The season of Olympia...

[luxmanmatt]

Hey gang, I thought I would share pics of a recent eBay score! I have been looking for a near mint oly for a long, long time. And last week I came across this little gem! I just realized the pictures may not do it justice, but the seller was not kidding when she said, “low hours”. The power nozzle is still clean inside and the braid hose is very clean, but of course has dry-rot. The canister purrs and has that “new Electrolux” smell to it, much like the smell of my great grandmother’s silverado that I remember when it was new. Of course the shiny scratch on the PN is from me .... let’s just say I got a little too excited on the first spin and plowed the nozzle right underneath my couch.

I do have a few questions though... how come some models (including this one pictured) still have the service and warranty stickers, and some of my others don’t? We’re the stickers just removed by the owners when they bought the machines? Or were the stickers placed on the unit at sell? I know it’s a random question, but I appreciate any insight people might have.

 

[luxmanmatt]

Another question...

Any suggestions about the best way to remove this tiny dent? It’s not big at all, but I welcome any advice on how to go about removing.

 

[eurekastar]

Very Nice!

That's a great find! I really like the era of the square tank models. I have the older version of the Olympia that is really a Super J in brown. Yours is the Silverado style Olympia.

 

[suckolux]

Gorgeous!! I think, have heard/ been told the stickers were on the models after motor issues made by outsource .

 

[rugsucker]

"stickers"

The serial number sticker was placed on all Elux machines at factory at least back to the Mo L as one of usually 4 serial no locations.As Electrolux was company owned from the factory to the customer serial numbers tracked what Elux went to what branch(& at what times to keep stock rotated &'fresh')then to salesman and was to be placed on original copy of contract along with written serial number to register date of sale and warranty to that customer.Some were removed at sale,others stayed on for years.

 

[human]

Removing that dent is going to be difficult. If it were a body panel on a car, you'd be able to get behind it and tap it back out with a hammer and dolly but I don't know that you'd have enough room to get a hammer in there. If the metal were smooth, like on an early 1205, you could possibly just fill it with Bondo but the textured finish will be challenging. If it were mine, I'd just leave it be and accept the dent as a 'battle scar', emblematic of the use that it has seen.

 

[paul]

Looks great—congratulations! Nice tie-in with the current Olympic Winter Games.

The Olympia One was the official vacuum cleaner of the 1980 Winter Olympics. Those sold at the time had a Olympics decal put on them behind the exhaust port, so yours was probably made in late 1980 or 1981-82.

Btw, in another thread, Doug Smith explained the "One" in the label was because there was originally an identical cleaner sold concurrently that didn't come with the PN-4 power nozzle and was called "Olympia Two".

Here's a link to a thread that has the 1979 owner's manual (2nd edition): http://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?7098

 

[huskyvacs]

Wow, the Olympias keep rolling in, don't they? If there wasn't over a foot of snow outside I'd go get mine fixed up. My Olympia has a chrome PN though and not painted. I think it might have had the Jubilee(?) awards sticker on it at one point in time and it peeled off. I know my great-grandma had the Golden Jubilee at one point in time, because I found the manual in a box of old papers and other stuff she saved that I still had in a box forgotten in the closet from when she died in 2003.

 

[real1shep]

The way I do dents on Electrolux tanks;  I use small ball-peen hammers and put thick tape on the hammer part of the head that makes metal contact. The tank metal is very pliable and so you tap gently and keep checking your dent & the condition of your tape. If it's a corner seam, knock out what you can with the hammer and then used a piece of hardwood.


 


It's a process that you learn by experience....takes time and patience. Most of the time I strip it down to the shell, but sometimes dents can be accessed without doing that.


 


Lots of little taps...not some hulking slam.....and you don't need lots of room that way with smaller ball-peens. Honestly, I've had people not be able to find where the body work was done. But then if the dent is so bad you've lost paint, that needs to be addressed as well.


 


Depending on how it's going, I might put a piece of wood on the other side as a backer so that the dent doesn't go too far back the other way.


 


Kevin 

 

[luxmanmatt]

Thanks everyone!

Hi all -

Thanks so much for the compliments and info!

Kevin, I appreciate your advice on tackling that dent! I haven’t done anything yet, and am waiting until I have a vacation day while the wife is gone and the kids are out of the house so that I can focus on working that sent out. It will probably be later this spring. I’ll be sure to post pics when I do.


Cheers,
Matt

 

[real1shep]

Matt...you could also source a small body hammer at like Harbor Freight.....I was never schooled in legitimate body/paint work, so I use the tools I have at hand. However, I did come into two hand dolly's (they would be your backers in real auto body work) and a legitimate body hammer. Unfortunately,  about 8yrs ago I had all my hand tools stolen from a garage....I only had the body hammer a yr and was just getting on to it.   


 


Kevin