Restoring stadium seats

[batsballsbases]

This is a great topic,and yes I would say its a 50/50 split. But I would restore them. Here is a great story why. This is on The 73 restoration of yankee stadium. In my town a company called United house wrecking bought up about 20,000 yes 20,000 of the yankee seats and were selling them for between 5-10 dollars each. 10 if you wanted a double pair. Many people bought them and they were sold to people all over the area. Fast forward to about 1985. Im in the landscape tree business and we are on alot of properties, I was giving an estimate for a rather large job for one of my clients who had just bought a house and wanted to re landscape. as we were clearing out an area by an old pool I came upon a set of 2 decent yankee stadium box seat chairs. I was excited! I asked my client what she wanted to do with them and she said they are yours if you want them I couldnt get my men fast enough to load them into the truck. They were decent but a little rough. Well after the excitement wore off they sat in my shop for 20+ years. Problem was they were peeling ,one of the slats was broken and they were just not something you would want to sit in. One day my oldest son asked me about the seats and it got me to thinking about finally fixing them. Biggest problem was that slat,it was curved. I called every one of the seat restorers on line and no one would sell me a curved slat. (I dont think they had one) I finally was able to get a local wood shop to make me some of the slats and the project began! I called one person who does restore these seats and what he told me was to leave as much of the old paint as possible( The original paint was called sea foam green) and to get the original paint match color. (Yankee stadium blue) A sherwin williams paint #. (Still in use). We took them all apart and cleaned them.I used all the original bolts, was lucky enough that they were still good. Well it turned out to be a great project and I do have some pics. I will put them in to 2 posts as they all dont fit. The seats came out great and I have asked many who have sat in them to tell me which is the replaced slat and not one has got it right. I guess in my case I would restore them and if I had to do it again I would probably do it again!

[batsballsbases]

last pic

[sschauer]

Yes I'm married but she allows me the basement man cave and my office to decorate how I please. My plan is to display them but seemed silly to purchase something then turn around and ruin the value could have gone to Vegas and pissed away money if I wanted.

They're a row of 5 and really considering cutting them apart into 2 pairs with an extra seat that would just be the wood and seat bottom. Makes it easier to display as a row of 5 is almost 8 foot long.

Or other option take them apart keep the original slates intact and just use replacement wood painted correctly that way could always reform them into a row of 5.

Looking into soda blasting the paint and rust off they might be able to just remove the top layer paint and leave the original green on the wood parts would be the ideal solution. But have to weigh cost of that.

[karamaxjoe]

My experience would be to restore the seat unless it has the original paint on the outside. I spent months restoring a figural Tiger Stadium Seat that had paint from a local college team on the seat. You might say it was a labor of love and I never thought I would sell the seat. Little did I know I would sell the seat a year after restoring it since I found something I had to have and I'm not a Tigers fan. The seat sold for 4K in an auction 10 years ago and I doubt it would sell for half that today. I miss having the seats in my office and I hope whoever has them today enjoys them.

Mike

[Kawika]

At first I thought the tiger was holding a vuvuzela but upon closer inspection I see that it is a bat.
I am sure that whomever (whoever?, whatever) owns the seats now is enjoying them. I know I would be. You did a beautiful job of restoration.

[Jim VB]

Mike,

Those seats look terrific. In fact, almost too good.

Remember these are stadium seats. Most never saw any kind of preparation, or restoration. They got painted. Every few years. Period.

In the case of the Yankee Stadium seats, some (the straight back and seats) went into the Stadium in 1923.

The curved back and seats, were installed sometime in the 1940's when they pulled the folding chairs out of the box seat areas.

If you want to make them look like they did, get some of that Yankee Stadium blue, from Sherwin Williams and slather it on!


(But, like David said, you did do a terrific job of restoring them.)

[mr2686]

OMG! Mike, you did a fantastic job of restoring those seats. I must say that they look (or I guess looked) fantastic with that great wood flooring as well.

[jcmtiger]

Originally Posted by batsballsbases

This is a great topic,and yes I would say its a 50/50 split. But I would restore them. Here is a great story why. This is on The 73 restoration of yankee stadium. In my town a company called United house wrecking bought up about 20,000 yes 20,000 of the yankee seats and were selling them for between 5-10 dollars each. 10 if you wanted a double pair. Many people bought them and they were sold to people all over the area. Fast forward to about 1985. Im in the landscape tree business and we are on alot of properties, I was giving an estimate for a rather large job for one of my clients who had just bought a house and wanted to re landscape. as we were clearing out an area by an old pool I came upon a set of 2 decent yankee stadium box seat chairs. I was excited! I asked my client what she wanted to do with them and she said they are yours if you want them I couldnt get my men fast enough to load them into the truck. They were decent but a little rough. Well after the excitement wore off they sat in my shop for 20+ years. Problem was they were peeling ,one of the slats was broken and they were just not something you would want to sit in. One day my oldest son asked me about the seats and it got me to thinking about finally fixing them. Biggest problem was that slat,it was curved. I called every one of the seat restorers on line and no one would sell me a curved slat. (I dont think they had one) I finally was able to get a local wood shop to make me some of the slats and the project began! I called one person who does restore these seats and what he told me was to leave as much of the old paint as possible( The original paint was called sea foam green) and to get the original paint match color. (Yankee stadium blue) A sherwin williams paint #. (Still in use). We took them all apart and cleaned them.I used all the original bolts, was lucky enough that they were still good. Well it turned out to be a great project and I do have some pics. I will put them in to 2 posts as they all dont fit. The seats came out great and I have asked many who have sat in them to tell me which is the replaced slat and not one has got it right. I guess in my case I would restore them and if I had to do it again I would probably do it again!

. Had a 1961 Chevy Impala. Sea foam green. LOL. Have some Briggs/Tiger Stadium seats original. Joe