Summary
An outdoor crucifix has stood tall in the midst St. Vincent's Cemetery for many decades. The years have weathered the surface of the steel cross and compromised the integrity of the corpus. Heritage Restoration was contacted to come out and restore the crucifix so that it can continue to bring peace to those who mourn their loved ones interned below.
Project Video
In Depth
Extending from a granite slab, the steel cross beam was roughly thirty feet in height. The cross was made from steel that, while structurally sound, was covered in a large amount of rust and discoloration. The body of Jesus, known as a corpus, was life size at six feet. This corpus was comprised of a light metal (most likely tin or zinc) that had been painted over. The feet were splitting apart and required sealing and encapsulation. From what on-site analysis could tell, there had nbot been signiciant maitenence on the crucifix in the past three to five decades.
The corpus and cross were subjected to a full cleaning process.Once the surfaces were smoothed, repairs were made to sections of the metal corpus that had split over time. A 'weep hole' was cut into the base of the corpus, to allow water to exit rather than pooling inside the statue. Once these prepatory actions were complete, a rust inibitive red oxide coating was applied to the whole crucifix. Once the application was complete, the cross and corpus were left to cure overnight. After the curing was finished, the crucifix was subjected to three coats of Heritage Restoration's outdoor blend of bronze and copper coatings. To differentiate them from the cross, the corpus and lettering on the INRI sign were finished in a mix with a higher concentration of copper. These elements were coated using a particular brush texture to further standout from the cross beams.
Once the coatings dried, a final inspection was conducted. The crucifix is now fully restored in a way that is better repaired to survive the outdoor elements for decades!
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