Painting Vacuums.

[rainbowd4c]

I was playing around on Ebay and looking at old Electrolux Vacuums and saw one that was painted.  I have seen this a lot usually when doing restorations.  The paint job looked awful.  It didn't even look natural.  I get the fact that people are trying to give their vacuum's spa days and make them look nice.  But in all honesty a home paint job makes does not look right. 


 


In my own opinion if you are going to give a vacuum a spa day then clean them up and get rid of any rust. Make them look nice that way.  These units are old and have lived a good life. The natural look that they have is the best look.  These units have a story to tell and flaws of their lifetime tell that story. 


 


Anybody else feel that way?

 

[human]

I think it depends a lot on the painter's skill. Those who don't know what they're doing usually just end up inflicting further damage onto their machines but a skilled painter who takes his or her time, does proper surface preparation and has a proper painting technique can breathe new life into an old machine.

Case in point—I acquired an Electrolux PN4A a year or so ago that was in great shape except for an excessive number of 'battle scars' on its Silverado gray paint. I much prefer the look of polished aluminum, so I started trying to strip the paint off and polish it up. After several hours of work over about three days, I went to Lowe's with the idea of getting some sort of chemical stripper to do the job faster and easier but I ended up coming home with a can of Rustoleum Hammertone Paint and Primer In One and a new plan. The one place I had managed to strip and clean to my satisfaction was the nameplate area, so I masked it off and painted the rest of the shell.

Now, I don't claim to be an expert painter, but what I came out with looks great, almost like it could have been a factory paint job but Electrolux never painted a power nozzle this way. It's a darker color than it originally was but I don't have a Silverado so I don't care that it doesn't match. Besides, it looks great with my Diamond Jubilee. It also looks a hell of a lot better than this abomination I found on eBay:

http://https//www.ebay.com/itm/Elec...597108?hash=item3d59eb49b4:g:H28AAOSwrFJZ2Nlw

 

[oreck_xl]

Without a doubt. Keep in mind though, not all of these Electroluxes were painted by collectors. Many a vac shop back in the day would do a rush paint job drips and all just to flip a machine. Even more blasphemous IMHO is when vac shops bastardized a Kirby by changing the original trim, removing the manufacturing plate and changing the outer cloth bag (oh the humanity!)

 

[human]

I've also got a lot of respect for Chicago Mike's custom Kirby creations. Just sayin'.

 

[eurekastar]

I painted this Eureka 2010 a few years ago and it is a pretty close color match to the original.

 

[eurekastar]

The original thread.

http://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?26827