When you do excellent work, your reputation tends to precede you. That’s the case for Stan Uher of Blenheim, whose work restoring old vehicles is known across the nation.
That’s how he landed the task of restoring a 120-year-old horse-drawn firefighting pumper for Dawson City, Yukon.
Uher said the story began in Ingersoll, as he refinished a 1927 fire truck for that Ontario community, and video taped the restoration work. A copy of that video made it to Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. and Uher wound up restoring a 1930 fire truck for that town.
In 2015, one of the Fort Saskatchewan firefighters was in Dawson City where, while on a tour, he saw the 1897 Clapp & Jones pumper and was told the fire department was looking to have it restored. It was earmarked to head to a U.S. restoration firm, but the firefighter gave Uher’s information to the fire department.
“I first saw it the last day of August 2015. It was mostly complete, but with 120 years of weathering,” he said. “But one of the most challenging parts is that it had been partially disassembled a few years ago. Still, mechanical logic dictated how things go together.”
His experience restoring vehicles might give him an edge in such logic.
“I’ve been doing this all day, every day, for 37 years,” he said.
It’s his attention to detail that gets Uher’s work noticed. He tries to find the exact paint colours and detailing used on a piece when it rolled off the assembly line.
In the case with the pumper, he said some elbow grease did the trick.
“I was able to scrape off layers of paint to find the original gold leaf paint detailing. And during the process, I found the original graphics,” he said. “What you’re looking at is exactly as it was when it was brand new.”
As for the original colour, Uher said it wasn’t easy to find due to the multiple layers of paint on the pumper, which was used up until the 1940s. He said he found the colour underneath a bracket that had never been removed.
Such painstaking effort takes time. With the Clapp & Jones pumper, Uher said he spent more than 1,400 hours restoring it. As tedious as the task was, he said he’s spent more than double that time on a number of vintage automobiles he’s restored over the years.
“But nothing that had this much dazzle.”
Restoration efforts also take money. The 19-month restoration project, with a price tag of an estimated $250,000, including shipping to and from Uher’s Classic Coachworks, won’t cost Dawson City taxpayers a dime.
Uher said the volunteer firefighters have been donating for the past 25 years towards the restoration.
“The project was funded through the volunteer firemen’s association in Dawson City. These guys for 25 years never kept a nickel of what they made. They put it all in a fund to restore this,” he said. “They are all invested. They’ve got their hearts and souls in it.”
It’s something Uher understands. He said when he finishes one job, it’s not always easy just moving onto the next.
“Every project is super gratifying for me, and I get a little sad too. I’m sad when they leave because they’ve been here so long,” he said. “They become part of the family; part of the fabric.”
The next part of the family for Uher is a Chatham-built Gray-Dort, owned by a Manitoba man. Gray-Dorts are a specialty of Uher’s, as he has one of his own.
