Old Rexair on "American Restoration"

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vac_whisperer

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I was watching a rerun of American Restoration, and they had a man being in an old Rexair to be restored. He said it was used by the army, and only about eight remained in the world. Anyone for anymore info on this?
 
Model 3 Rexair

The model 3 Rexair was only manufactured DURING World War II. Rexair was a wholly owned subsidiary of Martin-Perry Corp. Martin-Perry was outfitting hospital ships. They had a government contract to do so, and began manufacturing a unique model (model 3). ALL model 3 serial numbers begin with 3. After the war, the model B came back, starting with serial numbers 4XXXXX. They didn't do a very good job of restoring that model 3 on the TV show. Mike Pletcher and RJ Vanik both have model 3's and they are in far better shape than the one on the TV show - and they didn't cost $5000 to restore. During the war, model 3's were ALSO sold to the public, but they had to have a doctor's prescription. The attachments and wands were green plastic. The hose was rubber with no cotton braiding. The motor was unique as well. Only because the government had a contract with Rexair, were they allowed to tool up to make that machine.
 
In my opinion, they didn't do that great of a job on it- they apparently didn't do much to the motor, because it sounded awful even after they were done, and they should have tracked down at least reproductions of hose and attachments, not a plain old vinyl hose. That seemed like way too much money for what they did, and it looked like they painted it with cheap rattle cans.
 
 


 


It's very likely that the guy got his Rexair done for nothing in consideration for appearing on the show. TV studios have very deep pockets, so to pay $5000 to the guy to restore the vacuum cleaner wouldn't even be chump change to them.
 
The man who had it restored is named Joe Falsetta. He's from San Diego. He's a deaf Rainbow dealer. Very odd duck. He did actually pay $5000 to have it restored, the show paid none of it. They just filmed it. The show did call to the Museum for information on the machine. I gave them all I had, including photos of the original. The motor sounded horrible - the bearings are still available so I don't know why they didn't go ahead and rebuild it all the way.
 
Link

Joel,

You're right, I'm checking this at work and I can't get it to play for me either. I'll look into it and see if I can get it working and re-post it.

I too love watching American Restoration, but I have always thought Rik charges WAY too much for the work he does, yes most of the time things turn out beautifully, and I haven't watched this episode yet, but I just can't imagine doing a full resto on a machine, charging that kind of money, not FULLY going through it and rebuilding everything that needs rebuilt, including the motor!

I have restored a few machines myself and I guess I'm too meticulous with the vacuums I restore as I wouldn't dream sending it out my doors without going through EVERYTHING on it......but I can tell you, I haven't charged even a 10th of what Rik charged for that resto!!!
 

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