First up is Big George. Thanks to the amazing folks at Miles Fiberglass here in Portland, Oregon we're thrilled to announce he is now 100% sound again! He came to us with very severe damage to his torso after taking a fall back in 2010.
One of the numerous large tears in the fiberglass.
The team at Miles repaired him from head to toe and he's now ready to move on to painting. You can see in the photo below the numerous large tears that needed to be repaired both externally and internally. They also reconstructed his waist line so he could be bolted together again.
Note areas of large repairs.
We'll post an update as soon as we get him to the paint shop. We're currently in the process of selecting colors.
Roll me over!
Next up is our orphan Muffler Man Bunyan head. We actually picked him up last fall and he's been undergoing a complete restoration the past few months. The story of this one is that an antique dealer bought it from a picker who obtained it several years ago. At the time the picker got him the body still existed but was "too large" to also save. That person was not able to confirm if all these years later the body still existed. We're guessing it sadly ended up being scrapped. We've not been able to locate any photos showing a Bunyan with this paint job. The photos below will give you an idea of what a complete wreck he was when he arrived.
Paul in "as found" condition.
His problems were many, starting with the fact that at some point someone decided it would be awesome to glue gobs of pillow batting to his hair, eyebrows and beard. This created a giant mess that took endless applications of paint stripper and hand sanding. Next up was the paint job that appeared to have been applied by hand. Not with a brush, but an actual bare hand. They had also chosen a lobster red for a skin tone. Perhaps they were going for "First sunny day of the year Paul."
Paint stripper in action.
Once the numerous layers of paint had been removed we could get an idea of the underlying damage. The two areas needing the largest repairs were a large crack running from the front of his cap back into his head and a large tear at the base of his neck. We're guessing that when the head was removed from the body it was done less than carefully.
This large crack had been previously "fixed" by applying duct tape over it.
Like many jobs the preparation has been by far the largest part of getting Paul back to his handsome self. Many hours of stripping, sanding, fiberglass application, more sanding, filling in small imperfections etc. We're currently in the primer stage but hopefully you can see how great he's turning out.
We knew that rugged lumberjack was hiding under there!
He should be all painted up by the end of the weekend and we'll post a few "after" photos so you can see how he turned out!
If you need us we'll be over here sanding away,
Jeff & Kelly
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