CoachBuilt Prams

sharon bridges: left  in the  Guestbook  on   9/2/08

Hi, I am currently replacing certain parts of my lovely LBC pram and being new to this could i ask anyone what they think would be the best product to use on the inner body and cushion fabric which is black to make it look new again?The pram is 51 years old and has had 3 generation in it!(Not including mine!)Also, how tight do the strps have to be?It also came with a basket, which is a wreck and have a new one to replace with.If oil leeks from the central part of the wheel does this mean i need a new wheel?Lots of questions in need of help please?

First of  all  your  interior/lining.    I  have  heard   people  say  that they   use  various   things  to  clean the interior.   I  myself   use   Cif  or  another  cream  cleanser,  but you have  to  be  careful  not  to  wet  the  base  of the  pram  too much  when you  rinse  the   white  cream  off it.    Another   lady  I know   swears  by  Cillit Bang,   it  is  really  a  question of  trial  and error.   I am a fraid  that  nothing  will make  it  look like new  again apart from a  new lining.

The   straps  have  to  be  fairly  tight,  I  don't  know  how  to tell you  how  tight  really,  the pram  doesn't  have  to  'droop'  if  that  is  the right  word,  it  needs  to  be  pretty  high  otherwise  it  just looks  sad.   It is  really  a  case of  'how  long  is a  piece of string?'   it  is  just  trial  and  error and  how  you want  your pram to look.     Look at  pictures of  other  prams  and  see  how  you prefer  them  to look,  that  is  the  best  way  I  would  think.  Or maybe send me a photograph and  I  can  tell you whether  I think that  they  should  be tighter  or  not?

I  have  never had  the problem  of  oil leaking from the hub  part of the  wheel.  The hub   should  have  grease in it  to  protect  the bearings,  not  oil,  so maybe  someone  has   oiled  the  hubs  instead  of   greasing them?   In  which  case  I  can  imagine  the  oil   seeping out.    You  could  take them  to a  bicycle  shop  to ask their  advice,  most  are  very  good  and   will help you willingly.    Sandra

mari-anne stanley:  Left in the  Guestbook 6.4.08
Hi my mum has a wilson coach built pram it is maroon in colour in very good condition the only thing that realy needs replacing are thw straps because they have decayed over the years. The pram was first used in 1972 for me and it was use again in 1977 when my brother was born. After that it was stored in the back bedroom where it still stands today, if you know of anyone who is intrested in buying this pram please contact me on the above email address.
Kind Regards mari-anne stanley


Marie Anne, I can't get hold of your email address through the Guestbook I am afraid, would you please email me at the address above about your pram for sale?

Sandra

Saturday,   Dec 8th 2007

This message  is for Edith Love,  who  has  just  signed the  Guestbook  a few  hours  ago.   Edith, thank  you very much  for your lovely message  which  you left for me and for your offer  of any help with  identifying  prams,   could you please  email  me  on  coachbuiltprams@yahoo.com  please,   so that I can  'talk'  to you?

Thanks  very much

If anyone  else  would like to contact  me in a similar  way could you  please  either  email  me, or leave your message in the Prammie Forum or maybe  join  the 'Club'  here,  that way  I have an email address  to get in touch  with you.   There is no facility for me to  be able  to find your  email address when  you  leave a message in the Guestbook (or the Prammie Forum   for that matter)  you see.  Thanks   very  much.

maggie7140: Have just found this site. It is great and full of very useful information. Have always been interested in prams since owning my first. I have just managed to aquire the exact model and intend to try to restore it. Only problem I have is getting imperial dome headed nuts for the hood levers would be most grateful if anyone knows where to source them. How I agree with Christine about modern prams nothing like the proper thing.

Maggie,  have you tried good old B&Q or Screwfix?     I believe that they both sell them but I am not so sure that they do them in Imperial,   maybe Screwfix would be more likely than B&Q, but you never know! 

I am glad that you are enjoying the site, thanks very much indeed for your kind words! 

