Post #664655 by markmywords on Sun, Jan 20, 2013 8:35 PM

So, after the shock and awe wore off after receiving a couple of large, vintage Witco pieces for xmas, I realized that hanging them was going to be anything but simple.

First, a little about the pieces themselves...

Luckily enough, it didn't take more than a quick trip through the pages of "Tiki Modern" to figure out what I had acquired: "Tahitian Lovers" (witco catalog w-26).

Here's one of the two getting ready for clean up and scuff fixing:

I had originally spotted these two pieces in craigslist back in November. The seller had purchased them as part of a storage locker that belonged to the owners of the Coral Reef Restaurant in Sacramento. At the time, I really wanted them, but with Christmas coming up, there was no way I could justify buying extravagant tiki items for myself. I told my wife about them and thought nothing else about it, other than noticing the next day that the ad was gone from craigslist.

Apparently, my wife had swept into action the very next morning after we had looked at the ad. She convinced her Mom and my Father to team up on the purchase price. Her Mom then jumped into her car (with my sister in-law, the other tiki-phile in the family)and drove from Sacramento to Richmond. Upon arrival, the seller started to balk a little, as they had received several other offers by phone for more than the advertised price. Luckily, they agreed to honor the original price. Originally the plan was to purchase one of the two pieces (the one in better condition). Upon hearing the heritage of the pieces, My sister in-law (bless her soul) insisted that the set should NOT be broken up and convinced her mom to purchase both. The deal was made and the witco was smuggled back to Davis and hidden until Christmas.

Anyhow, my original idea was to hang one of them on the wall at the bottom of the stairs and the other on the wall between two of the guitars. Immediately I realized I had a problem.

These things are SO DAMN BIG. We're talking 2 1/2' x 5'. If I put one on the wall at the bottom of the stairs, it would overhang the trip piece bordering the tiki room. So, no just hanging the thing up and calling it wonderful. Of course, if I'm going to have to pull down that trim, I might as well do that whole section of wall with bamboo backing and trim.

Expanding the tiki room outside of it's original boundaries. This is a brave new world...

The original line of demarcation for the walls of voodoo:

Proposed annex:

Of course with progress, comes sacrifice. A couple of evictions had to be served.

sorry guys.

I haven't done walls in a long time, so a quick inventory was required. Glad I didn't toss this stuff out like the missus urged me to.

Aha! There it is!

I spent most of a Saturday repairing the witco itself. They didn't need much. I decided the original D ring hangers were in good enough shape to re-use. One of the pieces was missing its hanging wire. Both needed touch up for minor scuffs.

BTW, here's the "Lesser" of the two pieces. It has some water damage and resulting warping of the backing board.
In low light, would not look bad -

Ugh... not pretty:

Sunday was spent hanging backing and cutting and charring trim pieces.

At last everything was ready for hanging:

View from our front door landing:

The whole thing was more work that I had intially anticipated, but it looks really nice. Of course, now the family is telling me that I can't stop at that one wall section. I have to do the entire downstairs common areas! We'll see...

Right now I know you're asking "So, where's the other witco piece hanging?". Unfortunately, It's not. To be honest, I really don't know what to do with it. After thinking about it, I'd really hate to break up the three guitars by replacing the middle one with the witco. So, where else could it go? The only space that I have even close to 2 1/2' is in the corner near one of the big tikis:

The space between the wall and the window trim is just under 30", meaning that if I was to hang the other "Tahitian Lovers" here, it would partially overlap the window trim. Plus, it's going to stick out from the wall a bit because the back is warped. Plus, part of it will be obscured by the large tiki in the corner. Plus, I'm sorta worried the whole thing will potentially collapse under it's own weight because of the damage to the backing board.

What to do, what to do? I'm sorely tempted to try to restore the piece by replacing the backing board. On the other hand, I've always understood that leaving something like this as original as possible (even damaged) is generally the best thing to do. Any Witco experts out there? What do you think?

So, for the time being, It will be stored for future unveiling.

Here are the other additions to the Walls of Voodoo that have been made over the past several months:

New mug shelf

New "Walls of Voodoo" mascot mug, custom by Cap'n Sal

Monkey head and old bottle:

Ship's lantern and shark jaws

This one's not strictly "Tiki", but I like its loungetastic-vibe and I'm currently populating it with smaller collectibles (tiki shot glasses, matchbooks, etc...)

Thanks to Cap'n Sal's efforts, our tiki-garden is growing:

That's it for right now. I'm planning on tackling trim next. Baseboards, stair railings, etc. Still trying to hone my router carving skills...

Mahalo!

-mark mywords

[ Edited by: markmywords 2013-01-20 20:40 ]