PROJECT: Swing Bench Restoration

Two old swing benches  around the pool have served us well over the past 20 years or so but time had run out for them. One of the benches came from my parents place around 1996 and was a few years old then.

Teak boards or slats were beyond refinishing and rust was prevalent on the frame.

Boards from the side arms had fallen off.

In the seat area the slats were rotted out and moss was taking over.

Last Thursday our friend Greg came over and "volunteered" to make some new oak slats from several I gave him to use as patterns.

I stripped off all the slats and ordered new nuts and bolts.

There seems to be more to this project than I anticipated and I feel bad for Greg who offered to cut all the new slats from oak boards for the cost of the wood. I think I will owe him a few more chicken wings and beer for all his work.

The old fasteners were completely corroded and many of them snapped as I tried to undo them. We decided that none of them were salvageable.

The benches were reduced to their basic frame parts.

Fortunately the frame tubing was originally powder coated, and a good job at that, so I decided to stay with the same colour.

I used muriatic acid to remove the rust stains. It did a wonderful job and the tubular parts cleaned up amazingly well.

Here I am standing in my bare feet (so I wouldn't damage my work shoes) as I swabbed on the acid. I did wear safety glasses, rubber gloves and kept the hose and some sodium bicarbonate ready to douse the acid if I got any on my skin. Muriatic acid works miracles on rust stains. You may not find it at the hardware store because it's pretty strong but a pool place or TSC Store will have it in gallons or quarts.

Here are all the components cleaned and touched up with matching spray paint which coincidentally was a stock colour at Canadian Tire. (the colour: R.V. White)

Here's the finished frame all ready for new oak slats and arms. I was even able to save the decorative plastic scroll-work. The old swing benches will be better than they were when they were new. Hopefully they'll go another 20 years because it's not something I want to do again.

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