Sandra

Replacing the Hood

I have been asked before about how I redo hoods and aprons so I thought I would add that to this page.   First of all let me say that this is not the only way to do it I am certain,  but it is the way that I do it and I have to thank Annette for showing me how.

First of all I un-pick everything carefully and as I am doing this,   I take pictures of everything as I am going along and take notes as well.  Try to work out how things are put together and the order that they are put together.   For instance the hood lace has to have been put on last, it couldn't possibly go onto the hood in the second or third steps.   Take a careful note of how the hood lace is attached and how the lining is formed into piping between the hood lace and the main fabric of the body.   Mark each piece carefully too, with the name of the pram model that you have taken the hood from and the front and bottom edges etc.    Don't leave anything to chance, it is amazing how you can forget what was what, in only a day or two.    I advise you to keep the pieces of the old hood, just in case at some point you wish to make another hood for another model of the same pram perhaps, so you definately want every pattern piece marked carefully for that, or you will never remember anything  years down the line.

When you have got all of your pieces for the hood unpicked, it is a good idea to roll them quite tightly inside out and leave them for a few days, so that they straighten out a little. 
 When I cut out a hood I use the old hood as an exact pattern.    I use tins of stuff out of the larder as weights to hold everything in place.   I place the pieces of the old hood wrong side up onto the reverse of the hooding fabric and I use a gel pen in silver or another light colour to mark everything out.   You could use  french chalk maybe though if you wished, but it might rub off the material slightly as you are handling it and you could lose your best friends the marks and notes that you could have made on each pattern piece.    Take a particular note of the seam allowances which are normally 1/4 of an inch.   The only place where I might deviate from the old hood pieces is maybe at the bottom of the hood where I may add maybe 1/2 of an inch,  I would never cut this part any smaller than what was there originally.    You should have also unpicked the piping, so that you will have a pattern to cut the piping out as well.   (Try really hard to get the same thickness of string for the piping by the way, if it is thicker/thinner you will have to cut the piping covering wider/narrower, so it is best to keep things exactly the same if possible).   I make a long length of piping and then cut it later to suit the parts of the hood that I am sewing it to.   By the way, when you are joining pieces of material to make the long lengths of piping,   don't try to sew a seam in it,   just lay the two pieces of material over each other so that it lies flat,  normal hooding doesn't fray and if you try to put a seam in it it will be too thick to sew.   (If you are not using normal hooding you can use fray check to stop fraying here)

When it comes to marking out the place for the hood arms, where the pins on the frame go through the hooding fabric,  mark them in the exact place as they were on the original.   But I don't cut out a circle as the originals have.   I mark the middle of the circle with a dot and then I use a scalpel to cut a small cross exactly over the centre of the dot that I have marked in the middle of the holes in the original hood piece.   Don't make the cross very big or you risk having a  gap around the hood arm and it's pins.  

On the wrong side mark the front and  bottom edges of the hood pieces.

Do exactly the same with the lining,  cutting it from the original.

I use an industrial machine for sewing my hoods and aprons but I have friends who use a heavy old type of ordinary domestic sewing machine.   I haven't asked what makes/models that they have but I really must try to remember to ask them and post is on here.   I also use a heavy weight thread for sewing both with the machine and when I am hand sewing the hood into place (I find a large type of darning needle in a heavy weight with a sharp point to be the best thing to use for this and I always use a thimble, even though I never normally use one for ordinary hand sewing!).   To hold the hood into  place I use some bulldog type clips that I got from DIY stores.   They are rather like the clips on a set of jump leads or the clips that market stall holders might use to hold the covers on their stalls.   Again,  I will try to remember to take some pics of them for you and post the pics on here.

First job is to make up your piping with the string inside it.   I use a piping foot for this, but I have heard people say that they use a zipper foot.   When you have sewn it up make absolutely sure that it will fit right along either side of the main, larger part of the hood.   Sew it into place,  (look at your pictures here to see exactly how it was fixed on originally) onto the right side of the hood,  your new piping must have exactly the same seam allowances as the old piping and be fixed in exactly the same place, usually 1/4 of an inch from the outside edge of the main part of the hood).

