Samsonite Patio Furniture
Samsonite Patio Furniture Replacement Slings

Refurbishment Guide

In today's world commerce, regrettably, things are manufactured to be disposable.  Think back to your old school washer and dryer - likely lasted 25 to 30 + years.  Today, these products are designed for a maximum life of about 10 years.  Even most of today's casual furniture is designed with the same disposable mindset.  You likely already acknowledge that this is NOT the case with your Samsonite Steel Frame Furniture.  We often see customers with furniture up to 40 years of age still getting new replacement sling seating.  It was designed to give an indefinite period of time with minimal maintenance.  We also understand that nothing in this world can last forever and so when little issues do arise with your Samsonite Furniture you can take steps to prolong the life and look of your product. 

Treat your Samsonite Furniture as you would your vehicle.  You need to wash and wax the frames at least once every year, preferably in the spring of the year.  You do not dissemble anything to wash and wax your frames.  You may use standard dishwashing liquid and H2O.  Then wax with any quality automotive wax you likely have in your garage.  if your frames are soiled from many years of not doing the above, purchase some Turtle Wax Automotive Chrome Polish at your local auto parts or big box store.  After washing, apply this polish and buff off prior to your waxing step.  The Chrome Polish has pumice particles that will work to lift embedded soil from the frame of your furniture.  Note that elbow grease is needed in this step.

If you have rust spots or corrosion , do not fret.  Again, treat this furniture as you would your vehicle.  A lot of times, the areas around the foot glides / hardware points that are closer to sources of moisture may see a higher incident of corrosion.  This is normal wear and can be fixed.  You may touch up the spots and remove the corrosion.  For small sporadic areas on the frame, you may use sandpaper or a sander thereby cleaning the corrosion to the steel substrate.  You may desire to lightly coat with a primer, but this is generally not necessary.  Using Krylon Fusion Spray Paint or Rustoleum Universal Spray Paint in the flavor that most closely matches your finish, lightly spray the frame and let dry.  Do this application once again. You should be good to go.  This may not be utopia, but it can look very good once finished and the main idea here is to protect the integrity of the steel substrate so that you may enjoy this product for many years to come.

What if my frames have large areas of widespread corrosion or what if I want to change the color of my finish altogether ?

You may manually handle the task as above - just on a larger scale or you may have the finish professionally redone as in sand-blasting process.  Information concerning the original finish:  The finish is NOT a PC or powder coated finish.  It is PVC or poly vinyl chloride and it is 20X thicker than a standard PC finish.  This was not a painting process but was a heat / dip / curing process that chemically bonded the PVC to the steel frame.  And you wondered how they could have lasted so long.....there you go.  The frames will need to be sand-blasted and then powder coated.  Frames that have undergone this procedure can look showroom new in most cases.  Please note that you do not want to use heat to remove the PVC finish off of the frames.  Heat can and will destroy the integrity of the steel on the spring mechanism and render them non-functional.  Also note that it is best advised not to refinish / repaint the bucket frame of the furniture.  The bucket frame is the portion of the frame that the sling actually fits over.  Finishing or painting this frame area will increase the difficulty of sling installation.  It is not the end of the world if you have already repainted this portion, just may take a little more fortitude to install.

First things first - let's not cause any potential physical hazard.  Remember earlier we mentioned that nothing in this life last forever ?  There will come a point in the life of this furniture  - some after 40 years - that the furniture will likely need to be discarded.  But up to that point, let us fix things if it is reasonable to do so.  For areas that are rusted beyond threads being able to bite and hold - if reasonable, Bondo and other automotive products can extend the function of steel products when molded to the necessary need.  For broken welds, Heliarc weling may solve the problem.  Again, this gets into an area of function and reasonableness and should be considered on a case by case basis.

We are available during our listed business customer service hours to explain any procedure.