This vintage “Ride Big Broncos” dime horse is the kind of 10-cent ride you’d find outside a grocery store. We documented the restoration in two parts.
Part 1: Saving the “Ride Big Broncos” Base
The sheet-metal base still had its original hand-painted “Ride Big Broncos 10¢” lettering and rope graphics. We didn’t want to blast that away. Instead, we took the base apart and scraped and sanded the panels by hand, keeping the artwork intact. We masked it off and repainted only where the base needed it.
Part 2: Walnut Shell Blasting the Horse
The horse needed a full strip. We used crushed walnut shell, a gentler abrasive for the sculpted casting. It reached the contours of the mane and body without taking away the detail we wanted to keep.
Smoothing and Priming
With the horse stripped, we filled the low spots and sanded the body smooth with an orbital sander. Then we applied automotive primer so the owner could finish it with their chosen paint. Blast, smooth, prime. The final paint was up to the customer.