Next job is to  sew the smaller side pieces of the hood to the edges where you have just added the piping.  I use the same piping foot for this so that the stitching goes tight up against the piping.   Make sure that you have your pieces the correct way around so that the front of the side pieces are next to  the front pieces of the main part  of the hood.    It is an easy mistake to make to get them the wrong way around.

For the hood lining,   (1) first make the little tucks which are used to sew the back of the hood to the hood frame struts. You will hopefully have lots of photographs and notes to look at to help you here.  Next join the pieces of hood lining together as they were joined in the original, these seams don't have to be piped.  Snip the little tucks (1) where you have flattened them with the seam that you have just sewn, so that it will stand up and away from the seam at each side (this is exactly as it was made in the original - or has been in every hood that I have made up to now- so you must make sure that you have copied this down into your notes, taken photographs and also if you look carefully at the original lining pieces you will see where the lining was  snipped here).

You will have looked carefully (and hopefully photographed them AND taken notes?) at the pieces of material which were around the back of the hood supports,  you may or may not want to replace this material, I always replace it.    Following your notes and photographs of when you took the original hood off, you must sew the hood lining into place here, to the pieces of material folded around the hood supports.

Next attach the wrong side of the hood, by the seam allowances, to the same hood supports on each side at the corners. using heavy thread, or double or treble thicknesses of ordinary polyester thread if you haven't got a heavy thread.    (Your lining and hood main parts should now be wrong side to wrong side.)    Make sure that the hood lies flat across the back of the hood support.  It is difficult to describe this part,   you can only rely on the pictures, notes and your own memory of how these pieces were fixed here really   I find it very hard to describe how to do it in words.

Next it is sewing the hood main part to the frame.    What I do first is the push my little cross cuts that I made in the places where the hood arms are attached over the pins that are sticking out from the hood frame,  you want a good tight fit here, with no gaps around the base of the hood arm pins.    Push each pin through it's corresponding hole and then replace the hood arms and fix them into the extended position.   Using your lovely new crocodile clips begin to tighten up the material over the frame, pulling it over the outer edges of the frame and folding it under and then clipping it into place with your clips that you have bought.    Start to pull the material evenly all around,   Have a look where the wrinkles are and smooth them out by pulling the material.   Try loosening off the hood arms,   pulling the material and clipping it to hold it in place and then tightening up the hood arms again.     This is just  a job that has to be done carefully all around the hood.    The cover must be fitted tightly, a nice, tight  hood has no wrinkles or pleats and the hood arms should feel very 'tight' as you push them into the fixed position because of the tight hooding material. 

Now sew the hood outer part into position.   I back stitch mine into place putting in stitches about every 3.4 of an inch around the frame and only only taking a minimal stitch to show on the right side.

Next you have to do the same with the lining material, but don't forget to put the piece of string into the fold along the front edge of the hood, if your original hood had that.   This front edge piping has to be positioned pretty well forward towards the edge of the hood frame, (but not right at the front, it needs to come forward over the edge of the frame approximately 1/4 of an inch or so, the same measurement as the width of the selvedge on your hood lace) so that it will show between the hood lace and the frame, so it is very important to have noted where the original was stitched into place and put yours in exactly the same place.   Pull it all into place doing away with all looseness, wrinkles and pleats, hold it in place with your clips.  Next start sewing  it into place right next to the hood frame so that the stitches won't be seen from inside the hood,   try to take your stitches either right between the original stitches that you put into the main part of the hood, or in exactly the same place.   You want to try to keep everything as even and tidy as possible from the right side of the work.    Once again your photographs will be so useful here.

