Sunbeam Challenger AKA Ugly Betty

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Well I think it is a beautiful machine. I like those funky 60's-70's green colores. I like the greens a heck of a lot better than harvest gold or woodgrain, or even worse copper.
just like that convertible 707 every one tells me that is the most ugly vacuum ever made. Well I love mine mostly because of the color. What color was the challenger with the power head?
 
She might be looking for a new home...cough....

LOL

Has 2.3 peak HP
Sounds like they were in comp w the royal metal vac

Huge rear wheels
Huge handle
guess it looks better w tools on board as the tools seem to blend in w the handle & it doesn't look big anymore

Its sort of a go cart model

LOL

Green metal vac
Now I use it as a shop vac for no other reason as its here
& don't want to leave my good ones in vacant apts..

Don't think you can get bags for it too easily
but the lux C is working
 
Don't know much about this machine

googled it & theres nada

Don't think it had a power nozzle
least there is no plug for it on the machine or on the hose

Suction is decent
its not as good as a lux but wouldn't expect it to be
Might even be better suction with a proper bag as the top leaves alot of room for air to escape

maybe with a proper bag it would really SUCK

LOL
 
Hey Guys! I have almost the same machine, the same green, except with large flowers down the body. Que the big screeem again Charles!! BTW, they did make a Challenger with a power nozzle, which I also have, that's beige and woodgrain. Later, Trg
 
Christine, If you are going to get rid of it I would be glad to buy or trade for it because I really want one of those challengers.
 
Restoration:

Christine:

I'm willing to bet that Ugly Betty would actually look quite charming after some restoration. What I do with plastic stuff like that is to disassemble it as far as possible, then wash each part in dishwashing liquid and warmish water. Then I reassemble. Windex and Q-Tips work well for detailled areas like exhaust vent louvres. It looks like there's a problem with the nameplate coming loose from the body. The correct product for reattaching it is called "thin adhesive", which you can get from a trophy shop- it's what they use to put nameplates on trophies. It's a double-sided tape that's not thick, but which holds much better than what you can buy on a roll in the store. It really grabs, and adds no thickness under the nameplate. A trophy shop will sell you a foot or so of it, cheap. You'll probably want to clean old adhesive off the back of the nameplate and the place where it goes. I use WD-40 for this, followed up with some Krud Kutter. The WD-40 softens the old adhesive, and the Krud Kutter removes the WD-40's oil residue, leaving everything clean and ready for the thin adhesive to grab.

I think you've got a real charmer there, and something rare!
 
Christine

Somewhere deep in the catacombs of my basement are a couple packages of original bags for the Challenger. I do not plan on having one of these machines, so email me if interested.

About the power nozzle, I have seen a Challenger with it, seems like it was a Douglas, but that has been several years ago in a Louisville thrift shop. Check out some 70's OG Wilson, John Plain or Bennett Blue Books for pictures...

John
 
Wow, Betty will be so thrilled....

Just got in from a day of doing windows
Ugly Betty stood by watching
LOL

She will be thrilled when I tell her she's the Cat's Grasshopper...
LOL

She only has one orig tool the dust brush & its real bristle.

Actually sounds like a decent motor
not a lux motor
but looks to me to be similar to the filter queen
Powers down like a filter queen

900 watts 2.3 peak HP


The hose cleaned up
after a good hour or so of scrubbing

Yep looks like the Challenger name p[late on front is taped on
I could get that I am also need to get rubber cement &
adhesive etc for the kirbys to do misc repairs restoration

I have been thinking about taking it apart & cleaning the motor inside area as I feel the machine has its best shot at working its best.

Cut out a bigger piece of cardboard to attach to the c bag so as to close the opening

Odd angles all over that dumb thing.

Well I am now glad that no one decided to rescue it from besides the trash

I guess with no hose they were turned off
I was hoping I could do soemthing w the hose
then when it clesned up so nice
I went down hoping Ugly Betty would still be there

Oooh there she was
alone in the corner...

I'd be open to trade or something
I'd like for her to have her bags too
& clean it up first so I can say
I worked on a Challenger
LOL

Yep that hose sure was a challenge
Sort of reminds me of the Kirby 60's hoses
I do have one that is very tacky
Tried cleaning that with no luck
but this one came out nice...

Ugly Betty filled up a whole lux bag this weekend
She ate dirt from the fat lady.
& she ate & ate as this woman did not pick up a hand to do anything but eat...

LOL

OK I opened ugly betty up
cleanes out motor n cord winder compartment

I was right about motor
its a Lamb Ametek division similar to filter queen
brushes look good
had to remove a bad foam exhaust filter
just cut out something for mean while
its just exhaust

powered her back on & she sounds like a new lady & she sucks even better
Shes kind of grows on you

but she's still ugly

LOL

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-CENTRAL...ryZ20615QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 
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