Construction Notes, Beetle Damage, Panel Split Repairs and Other Stuff

I think the advice bears repeating:  Do not buy a project carriage that has been attacked by wood boring beetles!

This is a shot of the underside of one of the wagon floorboards.  It's a surface I've never really seen, until we pulled the wagon box off the gear and turned it over.  Those little holes are beetle exit holes.

The beetle larvae will leave the surface of a board, but completely excavate the interior, leaving nothing but sawdust (actually bug poop) behind.

Such was the fate of this heavy beam, or sill, on the right hand side of the wagon box.  The previous owner painted over what looked like a sound surface, but when I tested the surface with a screwdriver, it was soft, then whole chunks of wood broke out with moderate prodding with a chisel.  Once I gathered the courage to dismantle the box, the back end of the board broke off while removing it.

I don't think this is dry rot.  I think it is beetle damage.  That's why the bugs are called "powderpost beetles."  They can leave a post standing, but turn the inside into powder.

I spent many hours repairing beetle damage in the wagon seat.  When I turned the wagon box over and saw that all the floorboards are peppered with beetle holes, my heart really sank.

I wasn't familiar with the construction of the wagon, as it uses no wooden framing, and I was scared to death to attempt dismantling.  It turned out that it wasn't that complicated after all, and I got the board out safely.  At this point I decided it was a no-brainer to have a wood working company not only mill me a new sill, but also new decking to replace the bug-shot boards.

Construction

As I mentioned, there's no wooden framing on the wagon box.  It's built like a colossal packing crate.

What there is instead, is a pair of these metal corner braces, which I realize you can't make hide nor hair of.  On the inside of the wagon box corner, is an iron brace, complete with mount for the dashboard.  The outside of the corner is covered with a sheet metal plate.  Bolts hold the two together, and there is a bolt that goes through the sill.

The two side, and one front panel of the box, are lapped and nailed together.

This is the inside iron brace, with the dashboard mount to the left, which would be the upper edge of the vertical panel.  The right hand end bolts through the floor.

But the thing that had me scared to death about dismantling was the methods used to attach the vertical side panels to the sill.

This picture is of the wooden side panel, just detached from the ruined sill.  When I got an idea that the side panel was bolted to the sill by means of these LONG rods, which pass through the panel from top to bottom, and through the sill, I had a fleeting notion that I would somehow destroy the panel by trying to remove them.

The big problem with getting these bolts out, is that like all the other fasteners on this wagon, the maker saved money by economizing in this department.  He didn't use a single washer on a single nut and as a result, all the nuts are screwed right down into the wood and inaccessible to either wrench or nut splitter.

And then there were screws, from the underside of the sill into the side panel.  Sometimes getting screws out of an old carriage is just about, if not completely, impossible.

As for these screws, they ended up being like all the other screws I've encountered on the wagon.  They'd excavated their hole sufficiently, that they pried out easily, more than unscrewing.

Getting at the buried nuts on the rods was more of a challenge, and I ruined all the rods, but I can make new ones.  I ended up putting an oversized socket over the nuts and smacking the socket with a hammer, to crush the wood fibers down enough to get a tool on the nuts.  It was a tough job, but what a great feeling when the beautiful, and astoundingly undamaged side panel fell free from the rotten sill!

Here's an example of the condition that all the fasteners are in...and this is a good one!

Tailgate hinge bolts.

Today I named the wagon "Rusty."










The Panel...

The most urgent matter with the side panel was inspecting the bottom edge for rot and beetle damage, as it joined the terminally rotten sill.

First of all, the sill itself is SOUND under the panel!

But more important, there appears to be not a single SPECK of bug damage to this plank! (Update:  Oops, four specks.)

So this is the front end of the plank.  That piece on the left that appears to be split off is, in fact, a separate piece of wood.  The outer edge of that piece is milled to form a nice trim edge.  It's a different type of wood, and is very sound and strong.  Looks like fir.

So initially, the main damage that I can find to the side panel is these three split out nail holes.  I can't find a split anywhere else on the board (so far).  (Update:  The bottom edge of the board could use just a little work on some very small splits around screw holes.)  Currently I have in process a cool repair that I picked up from an architectural restorer's blog.

Drat!  Blogger's done it to me again.  Format change.  Anyway, in the above photo, I've sanded the back side of the damaged board really well and applied Abatron WoodEpox all around the damage, pressing it in really well, to form a DAM, which will contain the Liquid Wood, which I will pour into the splits from the other side.  When the repairs are cured, these dams will be sanded back and become a permanent part of the repair.

A few hints to begin with.  WoodEpox doesn't really like to stick to dry wood all by itself.  I tried thinning it with Abosolv a little, but it would be much better to either "prime" the surface with Liquid Wood, or mix a little LW into the Wood Epox, just enough to make it a little stickier.  I was too impatient to go through the 10 minute induction phase with the LW, so made sure the WE was well stuffed into and around the cracks.

The next most important thing is, the WE has to be SET UP before phase #2.  Otherwise it will dissolve into the Liquid Wood!  I found that out by smearing it over uncured LW in bug holes.  It just dissolved and went right down into the bug holes!

Tomorrow, I'll begin the process of filling the cracks with Liquid Wood from the other side.  The LW will bond to the WE dams.

While the WoodEpox was still just a little tacky, Liquid Wood was poured into the cracks and nail holes until it finally quit absorbing into the wood and began to set up.  Repairs sat under a carefully positioned heat lamp overnight and were hard about 24 hours later.







12-28-16 Update... 

Today I contacted Woodcrafters, a wood seller/shop in Portland, OR.  They have agreed to take on my project!
So one task today was to wrestle a floorboard out to take with me, as they will be replacing the floorboards as well as the sill, and a small plank that sits in the center of the seat.  In about three weeks, reassembly will begin!

Today's other task was to strip the inside surface of the right side board.  This shows the nail hole/split repairs.  This side of the plank will not be relieved of its "character" as it never had a high finish to begin with.  The surface took coat after coat of sealer!

The exterior surface got relieved of all its defects and sealed.

I can now add another component to the growing inventory of repaired-and-waiting-for-paint parts!

Tomorrow the front panel comes off - necessary to remove/replace the floorboards.  After that, work will slow down considerably until the new planks arrive.