Classycanopies

JOHANNA'S MARMET QUEEN

At the beginning of October 2009 Johanna contacted me to see if I could take on her Marmet Queen for restoration.  When she sent these photographs I thought, what a shame for the old lady and couldn't wait to get started on her.

Johanna's grandma had bought the pram from John Lewis in London when Johanna's mum was pregnant with her, and later the pram was used for Johanna's sister.   The Queen had travelled from home to home with the family and had ended up in the garage, sad and sorry!    Johanna's dad had suggested taking it to the tip but both ladies stuck to their guns and decided to look for someone to restore it.

When I saw the poor old Queen I couldn't wait to get started and make a difference but two days after we picked her up Norman started with his troubles and two weeks later he was told he had terminal lung cancer.  Needless to say the Queen was put on the back burner for the time being, but if you've read Norman's Journey you will know that I was later able to get back to doing a little work and she was top of the list.

Here's what I saw when I arrived at Johanna's parents' house.

The tyres were sawn off, the spokes were clipped in half and removed, all the chromework was removed from the body and chassis and taken to the platers for rechroming.   The hood was removed and the hoodarms taken with the chromework.  The lining was removed, carefully, to enable me to use the pieces as a pattern for the new lining and foot extension.  Then the body and chassis were taken to Dave my sprayer with instructions to give it the best treatment he possibly could and I wanted a very deep navy please!

I ordered tyres and new spokes for the wheels and new navy straps for the suspension, a deep navy marimo-type fabric was ordered for the hood and apron and some new white covering for the handle.

This was the result!

When I arrived in Suffolk and opened the van door, Johanna was amazed!  She couldn't believe this new pram she saw was the same old Queen and was  highly delighted to push it up to the house to show her mum and dad.   Her mum's face was a picture and I just managed to capture it on camera.  The first thing she did was to grab the handle and walk along the garden path with the pram, turn it around and wheel it back - you see, we mothers pf a certain age never forget the feeling of walking with a coachbuilt pram!

Enjoy your pram Johanna, and make lots of people smile when you walk along the seafront with your "borrowed" baby in your very own pram - oh, by the way, let your mum have a push too!!