New Name, New Vision, New Image

We have been Colonial Carriage Works for a long time. I’ve been rather so-so with that name for just about as long. After all I was twenty years younger when I came up with that. I guess I thought it was cool at the time. There were a lot of things that I thought were cool twenty years ago that I’m not so sure about anymore. The biggest difficulty in building a business around a name like that is the lack of brand identity. It might be OK for a shop but not for a product. It’s been an issue for a long time not to mention that there is really nothing Colonial about us.



So we are at the point where we are making a big change. It’s been passively in the works for several years but we are stepping up and making the move. We are officially Frey Carriage Company. We have grand plans for the future beyond a name change and I look forward to bringing them all to life. Some will happen fast and some things will evolve over time but the new image and vision will be great fun to develop. Above is our new logo concept. I think it’s very close to the finished product. I initially set out to create something a bit more contemporary. As time passed and things came together it just seemed to loose that “classic” feel that I was also after. I like the simplicity and clean elegance this conveys.



All of the carriages that we produce will carry the FREY tag. It has been our brand for a couple of years now but making the full commitment will streamline our overall image. We are fully investing ourselves into our future with new products the likes of pleasure carts like the Sprint lineup, to all new marathon carriages, to hand built traditional coaches. I feel strongly there is a place in America for a contemporary world class coach builder. We hope you enjoy watching our evolution. The last twenty years of creating this business has been a great life experience. I’m looking forward to another great twenty years holding the lines of Frey Carriage Company.



We have been very busy working on several project back at the shop. The Show Gig project continues to grow ever closer to completion. The body will be painted in black and maroon. The black base coat and first coats of clear have been shot at this point.



After that cured we wet sand the entire body to prepare for the maroon. This shot was taken just after that process. We are now masking out all of the areas that will remain black. The maroon will be sprayed, the black will be un-masked and the entire body will be coated again in high solids clear. After a few stripes it will be ready to place in the chassis.



The chassis has been painted, striped, trimmed and ready to roll. The wheels are also ready to install. The maroon color looks nice in contrast with the black trim and gold stripes.

Back at the ranch we are beginning to see the early signs of spring. Still lots of snow on the ground but it’s in the 30’s today and 40’s later in the week. The sun is out and it all feels great.

Have a great Wednesday!

Ciao!
T