Polished up the Connie

[fan-of-fans]

Some of you may remember my Penncrest Canister aka Hoover Constellation I found a few years ago. I decided to do some work on it today. Got out my No 7 Car Polish which works great on my fans and did some polishing. The Connie had very dull paint and a closer look at the peach color showed small dots of white paint spray all over. The No 7 Car Polish cut through most of it and removed some scuffs. Still far from mint but much better. Now the split needs to be cut off the end of the hose and reattached. Plus the switch unfortunately is broken, although it runs when plugged in. Not sure the switch can be repaired.

I also threw out the original but smelly filter. Plan to make a new one possibly with HEPA material. Attachments would be nice, all I have is the crevice tool. But at least I have the wand and floor nozzle from my Slimline if I actually want to use it. So far haven't - just like to watch it float and listen to the low hum of the motor.

 

[real1shep]

Unless the paint is really gross, I prefer to leave it and bring it back as much as possible with quality automotive polishes. Something that small could even be clay-barred at the end for a premium finish.


 


I never had to repair a Connie switch yet, so don't know how repairable they are, sorry.


 


There's the caveat with the fixed wands...a white, Teflon insert in the wand pieces where they connect to each other and floor attachments. I have NEVER been able to find those and I've looked for yrs.  They are very durable fortunately, but I have a few that swelled making it almost impossible to detach and reattach the wand pieces without grease and grease attracts dirt etc. 


 


Kevin

 

[fan-of-fans]

I know what you mean about the attachment wands. The issue with this Connie, is the plastic clip broke off on the hose handle, so someone cut the end off of one of the wands and stuck it in the hose end and screwed it into place, so they would have an attachment clip there. When I bought it, the only attachments were the hose, crevice tool, one whole wand and the other end of the cut off wand.

My Slimline's hose and telescoping wand are in great shape. But it is missing the furniture brush and crevice tool. I foolishly passed up some on eBay a few years ago that were the correct color.

At least I can use the Constellation as a floor vacuum by sharing the Slimline's wand and floor tool.

But attachments are really hard to find, these old ones just don't turn up in thrift stores.

The Convertible attachment sets seem easier to find on eBay and in thrifts, so buying one of those and using the attachments seems the best route probably. A full or deluxe set would get you a telescoping wand and floor brush also. The short set would be best for the Slimline as it came with the crevice tool and furniture brush, but not the dusting or upholstery tool, just as most Slimlines didn't. The only Slimlines with the full attachment set were the deluxe models with cord reel and tool storage on top.

 

[fantomfan57]

Hi Cole...

Can you post a picture of the Pennecrest?