Sunday fun in the kitchen sink

[DesertTortoise]

This is my $25 vacuum store salvage pile find. You can see it was one grody vacuum (grody to the max to revert to the language of my teenage years). I think the vacuum shop owner might have an aneurysm when he sees what I have done to his old "salvage" vacuum, heh, heh, heh.

The cosmetics came out surprisingly well. Elbow grease, different levels of worn out Scotchbrite pads and lots of warm water and citrus degreaser (Zep Products Big Orange de-greaser) in the kitchen sink. I will not need to replace the gray rubber furniture guard. It scrubbed up much nicer than I thought it would. Ditto the wheels. This one will be a cheap restoration. All it needs are carbon brushes and a new cord. The reel works perfectly but the cord has three places where the outer casing is torn. Man, I sure hope I can swap cords without unwinding that spring or taking it in my face! I have searched Youtube for hours hoping I could find a video of this job but the closest I came was one for an Electrolux. Not the same, much easier. Any suggestions from the pros here?

You can see my idea of using the cord reel from the Whimpertone series in these vacs just went down the porcelain bathroom fixture. Too wide, sigh. Now for plan B, swapping cords on the existing reel. Stay tuned for this one kids.

Btw, what do people do about old, fragile paper motor covers? They disintegrate as soon as you look at them crossways. I tape then up but it's a cheesy way to do things. Is there a source anywhere for new ones? Thanks and enjoy the photos.

 

[marks_here]

I would have put the whole lot in the dishwasher & be done with it...motor & all. It's amazing how well it comes out all nice & clean not to mention the shine on the armature is impeccable.

 

[fooseofhoove]

So far it's turning out great! Can't wait to see the finished product!

 

[eurekastar]

That's looking really good!  You're doing great work!

 

[DesertTortoise]

The owner of the vacuum shop I found it at tells me not to spray the motor with electrical contact cleaner. I will probably blast it with some compressed air and then use a cloth wetted with contact cleaner on selected areas. I'm debating how far I want to disassemble it for cleaning.

This vacuum set in motion a cascade of buying. Since the on/off function is on the hose, I needed to buy a later three wire hose with the on/off swicth. $50 on eBay. But those hoses have a different style of electrical connection to the Powermate wand than any of my other hoses have, so I had to buy a wand compatible with the new hose. That in turn will force me to either convert one of my two Powermates to the later model swivel with the electrical connection built in, or find a cheap eBay Powermate in white with the right swivel to team with this vacuum. I'm pretty certain I can buy a used Powermate for about the same cost as buying a new swivel, swivel seals, the electrical plug that goes in the swivel and the plastic cover.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Nice job on that! I had to do similar with my mom's Whispertone she bought in 1999. After cleaning the exhaust filter I couldn't believe how much the suction improved.

BTW, I have the Sears catalog with that vacuum in it. I forget the exact year, wanna say it was '93. I think it was one model below the Whispertone that was TOL that year. I like how they made the base and hubcaps match the top back then. Later on everything was gray from the bumpers down.

 

[DesertTortoise]

I got lucky with this one. The gray "furniture guard" and wheels scrubbed up nice and aren't damaged. I wasn't so lucky with the gray 4.1 of this series I restored earlier this year. The furniture guard on that had battle scars I could not hide, and the wheels were so chewed up they looked like military off road tires and didn't they turn very easily.

Amazingly Sears still sells the wheels and furniture guard, but only in that dark gray color used on Whispertones. Still, I can get the parts and fix stuff, so I can't complain too much. I was prepared to let a dark gray furniture guard and wheels be the outward symbol of a Desert Tortoise Special, swapping those parts on every similar vac I refurbish kind of the way you can always tell a Ruff Porsche by certain exterior items. But on this one? No way.

Would you consider scanning in the page or pages of the Sears catalog with my vac and it's information as a pdf and e-mailing it to me? Thanks.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Here is a link to when I scanned it awhile back. I could redo it sometime but you get the idea.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a251/farrini/sears921.jpg

 

[fan-of-fans]

And the opposite page. And this is the 1991-92 catalog.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a251/farrini/sears922.jpg