The Taylor Tot Story

The who?..Oh, the singer?...no?....

The blog guy?... uh, no….

Believe it or not, Taylor Tot is a … stroller. But not just any stroller…it was the premiere baby stroller of the 20th century. From hours on hours of research, it seems they were made from the 1920’s till the 1970’s. The company was the Frank F. Taylor Company of Cincinnati, Ohio.

So, how did I get in such a shape?... Well, as you may have already figured out, I love old stuff. If I had my way (and the moola of course) my home would not have anything newer than 1960 inside it,,,well, other than the TV, the washer/dryer and the computer…but you get the idea.

Here’s the tale… in May of 2004, my wife and I were at a West Tennessee Antique Auto Club car show around the square in Jackson, TN. We were walking along and checking things out and one side street was the location of the ‘swap meet’ (EVERY car show has to have one of those areas - it’s in the rules). Anyway, I spotted this kool looking stroller sitting there and told the LOML, ‘hey, that’s gotta be old’. So we looked it over a bit- thinking wow, this would be a neat thing to restore and use for the grandkids. There were no nameplates on it anywhere, so I had no idea what brand it was or how ‘old’ it really was, only that it looked ‘old’. I asked the fellow who was in the area how much he wanted for it and he said “40 bucks”… Well, we started to walk away, slightly wondering what we would do with one anyway…but then, the deal clincher.. “But I’ll let you have it for 35”… yep - SOLD.

Well, we get the thing home and I start trolling the internet to find out more about what we had. It turns out that ebay had some pictures that looked just like it…and that’s how I found out the name; Taylor Tot. At least I now knew what it was…ok. Now I go trolling for Taylor Tot…and lo and behold, I find a guy who was a college professor who was restoring the actual Taylor Tot stroller from his childhood. Man, he had his lookin sweeet! So I emailed him and we started talking. Sure enough, he knew a lot about them and had even figured a way to copy his front decal. He was kind enough to send me one for mine. (I didn’t use it, but more on that later).

So, here we go… I started taking it apart and media blasted everything to get it down to bare metal.
If I’m gonna do it, it’s gonna be done right. I know you guys understand.

Well, during this time of reworking and learning all I can about them, I found another one on ebay and it had the ‘high-class options’ of “wheel pants” and a foot tray. These are groovy little fenders that cover the wheels and don’t let the rider’s feet scrub on the tires and a tray that is put under the rider’s feet when the stroller is used as a ‘pusher’. Lucky me, I won the auction- so now I had 2. (it really does end, but who knows where?). So I get the second one and right off, I discover that it still has the date code that was stamped underneath the seat AND it has most of an original seat decal still in place – oh my…a prize catch indeed! This thing was made in 1949. Ok, change of priorities… the one from ebay became the project.

I completely disassembled the entire stroller, media blasted everything on this one and primed it. I had the original color matched at Dupont and shot it with color, and then went back and sprayed it with a hardening clear coat. Wow - this thing shines better than my truck did.
It turned out nice…but it has to be just RIGHT. That leaves the decals, buggy bumpers and wooden roller beads to need the same attention.

During the time I was restoring the body parts and the mechanical parts, I was also looking at the various decals that came on them. As I said earlier, the professor sent me a copy of his front decal - it was paper. I suppose I could have glued it on and no one would have been the wiser…but I would know. Ya understand?... and if I’m going to go ‘all out’, the seat decal needed reviving too. So I took the paper front decal down to my local sign shop and had them make one in vinyl. The seat decal was a bit tougher. The wording was not completely readable, but as my good fortune lasted, I kept watching the ebay ads and someone posted the wording from their stroller seat decal and WALLA (that’s a Southern term for “Hot DOG”!) mine made perfect sense. So I took what I had back to the sign shop and after 2 tries, they got the thing just right.

The wooden roller beads (1956 and up used plastic roller beads) sit on a rail around the package tray that sits right in front of the rider. They are something for the rider to play with. As it turned out, Hobby Lobby had fresh wooden beads. All I had to do was drill holes thru them and paint them with a child-safe paint.

The buggy bumpers had rubber tubing over them and the tubing is readily available by using…well…I think I’ll keep that to myself. You never know when I might make up some kits and sell them on ebay for a little walking around money.

So, now you know. I’m the resident expert on Taylor Tot strollers. I reproduced more decals than I needed and have ebay’d a few sets to other restorers. I’ll let you see some of the pictures and you can judge if my efforts paid off….by the way, in my searching, I found that someone had restored one of these, and gold plated the bumpers…and they wanted $3000.00 for it. YIKES!
… but if you really MUST have it… I can think of a price… heh-heh.

EDIT ADDED 10-7-08: Thank you all for your comments. If you would like a response or a question answered, come visit my new Taylor-Tot website at http://www.3r1enterprises.com and use the 'contact us' feature. Thank you again and have a very blessed day.