Spotlight: Vintage Wheelbarrow Repair

Welcome to wheelbarrow week here at the International Headquarters!

After a new handle for the robust contemporary design, (CLICK LINK HERE)
work began on an older vintage cousin with many similar robust features
from yesteryear– an all metal wheel with bearing axle, an all metal pan,
and most remarkable– metal parts coated with a thin layer of protective
rust.

Yes, before stamped one piece plastic pans and powder coat metal finishes,
old timey implement metals were designed to coat themselves with a
thin layer of preventive rust which would inhibit corrosive metal
eating rust from ruining vital parts.

Read about protective rust here– click link.

Much to my surprise this layer of protective rust allowed all the
nuts to loosen freely from their respective bolts without any assistance
from oil or Liquid Wrench or other solvents. Two nuts and bolts were
completely reusable and returned to service in their original locations.
All this after 40-50(?) years of unprotected exposure to the elements.
Then, as now, they did what they could with what they had available.

Sometimes the old innovations worked as well or better than modern ideas.

So here’s to the good days with a wheelbarrow restored to a second life
of service with a new set of handles!