restauration of athentic carriage

Most people who are interested in aquiring a antique carriage are interested in a ready-to-drive carriage , restored to its original status. Lack of time, kowledge and / or skills are the main reason not to do it yourself.

A complete restauration from wreck to riches takes about one year . Als steps in the refurbishing proces, woodwork, wheel repair, painting, upholstering, not only demand a lot of time, but also knowledge, skills, perseverance but most of all love for the trade.
Besides all this suffficient space, specifica materials and equipment is neede, all these things that are available at van dne Heuvel in abundance . The first step we take is the restauration of the wheels and undercarriage . If necessary teh wheels are replaced with newly constructed ones, but in most cases replacement of one or more spokes,reshrinking the metal hoops and replacemnt of the rubber tyres is suuficent . Once the under carriage has been reconstructed we check whether it is square and functional with a test mounting..
The next one to attent to the carriage is the highly spezialed furniture maker. Everything that has been effected by weather influences and wood worm is removed and replaced panel by panel. .

Any remaining paint is removed and scourned with sand paper. Everything is then painted with a primer as preparation for the final paintwork .The carriage is assembled again to check whether everything is realy in order. To make high quality painting possible this work is done in a dustfree chamber, that can be kept at a desired temperatue. Obviously the quality of the paint to be used is of utmost importance. The best results are reached with a new cannisuer of paint at room temperature, which will give you the best results .

Dark paintings have the preference, dark blue and dark green for the professional carriages and red and yellow for the sporting carriages .

The metal parts are painted black, especially for the foot steps. After this the carriage is decorated by striping . One or more stripes of varying widths are painted on the carraiges and the wheels.
Now it is time for the upholstery . In the past cushions were stuffed with genuine horse hair, now these days often seaweed is used. For th eupholstery we recommend to use high quality material suchs as boxcalf leather, or pure woolen cloth .It rest is all a matter of personal preference, trying to restore the orginial status

Obviously the highlight is when the restauration in completed, the carriage assembled and rolled out for the first time, when you are then satisfied wothj th eresult in the knowledge that you have been able to restore it in both its estethics and its function

Do it yourself ?Chr van den Heuvel holds stock of a large number of carriages in various stages of restauration . We can supply you with everything yoiu need to do the restauration yourself ;rubber, leather, upholstery etc, and of course we are there to help and advice you !