfather's California Impressionist oil paintings.

maniactown — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:13:17 -0800

How should I best clean and care for my great grandfather's oil paintings? I inherited a dozen or so of my great grandfather's oil paintings from the early- to mid-Sixties. Many of the paintings are very dirty either from long term storage or from decades of hanging in the homes of heavy smokers. I'd like to restore, or at least minimally clean, these paintings. Professional conservation, which could cost well over $10k, is not an option at this time.

As an add-on to the main question: What can I do to ascertain the value of these paintings? I currently don't know too much about my great grandfather's late-blooming art career (most of the relatives on that side are long dead). I think his paintings are part of the very-popular-with-collectors "California Impressionism" school, although he might have been a latecomer by the early-60s. He painted mostly impressionist Southern California landscapes with some oddball Northern California, Oregon and Korean subjects thrown in. I think my family still owns most of his maybe 25 paintings, although I have heard that he had traded with some contemporary artist friends.

One-stop Book Repair Shop

ikahime — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:24:07 -0800

I'm trying to cover all my bases for my budding book repair business. I'm sure in the process people will be asking me to appraise their books. For my own collection, I've found it adequate to use the usual online suspects, such as Abebooks, alibris, vialibri, amazon, ebay, etc. What more can I do to educate myself on this process? Are there formal classes I should be looking into? Also, when providing this service, what is the standard fee, or is there one? Should I just charge my hourly rate, but for research instead of conservation work?

Art and artifacts experienced through technology

0bvious — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:00:33 -0800

How is the meaning of art and artefacts being altered by the methods we use to: Experience, Define and Preserve them... In other words, in what ways have technologies been used to experience, re-define and/or preserve art and artifacts? I came across news on a technique using terahertz radiation to 'see' under the surface of paintings and murals. I know that similar methods have been used before, most especially to see the sketches under (Leonardo da Vinci) paintings or to map the outline of archaeological sites by satellite etc. I am interested in amassing a collection of such techniques, not limited to paintings and certainly from a wide spectrum of scientific and technological applications (for instance: art includes literature or music, artefacts can refer to objects or cultures, a new technology may simply be a new theory of linguistics).

Any links and or examples, books, journals, people you know of would help me immensely. My past questions express quite neatly the kind of reading background I have, please give them a glance if you have time.

Thanks muchly...

Furniture Care 101

fandango_matt — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:33:46 -0800

Help me restore and properly care for my wooden furniture. I've recently inherited a revolving bookcase that belonged to my father. I also have a drafting table that needs attention.

Both the bookcase and the drafting table are in need of care and repair. The top of the bookcase is slightly warped and has a large crack where the wood has split and the shelves are separating from their supports. The drafting table has scratches in the finish and worn edges where people have rested their feet.

What's the best way to care for, restore, and preserve these items? My initial reaction was to disassemble them, strip the wood, fix the broken parts, re-finish and reassemble them. But now I have several questions:

1. Can you recommend a professional furniture restoration expert/refinisher in or near Berkeley, California?

2. How should I care for them? Do I wipe them down with furniture oil, or just dust them with a dry cloth?

3. I'm also interested in the origins of the bookcase. My father got it sometime in the early sixties--it has a small metal badge that says, "Geo H. Fuller Desk Co. 640 Mission St. S.F." but aside from the initial Google search results, I've had no luck finding out anything about this company, when, where, or by whom the bookcase might have been built, or the style of the bookcase.

Leather chair restoration

jmd82 — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 07:00:46 -0800

How do I repair a leather chair with a hole and significant cracking? Someone recently gave me the World's Most Comfortable Leather Chair with one small problem: the leather is ripping in the middle and is cracking a lot (Link for picture). The leather is soft and while the holes/tearing is not uncomfortable, I am concerned with things getting worse.

Two questions- and assume I know nothing about this subject:
1) Is there any good way to repair the tear already in the seat? I don't care about looks and am only concerned with comfort. I don't want this to continue tearing over the next couple years to the point where I'm just sitting on foam.
2) For the existing cracking, I'm aware of this thread. Will the suggestions there help prevent further cracking and ripping, or do I need a new approach since the cracking is already so prevalent? I'm fine with the present cracking so long as it doesn't get worse.

Also keep in mind I got this chair for free and don't have a lot of money to blow on restoring it so bringing it to a professional is out of the picture.

