Bringing history back Porterville man restores vintage wagons
At his workshop, wooden tool in hand and his cat Buddy next to him, Bill Melton works on his current project— the restoration of a 1980s wedding wagon.
Melton has lived in Porterville since 1981 and has been restoring wagons since 1985, when he bought his first junker wagon and took it apart, restored it, painted it and put it back together. His father was an auto and aircraft mechanic during the Korean War.
“He was a fantastic mechanic,” Melton said.
His grandfather taught him how to fix chairs, and his father ended up purchasing a chair factory.
“I’ve always loved wood working,” Melton said. “I was doing furniture, my grandpa taught me how to repair chairs, and then my dad bought a chair factory after he was injured during the war.”
The first thing Melton had to learn was how to build a wheel.
“If you can build a wheel, the rest of the wagon is elementary basically,” he said.
Melton also works with the leather, metal and wind screens that are all complementary to making a wagon.
One of his favorite recreations is a Civil War ambulance built in 1909. It is now used in a Buffalo Soldier re-enactment that takes place in Three Rivers.
He also worked on some pieces for the Porterville Historical Muse-
um like the Ice Wagon in 1992 and the Oil Wagon.
Melton works with a network of suppliers around Porterville and back east. For example, he gets all his timber and metal parts from Ohio.
“When you take this kind of job on, you have to be able to do the whole thing, so I have to have my own network,” Melton said.
Most of the wagons Melton has worked on are either being used in parades, shows or just for private use. His longest job lasted 1,300 hours, about a year and a half.
Most of his customers are dairy farmers, people who own horses, or those who use wagons for commercial use.
“I love seeing my customers getting their cars back. They bring in the wagons like something that’s almost unredeemable,” Melton recalled.
Some of the challenges Melton faces when repairing a wagon are getting the same exact woods and measurements he needs.
He has recently been working on a wedding coach wagon. He took it apart, painted it, and now it is just a matter of putting it back together to have it ready to turn in.
“When I get to see the wagons at parades, it’s fantastic,” Melton said. “To see the face of joy on those who own the wagons is a very neat thing.”
He has been a tool collector since the 1960s, and has his own museum containing approximately four thousand wooden tools in his workshop.
His collection was shown at the bicentennial exhibit in the Los Angeles Museum with the title of ‘The Tools that Built America.’
“It was only supposed to run for six weeks and it ran for 16 months,” Melton said.
His museum contains leather working, blacksmithing, woodworking and antique farming equipment used from 1720 to 1950.
Melton even has his own library of collected books that range from the year of 1834 to modern day, which he uses to research wagons and get correct details and measurements.
“I spend about 30 percent of my time just researching a wagon— finding out what its made out of, what the materials are, how it was constructed. Then very carefully, especially if you are doing preservation, I have to do it in the same style it was originally made from,” Melton said.
He has his own catalog of different woods from the world, which he refers to as his “encyclopedia.”
Melton has had car clubs and woodworking clubs visit his museum as well as kids.
“I’ve had kids come here and they just get lost,” Melton said.
Melton hopes his wooden tools and wagons are displayed in the future for people to see and enjoy from them.
“These collections are not typical here on the West Coast, there is only a few of them,” he said.