Advice for restoring furniture

[Christian1]

My next restoration project is to fix the back and arm rests of this church bench seat. It probably was once properly upholstered judging by the springs (the fabric cushion isn't original). Can anyone out there identify the technical name of this type of seat (even better send thru a photo if you've got a match?) Also, any tips on how to fix the chipped edges at the end of each armrest would be great. Both metals pins on the back rest (that allow the back panel to swing forwards) have popped out but I think that's an easy fix. 

[Jason]

Great project @Christian1. It looks like a beautiful piece of furniture. 

Let me tag some of our members who have had experience restoring furniture, including @Peggers, @Mjay, @Simon, @Ashu, @Beachbox, @Hay and @r23on.

Jason 

[BobTaylor]

To restore or not to restore that is the question.
Are the damaged arms due to stacking of the seats in storage, or to numerous participants of the church gripping their seats in anticipation of the next words.
One is to nether know, keep the seat as is, attempted restoration could reduce the value drastically,just sit back and relax enjoy your investment .

[AnitaH25]

To fix the arms you can use wood filler. If it was mine to restore and I have done a few. I would cut away must of the damage and round the edges on the fruit. I really dont think it has to stand out the far. I hope this makes sense. 😉

[r23on]

The first question are you wanting to restore back to original state to sell or keep for your self.

If its as old as I think it is it should be easy enough to pull a part  for repair. The glue use would have been a hot glue (hide) and if enough heat is applied you could remove the arms  and replace them.

We have just repaired an old  dinnig table with legs 150m thick using this method. As for the back a good polyurethane glue applied with some good clamping will pull it back in place. if you want to go the whole hog trim out the section that is missing the slice of timber and fit a new bit.  A lot more work but worth the effort. With a bit of research you could find the same material for the repairs.

I did forget to mention that titebond produce a product called hide glue but it is a cold mix. Here is a link for your infomation

https://titebond.com.au/products/liquid-hide/ I am a bit of a fan of Titebond.

[Christian1]

The frame has now been fixed and has been given a few coats of linseed oil. The cushion even got a make-over as well.

[r23on]

Hi the backboard looks ok, what did you do to repair the backboard and arms