Seeing the industrial and political landscape of the southwest

salvia — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 16:25:55 -0800

I'm taking a road trip through the southwest, and I'd like to see places with an interesting backstory or that show you "behind the scenes." I'm interested in places with political, economic, environmental, or industrial significance. Can you recommend some? Here's the route: Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, Moab, Phoenix. I have 11 days. I've done most of this as a tourist before, so I'm interested in seeing some of the more hidden sights.

As I said, I'm interested in the politics, economics, history, environmental, and industrial factors behind the landscape. I'm still modifying the route so I can check out interesting places. Here are the kind of places I'm talking about:

- power infrastructure (Black Mesa, the Glen Canyon Dam)
- water infrastructure (aqueducts, river diversions?)
- the nuclear program (I'm missing the Trinity Test Site visitor day by a week! Should I still go to Alamogordo? Where to go near Los Alamos?)
- mining booms and busts, related pollution (Moab's uranium tailings pile; oil, gas, and coalbed methane development)
- industrial-scale production of anything from cattle to computer chips
- Native American history (the Cochise stronghold)
- prisons, military bases, and other nearly-blank spaces on the map (obviously, I can't enter, but I would like to know they're there)
- anything else related to political, economic, or cultural geographies (I really like Jake Kosek's stuff)
- wildlife protection or environmental restoration areas, current environmental disputes

I'm interested in current or upcoming issues, not just history, and I have just started trying to get up to speed about some of the work going on now. If you have anything interesting you'd like to share but would need kept fairly quiet, my email is in my profile. (I work for an environmental nonprofit, so I understand that certain information is sensitive and needs to stay fairly confidential to keep sites from being defaced or overrun with visitors, or to protect ongoing acquisitions, negotiations, or investigations.) Thank you!

Need to restore a baptism gown

pearlybob — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:01:27 -0800

I need guidence on restoring an Antique Christening Gown in the Southeast US... My family is blessed to have an antique christening gown that was made in 1880 and has been worn by most of the family at their baptisms ever since. It is a beautiful piece but very fragile and getting more so every day. I want to have it professionally restored so that my grandchildren will have it, if not to wear then at least to treasure. Any ideas on how to do this? I googled 'linen restoration Atlanta' but didn't get much back. I'd like to stay in the Atlanta area but would be willing to travel with it for the right person. Cost is no object, this is a priceless treasure to me. Please give me any tips or experiences that you might have with this sort of thing. Thanks!!

wood you, could you?

hazel — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 14:22:37 -0800

I just bought an old danish-midcentury modern type dining set. Its wood with a finish (lacquer or shellac, I don't know). It has a couple of nasty scratches. I live in San Francisco....know of any businesses/individuals that do wood furniture repair? Unfortunately, the table got scratched during delivery (by a rock, so pretty deep & not by me). The sides are a bit worn too. My options are to return the whole thing and call it a day, or ask for some money back and try to repair it myself (which is a whole 'nother issue)...or find a professional to repair it.

Before I decide whether I will return it, I'd like to get an idea about how much it would cost for professional finishing. If I do it myself, some suggest "restore-a-finish" but don't know if this would work for a deep scratch.

Antique Print Restoration: removing text transfer

toucano — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 21:02:32 -0800

Antique Print Restoration: I have 6 or 7 original c. 1860 Gould humming bird prints. These are large (14" x x21" +/-) hand-colored lithographs. In wonderful condition EXCEPT there is slight black "text transfer" visible on the print. This sometimes happens to antique prints when there was no tissue-guard to separate the print from the text on the opposite facing page. Does it matter? In decent condition, these particular Gould prints are spendy. Perhaps $600-$2000 each.

I can get these professionally restored for about $200-300 each. But there is a big backlog of work and while the restoration work that the professionals want to do is a good idea in theory, it is beyond the scope of what I think is needed considering the underlying paper is in wonderful condition (not brittle at all and there is no foxing - staining - smudging - watermarks.

Before someone suggests to dunk it in a weak solution of bleach... yes, that probably would remove the black ink text transfer and leave the image of the print pretty much intact. I've experimented with that on some cheap prints and removed what looked like tea or coffee stains. The fly-in-the-ointment is that this paper is what is called age-toned. It has patina because it is about 150 years old. Bleaching it would remove any trace of that and leave it a stark white. Like stripping a fine piece of furniture, sanding it, and then refinishing it.

My question is if anyone knows of a way to remove the text without bleaching? I am sure that there is, but I can't find any information about it on the internet.

