My mom has an old family heirloom surrey in our barn. Restoring it has been on the familial “someday” list my entire life. I don’t currently have much information about it right now, as I’m about 3000 miles away from being able to take a look at it, but I’m hoping to go home for a nice long visit this summer. I do remember that it doesn’t have a top, though it might’ve originally.
It has been in “working condition” in my lifetime. My father and a neighbor pulled us kids along the ridgetop in it one Halloween when I was about 6 years old. Aside from that, it has been kept covered and out of the weather, but not protected from changes in temperature or humidity.
I just bought and shipped my mom a copy of Conservation and Restoration of Horse Drawn Vehicles to at least give us a place to start.
The first thing I’m going to do is comb over it looking for any manufacturer marks, plaques, labels, dates, etc. Ideally I’d like to find some restoration resources specific to the make/model etc, but I’m not holding my breath.
Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? Any sage advice or recommended resources for our little project?