Cape Coral statue repairs face delays; now expected to return in January

The restoration of Cape Coral's iconic Big John statue is making progress, but the work is far from finished. 

The statue, which had a giant hole in its back, a crack on its chest, among other areas, was damaged from the many hurricanes Southwest Florida faced in the past few years.

All of this was still evident just a month ago. Now, largely patched up.

Clinton Strand, owner of Brand 1 Ink, is leading the repairs. He explained that the structural repairs are nearly finished, and cosmetic work is all that remains. But there were many bumps on the road.

"It was all just the steel components that needed to be replaced that were the biggest holdup and the biggest delay in getting everything underway until recently," said Strand. "Recently, we discovered that there were some repairs that were done to him over the years that were done incorrectly, some fiberglass repair over top of paint, which you're not supposed to do. It doesn't have the proper adhesion, so we had to go in and grind all those kinds of repairs out and kind of start over."

However, the Cape Coral staple, which has been around since the late 1960s, starting as a grocery store's mascot, is making a comeback stronger than ever.

"In identifying some of the reasons that he cracked originally from the hurricanes, we were able to go in and secure and reinforce, and he's a lot thicker and stronger than he was originally," said Strand.

Strand said he expects Big John to be standing tall once more by the end of January.