The long story.
The email came in on a Saturday afternoon. It was from a local picker and occasional restorer of these kind of items. He was someone I had purchased a pair of vintage shop cabinets from a few years earlier. I’d remained in occasional contact with him as I knew he had found and resold a handful of work stations over the last couple years.
His email simply stated that there was a workstation for sale locally on Facebook Marketplace. He noted it was in rough shape and overpriced. Naturally I pounced on the opportunity to throw perfectly good money into this hole. I emailed the seller instantly and expressed my deep sincere interest. I did do a little research while anxiously waiting for a reply to my initial email. If there is one authoritative source on all matters on this topic it has to be,
www.servicemerchandisers.com. The website and its creator, Damon are an enormous wealth of information on this subject. The first thing I did was go to the website and try to find anything about a Borroughs bench- nothing. That was not a good sign as far as I was concerned. Next I went to the actual Borroughs manufacturing website. Turns out they are still in business making ‘high quality storage solutions for industrial and commercial applications’. On their “history” page they referenced building automotive service department work stations in the 1940s. That discovery made me feel a little better and a bit more confident that I had found something good.
I sent Damon a few emails looking for his input and guidance. His responses made me feel much better. He told me he had never seen one before and called it an, “exciting find.” He also said, “You must get it or, hold it for me.” That’s when I really knew I was on the trail of something good!
Hours (and two anxious emails from me) passed before I finally got a reply from the seller. He was extremely busy because he was in the final stages of a house move. In his ad he had mentioned that he needed to sell the workstation that day. It turns out that he wanted it gone to prevent having to load and move it to his new house. By the time he responded to my emails it was already loaded on the truck. I asked him if he still wanted to sell it. He said he did. I joked that as long as it was already in the truck he could just unload it here. Despite my urgently wanting to go lock it down right then, the seller’s home move kept him from being available to show it to me that night. He did assure me that I would have first shot at it and we agreed to meet at 10:30 the next morning.
The anticipation of FINALLY getting my own workstation made it difficult for me to sleep that night. I was like a kid trying to sleep on the night before Christmas. When morning came I was eager and ready to go. I already pretty much knew I was going to buy it even before I saw it in person. It would have had to been a complete basket case for me to even think twice about buying it and if it came to that I would have still wanted it but just at a cheaper price.
When I arrived on scene the seller was already there waiting for me. I had used the fact that this was for sale through Facebook Marketplace to investigate him a little ahead of time. It turned out we had two mutual Facebook friends and I was quick to mention that. We chatted briefly and then not wanting to wait a second longer than I needed to we got down to business.
He opened the back door of a beat up rusty cube van and revealed the Borroughs buried in a shambles of old signs and broken down antique shop equipment- it looked like the inside of the Jawa sand crawler. The seller cleared away decades worth of antique advertising and obsolete technology. I expected it was going to be rough based on the pictures I had seen. The photos didn’t lie. In fact, it was probably even worse in person than it looked in the photos. The way it was positioned in the truck made it very hard to give it much of an inspection. I told the seller it was in a bit rougher shape than I had expected. He seemed to understand. I told him given the condition I thought his price was maybe a bit high. He again seemed sympathetic that that was a true statement. Then I told him I still wanted to buy it and would pay his price provided he could deliver it that day. He agreed. After taking a few minutes to unload some fragile relics we were on the road.
Much more to his credit than to mine we were able to get it unloaded safely. It was a little touch-and-go for a few minutes and my wife later confessed she had to walk away from the window at one point because of how sketchy it had looked.
Once the bench was safely unloaded and paid for the seller departed and I was finally alone with my precious. Almost immediately I was faced with the question of how I was going to get it the next ten feet into my garage. Honestly, these are maybe even a bit lighter than they might appear given their size, but they’re still heavy- really heavy. I have an unfortunately optimistic view point that somehow, some way I can do most things on my own. I’ve learned that might be kind of a Minnesotan/ Norwegian characteristic in not wanting to ask others for help. In any case after initially trying to give it a small shove I found I was in WAY in over my head in regards to moving it. I debated on calling some friends to come over to help but then decided to give it one more try and eventually “walked” it into my garage a couple of inches at a time. I went into the house that night feeling like that cat that ate the canary.
Over the next few days I continued to bask in the glory of my new purchase. While I admired it I fought the temptation to start in on it until I had a solid plan for its revival. It was definitely very rough. The metal was banged up, bent and scratched. There were extra holes drilled in it and it had seen a pretty poor quality re-paint at some point. The pull-down door barely moved, the display glass was broken, and the light assembly didn’t work. After struggling to work around it in the garage for a few days I bought some 2 X 4’s and casters and made a simple cart to wheel it around on. That made a world of difference.
The first step will be a thorough cleaning. I think the plan of attack will then be to separate the cabinets from the bench and start work on the bench portion first. I’m sure that alone (undoubtedly) will take up far more time and energy that I expect. Once done with that I will move onto the cabinets, and then put it back together and enjoy. I’m guessing given my life and obligations this could be a year or two process. I’m an impatient person but I’m willing to take the time to get this one right.
Stay tuned.
