Need ideas and advice from the DIY woodworkers
I have a new project of restoring an old wheelbarrow. I’ve been telling my wife for over 10 years that this antique wheelbarrow that’s been in our yard for 40+ years is in desperate need of repair. No, she liked that worn out antique look (lucky for me) and didn’t want me to touch it. Well it’s finally past a simple fix and she was convinced it needed work.
This is no longer a couple nails and a paint job. This is a total rebuild. Not one stick of wood is salvageable. So I’ve cut all the frame wood out of pressure treated and formed the round handles, and now about ready to start to build it back and ran into this little issue. The removable side pieces are simply held in place by the front frame and side metal U pieces that hold a vertical piece of wood. Here’s the wood loosely fit into that U bracket.
Now the problem….that metal U bracket…
Is held in place by siding it through the holes and bending the back side flat to the wood
I would imagine this was originally done by heating these metal parts in a forge and sliding them through the holes and using a hammer, bend this red hot metal over. These aren't thin sheet metal, but fairly thick. Not even sure how to remove them.
And that's were I need suggestions. How can I put these into the new rebuild?