Million Little Pieces

Tomorrow is breakfast with the boys. Every Wednesday I get together with some friends for breakfast. Always entertaining, occasionally enlightening and certainly one of the highlights of the week. It started with two of us. We added a third and now we are up to four that have managed to pass the grueling initiation process. Depending on the day there may be an additional straggler along once in a while. We dine locally as well as making short road trips to such exotic locations as Rio, Fall Rivera, Waterloo, and Eastern Lowell where they open 30 minutes early just for us. It’s the one day a week that I throw out the diet and splurge on hash browns, some sort of breakfast meat and toast with jelly. Three guys in suits and me in shorts and flip flops. I’m surprised that I have not faced discipline in violation of the dress code.



The Kimball Brougham project continues to move along.



We have come to the point that we are completed with the body and the chassis needs to come off. We are starting on the front end and when we have that in primer we will move to the rear.



The roof so far is going according to plan. Bob removed the top skin to find the next layer in pretty decent condition. The loose areas have been fastened and now the new top layer is being fitted.



Once glued and fasted this will give us a good solid base on the roof. We will then continue to infill the remaining panels that have been removed. I would expect to see most of that work completed today.



So here it is in a million little pieces. The front end of the Kimball Brougham. Every last nut and bolt has been removed and the stripping and blasting process begins. As you can see the metal parts are quite rusted and the only way to really clean them up properly is to completely take it apart. Brandon will begin blasting metal parts today.

Have a great day.

Best!
Todd

Money’s Top 100

So money magazine picked the top 100 places to live and as usual Wisconsin has a few cities on the list. Middleton is number 4. Hat’s off to Middleton. It is a nice city but to really appreciate it you need to be into urban sprawl and fields of McMansions. The development there has been fast and furious. Some of it has been pretty well done and like much of America some of it hasn't. It always feels like a little big city to me. Other Wisconsin cities on the list are New Berlin at 34, Pewaukee at 61, Germantown at 76 and Waunakee at 78. Waunakee? Give me a break. Waunakee always feels like a speed bump on my way to Middleton. Sorry Waunakee but I’ll stick with Columbus.



So that’s a paint job. Dale just shot the final coats of clear on the show phaeton body on Friday. This is a shot of the side panel. They don’t leave the shop until I can see myself in the shine. It is looking great. Dale is striping the chassis this week and I will follow up on that project later in the week.



We are continuing work on the Kimball Brougham. As you may recall the left rear upper corner panel was split. The only way to properly repair split panels is to remove them and start over. So the panel has been removed and ready for replacement this week.



The interior has been completely removed and you can see what the inside structure of a brougham looks like pretty clear in this photo. One advantage to removing the interior is it makes the structural and panel repairs on the outside much easier to do in a proper fashion.



The roof is pretty tough. It must has had some moisture issues at some point to de-laminate this much. The top consists of two layers of veneer. We are thinking we may be able to remove the top layer and fasten the bottom layer. Then over lay a new panel on over the top.



This is a shot of the interior seat frame. This caned panel inserts below the cushion on the interior seat. It is in great shape so we will be refinishing this part and reusing the original caning.

It’s going to be a very busy week. I have a number of different projects in the air and looking to make substantial progress on all of them. Stay tuned.

Have a great week.

Best!
Todd

Houston, We Have A Problem

It looks like the little Kimball Brougham was the source of some trouble at some point. In taking the right door off of the body we encountered a pile of busted glass in the bottom of the door. And a note. The note and the rubble appears to have been hidden away in the bottom of the door for decades.



The note reads. “If you want your kids to climb around on this carriage give me $3,500 first. Then I could care less. Leave the door CLOSED.” It kind of looks to me like some youngsters must have been playing around in this vehicle and busted the window. Obviously much to the dismay of the owner at the time. It’s always fun to see what you will run across when you dive into these restorations. The note will be saved and passed along to our client upon completion.



Bob and Brandon are making good progress on stripping the carriage. It’s getting to the point that they will be taking the chassis off to start on the fifth wheel, springs and axles. The doors have been completely stripped and the one split door panel has been removed.



The body is pretty well ready for the wood repairs. Not much paint remaining. Once the split wood panels have been replaced we will coat the body in a hard coat sealer prior to primer coats.



The body is marked in a few locations with a serial number 2839. This one is stamped on the top of each of the doors.



Here 2839 appears on the inside wood panel behind the coachman’s seat. We will be doing some digging over the next few days to see if there is any historic information available on this carriage. Unlikely but it’s worth a try now knowing the serial number.

It’s a really big weekend coming up in Wisconsin. The Great Circus Parade is Sunday in Milwaukee. This is one incredible event. Over 350 horses take part in this parade along with most of the historic wagons from the Baraboo Circus World Museum. Take the time to see it if you have never had the chance. You can find more details at www.circusworld.wisconsinhistory.org .

Have a great weekend.

Best!
Todd

Bachelor Brougham Restoration in Progress

Wow it’s chilly here in Wisconsin today. I haven’t checked but feels like about 65 or so right now. The windows are open and I’m sitting here in shorts freezing. Good working weather I guess but bring summer back by the weekend.



So the stripping of the Kimball Brougham continues. We are getting to the point where most of the body is getting stripped. There are still some detailed areas left but the big panels are coming along. Here Bob and Brandon hand strip the front portion of the body.



Both doors have now been removed. This will make it easier to work on the door jambs and replace panels.



The front floor has been stripped clean and turned out quite nicely. The body panels have the majority of the paint removed and the balance of this will be cleaned up by sanding it off.



The original upholstery has been carefully removed and saved. As you may recall I was debating the replacement of the interior. After a long discussion with our client about her use of the vehicle replacing the interior is clearly the smart way to go with this project. We will retain all the original upholstery parts. They will be used as patterns for the new upholstery then sent with the owner to keep with the carriage.



The doors need some work. Stripping all the detailed areas of the door jambs takes quite a bit of time but it sure makes it easier having it on the bench.

So I have another little project underway. This is a fun, spare time (of which I have none) arts project that I am undertaking to release a little creative energy. It is something that I have been planning to do for years. Being I’m not getting any younger it’s time to get going. You can see more about it by clicking on The Great American Time Machine to your left under my favorite links.

Have a great day.

Best!
Todd