Last job is to add the hood lace and this is the final finishing off of your hood, so you have to get it smart.    You have to sew it into place so that the selvedege is folded back flat,  toward the inside of the hood and place it so that the piped bit of the lining material shows between the hood main fabric (around the frame) and the hood lace.   Sew it into place centrally,   so that there is an equal amount of the hood lace left unstitched at each side of the hood.   Sew everything into place, putting your stitches into the same holes as other stitches around the hood edge for neatness.   Next find the little cord which you will find at the  edge of the hood lace,   don't pull too hard at it,   but start from each end and tug the cord slightly so that the hood lace will sort of gather up along it's  edge,  you don't have to gather very much,  so don't go mad.   Push the gather up the side of the hood and position the gather so that the gather sits in the right angle at the top of the hood frame.   Do the same with the other side and then make sure that everything is even and there are no fluted bits of floppy hood lace flapping around the edges of your hood.   Next take care of the extra bits of the lace which are at each side of the bottom of the hood frame.    Take a look at your pictures and notes from when you took off the original lace and if you have saved it, as you should have done, have a look at it and see how it has been gathered and tucked into place behind the front 'face' of the lace.    You will probably have to trim some of the hood lace off, but it is easier to deal with a little more lace by stitching it into place and hiding it, than it is to work with too short a piece of hood lace to work with.  If you cut it too short you could very well have to buy another piece to put on there, because it is hard to do anything with a too short piece.

You should by now have a lovely new hood.

Replacing the Apron

Aprons are more difficult, or at least I find them so.    If you have a traditionally made apron that can be taken apart, you can follow my method of using the original as a pattern for the new one. 

One word of warning here, DO NOT use the original holes where the fasteners are fixed for a new apron.   The old apron has been stretched a lot during use and if you use the old positions your apron will be too loose.     Mark new positions for your fasteners when you have finished the  apron by getting a friend to hold one side, you hold the other and you tug each side firmly and  simultaneously, to stretch the apron as tightly as possible, mark the place for the fastener and then cut the hole and fix the fasteners.

If your apron was made by the one piece method, the Wilson, Silver Cross and Marmet prams of the 60's onwards up to the present day use this method.  It will have no piping on it and it will be fixed in part by welding the lining and main fabric together in places so that it is impossible to  undo it all and use it for a pattern.    What they did was to take a piece of fabric and lining held together (seamed at the top edge)  and fold the bottom corners into place to fit the pram, adding a topstitched trim around the top edge on 3 sides of the body (where there would have been piping on the older prams and where you MUST make absolutely sure that you catch the lining as well when you sew this topstitching),  stitching the folded corners into place and then turning under the main fabric to the wrong side covering up and enclosing the raw edges of the lining.   The storm flap is made and added with a curved line of stitching afterwards.   As always though, the original apron is your best friend, you can study how the corners are formed and sewn and see how the topstitching sits, as well as how to cut and sew on the storm flap into the correct place.

I have yet to make one of these aprons so I can't really give you a lot of advice at all.    I will be having a go at one soon though so that I can work it out for myself,   I need to do one for my Egremont pretty soon! 

Tip - Tight hoods and aprons

A tip from Alison Murfet a well known pram restorer about tight hoods and aprons and what to do when they have been stored down, the material has then shrunk and the hood can't be put up because of that.   This is a particular problem if you come to want to use the old hood and apron for a pattern for the new ones.   Alison suggests that you soak the apron in some warm water (my favourite here would be  to add a little fabric conditioner,  but I don't know whether it would make much difference really!), until it is softened enough to be able to raise the hood and to put the apron into position on the pram and then leave them to dry in that position. 

My tip is to always store your pram with the hood up and the apron in position.   Stops you losing the apron as well as stopping everything from shrinking!!

7/9/07

D: hi
what a lovely site you have
could you please help me i would like to restore a silver cross twin pram i would like to replace the hoods
and also the tyres need replaced
i also have an osnath which the wheels need rechromed could you recomend someone
your help would be much appreciated

thanks d

Hello D,   yes I can help you with the re-chroming,  there is a great company in Walsall who I have used and they were very good indeed.   I no longer have  a contact for tyres unfortunately, since my supplier was bought out and the new owners put the price of tyring up by 400%!    Are you looking to replace the hoods yourself and so need hooding fabric, or do you want a restorer to do the hoods for you?   Either way,  if you email me I can give you all of  the contact details that you need.

Sandra

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