Did any one else catch American Restoration Tuesday night. They rebuilt a 1934 Rexair vacuum for a collector/employee of Rainbow. It is one of only 8 machines in existance out of 100,000 made. Most were sold to the military to use in hospital rooms to clean the air for patients. The machine came to them in pieces and and rusted up. the guys did a great job on the rebuild and the machine operates perfectly. Any manuals or schematics were tossed when that machine went out of production.
American Restoration
- Thread starter kirby519
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bisonian
Well-known member
For what they charged...
I would HOPE the thing would run perfectly! Did you see what the cost of that restoration was?
$5,000!
I'm willing to bet it could have been done just as well or better by some of the members of this forum for about $4,800 less than that!
I would HOPE the thing would run perfectly! Did you see what the cost of that restoration was?
$5,000!
I'm willing to bet it could have been done just as well or better by some of the members of this forum for about $4,800 less than that!
Yes it was expensive to refurbish. How ever they didn't have a schematic to work off of to reassemble the motor. And no way of getting new parts that needed repair. The water pan was rusted thru. They recreated the original "ripple" paint job. All of these things come at a price. Most of the machines but not all of them we clean up, repair and restore we can get parts for or use parts from other machines.
d-jones
New member
There's nothing at all complicated about wrinkle finish on a paint job. There is a specific paint formulated to produce that effect. It seems to me that this episode was discussed recently, but it might have been over at Automatic Washer. Anyways, the general consensus was that it cost way too much money to do that restoration, and I tend to agree. But if you try to look at it from Rick's perspective, you have to consider how many hours of labor went into the project, and what is his shop labor rate? If he charged one hundred dollars an hour for labor(I'm just throwing out a number here) then the $5000 equates to fifty hours. Out of that 5000 he has to pay the employees that did the work, himself(it's his business so he gets a cut of everything) the office staff if he has any(I'm pretty sure he does) and he has to pay the rent or the mortgage on the property his business is located in. That's how the price tag for a professional restoration gets so out of hand so quickly. The moral of the story is never take your machine to a professional if you have the skill and the time to do it yourself.
dysonman1
Well-known member
It wasn't a 1934 Rexair. Rexair didn't begin selling cleaners until October of 1936 - and they didn't have water in them until February of 1937. The model in American Restorations was a model 3. It was launched in 1942 and made until 1946. The serial numbers all begin with "3" and are in the "300,000" range. After the war, Rexair came back with the model B (black) and the serial numbers started at "400,000". That is certainly not the ONLY model 3, Mike Pletcher has two of them, former VCCC President, R.J. Vanik has one. There's virtually no difference between the motor in the model 3 and the motor in the model B. The machine was built because the parent company of Rexair (Martin-Perry Corp.) was building hospital ships for the war effort, and Rexair made the cleaners they outfitted the ships with. The Rexair model 3 was also available to the public if they had a doctor's prescription - making it the only vacuum available to the American public during the war.
super-sweeper
Well-known member
What do you mean by...
"They did not have water in them until February 1937"?
What did they use before water? Paper filter bags? A cyclonic dust chamber (Similar to that of a Filter-Queen)?
"They did not have water in them until February 1937"?
What did they use before water? Paper filter bags? A cyclonic dust chamber (Similar to that of a Filter-Queen)?
I did get the year wrong. OOPS. What I couldn't figure out is the guy that brought it in for restroration. He works for Rainbow. Why didn't Rainbow do the rebuild. It is thier machine after all. I agree $5,000 for the restoration was alot. Then again I can fix and clean up machines myself. I have repaired and polished up many Kirbys over the years. As well as the Hoovers, Eurekas, and other brands we have tried out over the years at the cleaning service. As far as the painting of the machine. Yes there is the paint made to create that texture. As seen in the show it didn't work the first time. They ended up trying it again.
beerad
Well-known member
Yes
It's called Gouging!
I think that is absolutely High way Robbery .
I don't think that was worth 5 grand.
Just plain stupid.
It's called Gouging!
I think that is absolutely High way Robbery .
I don't think that was worth 5 grand.
Just plain stupid.
vacuumman206
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2012
- Messages
- 355
Does anyone know the title of that american restoration episode, or where to get it so I can see what this model 3 looks like? Seems rare by the fact that the only information I can find out about it is from this forum.
dial-a-nap
Well-known member
Interesting history on the Rexair!
This is television. Aside from the expenses of the shop, crew, etc. everything is inflated and pumped up to be exciting and keep the viewers attention (mostly to the commercials) during the show. $5000 sounds a lot more shocking to the average viewer than a few hundred dollars. Good exposure for Rainbow too - a 1/2 hour show working on a Rexair (Rainbow) vacuum is better than an infomercial and the "cost" of the restoration is far more than a new Rainbow from your friendly Rainbow dealer! Check your local yellow pages!
This is television. Aside from the expenses of the shop, crew, etc. everything is inflated and pumped up to be exciting and keep the viewers attention (mostly to the commercials) during the show. $5000 sounds a lot more shocking to the average viewer than a few hundred dollars. Good exposure for Rainbow too - a 1/2 hour show working on a Rexair (Rainbow) vacuum is better than an infomercial and the "cost" of the restoration is far more than a new Rainbow from your friendly Rainbow dealer! Check your local yellow pages!
kirbyfan99
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2013
- Messages
- 60
Rick Dale and his crew
Rick Dale and his crew on American restoration really impress me. they've restored and converted a vintage fridge into Sammy Hagar's rumerator. they've restored a vintage rocket slide, a vintage car, a vintage railroad motor car, a vintage ride-on mini train (not the kind seen in amusement parks), and now an old rex-air vacuum! i'd really like to see rick and his crew take on the challenge of restoring a very old Kirby like a model c (1c or early c) or a wireless vac-u-ette (made by scott fetzer).
Jack
Kirbyfan99
Youtube: jedi 725
Rick Dale and his crew on American restoration really impress me. they've restored and converted a vintage fridge into Sammy Hagar's rumerator. they've restored a vintage rocket slide, a vintage car, a vintage railroad motor car, a vintage ride-on mini train (not the kind seen in amusement parks), and now an old rex-air vacuum! i'd really like to see rick and his crew take on the challenge of restoring a very old Kirby like a model c (1c or early c) or a wireless vac-u-ette (made by scott fetzer).
Jack
Kirbyfan99
Youtube: jedi 725
super-sweeper
Well-known member
That would be most interesting...
Pulling up to his shop, and opening a trailor full of my 50+ Vacuums, stating "Fix this!".
As for vacuuman, The episode is titled "Vacuum Daze", And you can likely find it on the History channel's website (Historychannel.com?), or an internet TV thingy like Hulu Or Netflix.
-Alex.
Pulling up to his shop, and opening a trailor full of my 50+ Vacuums, stating "Fix this!".
As for vacuuman, The episode is titled "Vacuum Daze", And you can likely find it on the History channel's website (Historychannel.com?), or an internet TV thingy like Hulu Or Netflix.
-Alex.
