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Repairing an Old Travel Trunk

I found in my attic this old travel trunk. Very dusty. I repaired 2 other trunks before for my familly, covering them with fabric, because the wood was disgratious. Here, the wood was clean, so I kept the outside raw, with varnish on top of the wood to protect it.



I found in my attic this old travel trunk. Very dusty. I repaired 2 other trunks before for my familly, covering them with fabric, because the wood was disgratious. Here, the wood was clean, so I kept the outside raw, with varnish on top of the wood to protect it.

Trunk: Final result

Find your trunk

In the attic.

Dusty trunk on the carpet Dusty trunk on the carpet with another angle

Measurement

Keep record of how it was before if you have anything / anypart you remove if you want to reproduce all the details. Here, the inside is made of wallpaper, which is subject to water damage and therefore difficult to clean.

The inside is made of something close from wallpaper.

The lock is dirty but not rusty. Good news !

Remove the canvas / fabric

I removed everything inside the trunk. As the wallpaper was glue to the wood, I needed to remove it with a lot of water. A brush helps to remove correctly the different particles.

I started by the inside because the wallpaper was covering the borders of the external fabric.

Trunk with the inside cleaned

Progressively removing the outside

The most difficult part is to remove the fabric near the ironwork. There, you may not be able to remove all the fabric. Use a clamp to remove as much fabric as possible. Then, when you are unable to remove more, use a cutter to cut the visible part of the fabric. Be carefull to not damage the wood.

As you can see, it creates a lot of dust. Do this project somewhere where it is easy to clean.

This dark spot are not moisture, it is just glue + dust.

After water cleaning, there is a little bit of glue left, but no more dust.

Now, let it dry for at least one full day in summer.

Clean all the glue

Let the trunk dry for a day.

Take a mop to avoid scratching the wood when changing the face up.

Polish the wood

This step will remove the very last pieces of glue. It will also brighten the wood.

Clean the metal

Polish the metal to remove all the rust.

Put black metal painting to avoid rust

Next, protect the metal by painting in or using varnish. Use painter’s tape to avoid painting the wood.

Put wood stain

Wood stain (lasure) is used to color and strengthen the wood.

With a different light.

Enjoy !



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