Refurbishing the Tactical Wheelbarrow
Recently, my trusty sidearm, a Montgomery Ward Garden Mark Contractors wheelbarrow that Dad bought in 1960, finally broke a handle. It?s been through every war our family has fought since I was nine years old. It lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the War on Terror. It has hauled countless loads of concrete, mortar, dirt, gravel, and boulders up to 300 lbs. It has bravely moved everything from groceries, firewood, windows, doors, shingles, guns and ammo, skunks, raccoons and big game carcasses. It once transported my grandmother half a mile along a mountain trail after she sprained an ankle. This trusty Montgomery Ward tool is strong and solid far beyond anything now sold as heavy duty. So, after 62 years of dedicated service my only choice was to rebuild this noble soldier.
The first task was to find sturdy replacement handles. The cheap China-made stuff at Home Depot and Lowes didn?t make the cut for quality and they didn?t include the necessary wedges which are part of every good wheelbarrow support. I found Murdoch?s had quality American made oak handles that included wedges. The Wards wheelbarrow has additional wood cross braces so I cut some to fit from scrap American oak that I had. Rather than reassembling the wood raw I gave it three coats of some surplus Minwax poly stain and a top coat of gloss polyurethane.
After 62 years of hard use the metal tub was looking pretty beat. Hardened concrete splatter coated the inside and four rust pockets created jagged holes where the metal had been folded to form the tub. (Modern wheelbarrow tubs are heat formed into a contiguous seamless bowl.) For hours I hammered the tub, chiseled, and ground the stuck concrete with an angle grinder and sander so paint would adhere to a smoother surface.
Some leftover oil base paint in the siding and trim colors of the house were brush applied in three coats to the metal tub. Stonehenge for the support hardware and inside the tub, Spanish Moss outside. The Sherwin-Williams paint is softer than I?d like but that?s the nature of oil base paints in the EPA era. To close the rust holes I primed and filled them with several applications of epoxy, including the fold seams that allowed water to enter and rust the metal. Then everything was painted again.
Originally, all parts were assembled with carriage bolts and square nuts. I had a box of new carriage bolts that were probably 45 years old so I used those, cutting and filing some down to fit. I only had to buy four new bolts, some washers and nylon lock nuts to complete the fasteners. I needed to drill the wood handles, wedges and cross braces but used the originals as templates and everything went together pretty well.
The final touch was to reproduce the painted Montgomery Ward Garden Mark logo that was well worn off. Restoring the original would be more time consuming than practical so I photographed the logo, enhanced it with Photoshop and printed adhesive vinyl decals as replacement.
A 1960 Montgomery Ward summer sale flyer ad included the wheelbarrow lineup. The Garden Mark Contractors Wheelbarrow was their top of line offering that sold for $24.95, which was a good chunk of money in 1960. The 2022 materials cost to rebuild was about 8 times the original sale price. We won't mention the labor and beers that made it happen.
Will it last another 62 years of hard use? I?ll never know. Just don?t talk to the old warrior about robot wheelbarrows of the future.
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