Another silly vice…vintage lawn chairs

I have a weird fetish for vintage aluminum chairs from the 50’s-70’s.

I buy them at garage sales for $1-3 and bring them home and strip the webbing, then they go to my buffing wheel for a few hours. Then the wife re-webs them with a coordinating color to match either the hot rod, custom or travel trailer.

I have a few finished sets, but I collect the materials and frames for future use. It’s an odd little fetish, but it’s cheap entertainment.

 

Funny story a few years ago a group of us were at LSRU. After hanging out most the day we start loading up our chairs and coolers when a small argument ensues over whos chairs belonged to who. Turned out 2 different guys had the same exact vintage lawn chairs and neither would back down as they had both "belonged to their grandparents"... After opening trunks and actually paying attention sure enough they both had had the same set and both were surprised.. These were similar to the aluminum framed folding ones you have, but had wooden slats instead of that fabric. I found a couple like yours that we had when I was young. Dug them out a few years ago and the material shredded as soon as I took a seat. Never would have thought to redo the webbing.

 

You can buy most colors on ebay. You just have to be patient for the right colors.

 

My folks had some of those when I was a kid. I remember re-webbing them a couple of times over the years, then the screw holes got so wallowed out they junked them.

 

I remember being at an event where one of the contests/prizes was awarded for the most decrepit lawn chair

 

Originally they had clips and then screws once those were too loose. I go straight to screws and forget the clips.

 

Dad always had me use rivets when the screw holes died. We lived at the lake, so we must've kept a hundred of these around and they were always a spring repair job for me and my brothers.

A guy at work collects the all metal lawn chairs from bitd. That and old lawn mowers. And the damn guy never sits down, and his lawn is never mowed.... Lol. Go figure.

 

Ours had screws, no clips. Did have a funky triangle shaped washer you put between the folded fabric IIRC. Different makes probably made different. I'd bet ours was the cheapest the old man could buy....

 

I respectfully submit the "Woody" chair. Who in the hell though this was a good idea? Most uncomfortable thing you could ever sit in. This is the chair you bust out when someone stops over and you don't want them to stick around for too long. There were two; not sure what ever happened to the other one.

 

I have my favorites. The ones with arched backs are the most comfy chairs. You can't see it in this pic, but the backs curve out on the top horizontal piece.

 

& those are more comfortable than the new "sling" chairs. & look better, too. No cupholders - bfd.
Got a couple from my parents/grandparents I need to reweb.
Marcus...

 

We still have a couple up at the cottage aluminum frame with vinyl “tubes” as the webbing .

when they sit out in the sun it feels like your sitting in a frying pan when you get in one !!

 

Last spring, we cleaned out my parents garage. Tossed out 4 of the alloy arm ones with green webbing. I recall buying them in early 70's.

 

Dang….

 

Me and my sisters had no use for them, didn't think they had any value. Oh well.

 

Little silly vices,ya,but cool,!!
I like coloered Bubble Lights'Christmas for the tree and my little train *running around the bottom. Plus the little paper houses as the town under the tree{they were all made with a hole to put one light from string bulb inside of to light up}
Some are old from the around WW2. There getting hard to find,but can be made your self. You can design n make your own.

 

Nice chairs! I have collected directors chairs, the ones that have the canvas seat and backs.

 

I don’t know what our weird obsession is, but I just bought these. These are gonna get blown apart and repaired, then blasted and painted.

I have never seen ones with criss- cross legs before. They are comfortable though. The wife found these on FB marketplace. Cheaper than buying patio furniture!

 

Still got 4 folding aluminum ones Mom bought with S&H Green Stamps!

 

S&H green stamps….those things were everywhere in my moms purse.

 

I use a large pair of pruning shears to scrap aluminum lawn chairs, guess I'm a bad person.

 

Ive still got a stack of S&H green stamps too.

 

That’s probably where ours came from back then. Mom collected them when she bought groceries, then once a year we’d go to the “ stamp store”. Lots of our Christmas gifts came from stamps, too. We always had more S&H green stamps than the others, one of my aunts collected Plaid Stamps from where she bought her groceries. Her and Mom would swap out when they had some of the others. Best I remember, both redemption stores were close by, so they’d go together a lot of the time. They saved a lot of money back then using stamps. Too bad they all went out of business.

 

Oh yeah! I have 6 vintage lawn chairs hanging in the garage for easy access. One of them was my wifes grandfathers that she always uses. I rewebbed that one. She calls it "The Grandpa Chair". We use our vintage lawn chairs way more than the new style lawn chairs that are gathering spiderwebs in the corner. People ALWAYS comment on them when we bring them places which makes it all the more fun.

 

I remember my Granddaddy High-pockets re-webbing the yard chairs almost every year, I also remember after he passed away I go two of them out of the barn and brought them home, I have re-webbed them several times over the years. HRP

 

Loving all the old seats shown here. A lot more soul than some of the new stuff.

30 years ago, we were at a party at my sister's house and she had some old webbed chairs. My girlfriend at the time picked what had to be the worst one to sit in. The seat gave out and this very tall woman was now trapped. She fell through the seat and her knees were hung up on the front bar. She couldn't get enough leverage on the armrests to push herself back up either. She was just dangling there. We were all laughing so hard, I don't think any of us actually helped her out for a couple minutes. Good thing she had a great sense of humor too....

 

I remember those and re-webbing attempts to repair as back in the day the plastic sun rot was a problem, I used aluminium pop rivets with aluminium washers to re-attach new webbing back on bottom of the tubes. I have a friend from the car hobby that still brings his originals to the shows, guessing they are re-webbed by now. We have fun teasing him some as his picture is in Websters next to "frugal" Seen at a car show, a "big boy" sat in a chair as pictured and got stuck in it, another time a two stooler lady pluncked her butt down, also got stuck in it. In later years, "What a Chair"comes in larger sizes if/as needed.

 

The "Green Stamps" Wow, are we dating ourselves now. I Remember at gas stations, green stamps, glassware, coffee cups, barbecue tools, at the grocery stores, various dishware sets, glassware, still have 1 Green Bay Packer's glass,
Encyclopedia Britannica set, 1 book per x number dollar purchase, my kids used them for school work, 70's. Looking forward again for my 1099 for self checking at WalMart , mine got lost last year, times have changed !

 

I've re-webbed a few of these chairs and have a couple of rolls of the green and white webbing like in your pics out in my garage. When my neighbor lady passed, we went to her estate sale and bought 4 or 5 of hers. They're re-done in macreme'.

Gary