TIA

How to flatten old diplomas?

thinman — Sat, 26 May 2007 20:33:32 -0800

How do I safely flatten old diplomas? I have two diplomas from 1927 and 1931 that I'd like to frame. They were rolled up in a box with other items for many decades. They are a little squished (but not creased), and they want to retain their rolled up squishedness. Both are printed on a heavyish material with a plasticy feel and a slight sheen; I don't know if it is imitation vellum, or actual animal skin. The documents are from the Mary Institute at Washington University at St. Louis (1927) and Mt. Holyoke (1931) if that helps.

AntiqueTractorFilter: Find my dad a decal!

Alterscape — Sun, 13 May 2007 12:09:17 -0800

Please help my father find as-original decals for the 1955 Ferguson 35 Deluxe tractor he's restoring! My father's retiring this year, and one of the projects he's looking to take up is the restoration of his TO-35. The tractor is in very good shape mechanically, with low hours on the engine. He's already started what little mechanical work the beast requires. However, it's been around the block a few times and is in need of a new paint job and some body work. Part of that will involve removing and replacing the decals on the hood. He's been able to find "Massey-Ferguson 35 Deluxe" decals straight from Massey-Ferguson, but he'd really like to find somewhere to buy them as-original, without the "Massey-" prefix -- the tractor was built before Massey-Harris and Ferguson merged. Googling around has turned up nothing, and nobody at the tractor shops in his area has any idea. I'm thinking his best bet is to ask around at antique tractor shows, but since several folks were talking about Fergusons in that thread last week on brush-clearing, I thought someone here might have a lead.

I'm not sure if these are actually made anymore, or if he'd have to have a set custom made by someone in the graphics biz. I'm linking to two photos of the decals that're currently on the tractor: The big long "Ferguson 35 Deluxe" decal and the smaller "Ferguson System" decal. (Flickr self-links for convenience, if Jess/Matt/Cortex would prefer I'll try to find some more anonymous way to host them). I'm not sure if the red-on-silver color scheme is how they originally appeared, or what they've weathered to.

Any thoughts, hivemind?

Vintage, beaded African art: can I even think about cleaning these on my own?

taz — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 05:35:59 -0800

I have a couple of intricately beaded African ceremonial sashes, ca. 1960, that need cleaning (desperately! profoundly!), but I can't afford professional art restoration at this time, and don't trust non-specialists to clean them. Can I (should I?) try to do something (anything?) on my own? Based on my web searches, I believe they are Yoruba, and based on what the guy who sold them to me told me, I believe they are from the '60s. They look like this and this, except more intricate - more like the work here, on a canvas-like backing, except thinner. The backing and the thread, from what I can tell, both appear to be cotton, and quite delicate because of age...

They weren't in great condition when I bought them around 15 years ago, and now they really, really need cleaning. Can I give them a plain water bath in my bathtub and dry them on towels out of direct sunlight? Or anything else? I would rather donate them to a museum than ruin them - but I'd much rather keep them... and I don't even know of a museum here that would be interested.

If necessary, I'll just leave them alone, but they really do need some kind of cleaning, and I'm not at all the type to expect antiques to be pristine, so I'm not talking about trying to get out every stain (on the canvas backing)... but they've probably never been cleaned (not, at least, while I've had them), and they are way past due. I'd love to hear from anyone who has specific knowledge of vintage textiles or who has dealt with a similar situation.

Who makes historically-accurate door casing moldings?

delfuego — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 08:27:29 -0800

I have a bunch of wooden casing moldings around the interior doors of our Washington, DC home, and over the past 75 to 100 years, they've taken quite a beating. I'd love to slowly replace the worst of them with identical moldings, but despite a pretty exhaustive search on my own, I can't find anyone who still carries anything with the same profile. Does anyone have any tips for molding manufacturers/sellers that have good variety, especially of moldings that are accurate to the turn-of-the-century period? For reference:

• Our house is on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and is roughly Victorian in style.
• A somewhat blurry photo of the moldings I'm looking to replace is here; of note, I haven't been brave enough yet to take the trim apart to make sure I know what all the various pieces that abut the casing molding are.
• I'd also be happy to hear recommendations for restoring these moldings back to their shiny happy origins; there are areas on the bedroom door moldings where dents and dings are pretty significant, and there are clearly about 10 or 20 layers of paint on all of them.

Thanks!