Column #8- Taylor-Tot pt.3

Let’s finish up the Taylor-Tot story and next week we may talk Tips & Techniques again. I completely disassembled the entire stroller, blasted everything on it and primed it. I had the original color matched at ColorMatch, shot it with color, and then went back and sprayed it with a hardening clear coat. It turned out real nice…but it has to be just RIGHT. That leaves the decals, buggy bumpers and wooden roller beads to get 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 has 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. You can see my handiwork at www.3r1enterprises.com. I have reproduced more decals than I needed and have sold a few sets to other restorers. By the way, in my searching, I found that someone had restored one of these Taylor-Tots, gold plated the bumpers…and they wanted $3000.00 for it. YIKES!

Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you.
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