Trying to restore my Grandmas Old Electrolux 1205

[aprules2]

My grandmother passed about a year ago and I have a few things of hers I keep around my house. Well recently my Hoover Decade 80 has about had it. Back around '95 she moved into senior housing and gave my parents the like new 1205. It had a new motor installed like right before and looked brand new. My mom hated it and stuffed it in the garage. Well I went to go pick it up today and the garage is leaking bad and did a number on the poor thing. So I'd like to tear it down and do a complete restoration. Step one I'd like to disassemble it and see how bad things are. Then I want to media blast it and repaint that Turquoise finish and send the chrome out for playing. I cant find any hardware on it. How do I tear it down, and where do I find a good matching paint? Also I get the fact that this is a common and cheap vacuum, but this is more of a labor of love.

 

[jo]

Opening her up

Open the blower door there are two screws there and then the one by the main switch, too then lifts off. Next remove the cordwinder. Pull the cord out at least a foot then remove the two top screws near the back of the machine that were under the top cover and one on the bottom near where the cordwinder is mounted to the back. The cordwinder and its white bumper slide out of the body. Once cordwinder is out then you’ll need a socket set with extension to remove the nuts holding the motor cover on and motor in place. Hopefully water didn’t get inside

Me clean erasers does a great job cleaning things up. It may just be really dirty. Send some pics!

The tops on the blue 1205’s are aluminum that often tarnished. They polish up much like polishing a Kirby and are not chrome. They were changed to chrome on the Golden Jubilee. On rebuilt 1205’s Electrolux painted them with a hammered finish paint, the body and the top metal because often they would never quite polish up to be like new again.

Painting requires pre sanding for sure. Many people including myself have painted Electrolux’s and regretted it because the new paint chips easily and in a few years it looks like crap so I’d try cleaning it first and that’s all it may need unless it rusted.

Post pics please of what it looks like now before you begin. Also read the thread on the 1205 motor rebuild, there’s info about the terminal block you should know as well as other helpful information.

Jon

 

[jo]

Hardly cheap

The Electrolux 1205 was hardly a cheap vacuum of its time but rather one of the most expensive vacuums money could buy and they are great quality and many are still going today. Hence fixing it up is worth the time!

Jon

 

[aprules2]

Thank you Jon, I know it was big bucks back in the day, but I was worried people on here would be like dont bother fixing it just buy one for $100 on eBay.

Thank you for the directions, Im going to try and tear it down on Monday. Unfortunately I had rusty water pouring out of the cord winder, and half eaten acorns in the bag area, and the paint is rusty and bubbled. It was like mint when we put it in there... It's such a shame. I'll try and get some pictures up on Monday night. I have a Golden Jubilee so I thought the top was supposed to be chrome on the turquoise one too.

 

[jo]

Oh wow

Doesn’t sound good. What a shame. I’d probably salvage what I could for parts and let the rest go, sometimes things are just too far gone and there are others available you can buy inexpensively. Ur Mom should have just given it to you at the get go when she didn’t want it.

Jon

 

[human]

I'm thinking parts donor...

Sadly, what you describe doesn't sound very good at all. Standing water and electric motors generally don't mix well. I have to agree with Jon, you may be better off salvaging what you can as spare parts with the idea of incorporating them into another, a more restorable 1205 at a later date. Doing this would, in a sense, allow at least some part of your grandmother's 1205 to live on.

 

[aprules2]

Here's some pics

Im going to atleast try and see what I can do.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

Although I'm all Hoover,

I'm sad to see that in that condition.
As they say, "I'm sorry for your loss". Perhaps you CAN harvest parts....

 

[human]

Pretty sad state of affairs. One definitely harvestable part I see is the handle. Those things break frequently on teal 1205s. They finally redesigned it for the Golden Jubilee 1205s.

 

[huskyvacs]

Definitely not for parts, people just don't like to put the restoration work into things anymore. They want the instant results right now, and don't want to do the weeks of work to get there.

The corrosion on the chrome can be taken out with a bench buffer over repeated pass-overs layer by layer until shiny, and all the chassis rust is superficial and will come off with the media blasting. Sodablasting is what you want to do, as in using baking soda and not sand, which is a lot safer and less destructive when working with thin metal like this.

The plastic can be whitened again with the Retrobrighting process

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retr0bright

The housing of the Electrolux is mostly impervious to water, the motor will be in fine shape. I'll bet money if you plugged it in, it will turn on.

 

[aprules2]

Turning it on

I was actually considering plugging it in, because I think it would run too. There's a video of someone trying to deliberately kill a 1205 in YouTube and its nearly impossible. What kept me from doing it is all the water that came out of the cord winder. I was worried about that terminal strip I've read about arching and burning up. So I think I'll tear it down first clean things up then reassemble it and try it out.

Worst case if the motor is bad I know a company that can rewind it and true the commutators.

So do I have to goto an auto body supply to get custom paint made or is there somewhere that has it already made?

 

[kirbyklekter]

I wouldn't be surprised

if your vacuum fires right up when you try running it. Years ago while vacuuming the shelves in some overhead cupboards a lost grip of the hose and it fell into the sink below which was full of hot sudsy water. I don't know exactly how much water it sucked up before I could jump down and pull the plug, but a lot.

This was a model F Automatic that was my great grandparents. I felt so bad as I was carrying it out to the car with water pouring out everywhere it could. I took the soaked dirt bag out and left the cleaner to dry out.

Months later I decided to give it a go. New bag in and I switched it on and it ran just fine! I could smell a little ozone at first but to this day no problems.

You might want to try basting the outside of your vacuum with a brush and a bottle of CLR just to see what you can remove before you get out the big guns to remove a lot of calcium etc. It's non toxic, won't irritate your skin,wear gloves anyway, and it won't hurt the cleaner. Give it an over nighter and see what comes off easily then try another round. It's not going to fix the blemishes and pits caused by corrosion but it can help clean it up for a better assessment of the real damage,worth a try! Billy

 

[jo]

The power nozzle...

Is actually a pn 4a from the early Silverado era, the early Silverado’s were equipped with this power nozzle and the later ones had the first generation of the L shaped design and were pn-5 models. Looks like the power nozzle cord though is a tan one from the Olympia era.

Jon

 

[detroitdirtbag]

You can get paint matched at a Auto Paint store, if you don’t have means to spray, they can set you up how to mix paint w/ thinner in a glass spray bomb. I’d suggest buying another vac just like that that works for parts.

 

[aprules2]

Hey Guys I tore the vacuum down, the good news is it's not too bad inside. I ran power to the motor and it ran smooth like it should, the resistor block looks to be ok.. The problem is when the vacuum was all together I would turn it on and the check bag light would come on and the motor wouldn't run. I have to remove the door for painting anyway. I'm guessing the issue is inside? Maybe something corroded or a wire came loose. Plus I'd like to polish all the metal, and plastic before reassembly. How do I get that door off? I tried taking the screws out of the back but it wouldn't come apart.

 

[tylerhawkins84]

It Should Be Pretty Easy To Take The Front Apart

I have a Silverado which I believe is pretty much the same design and the front door is really easy to take apart. First you just remove the 4 screws on the back side at each corner. If yours are stuck it is probably that the screws have swollen with rust. They should be screwed into plastic so they shouldn't seize as easily as they would with metal but just don't snap them off. After you get the screws out just pry the panel off with a screwdriver and the door will separate from the rear panel. Your issue is probably with the clear plastic diaphragm that has gears that mesh with the dirt selector wheel and has tubes attached to it. Once it or the tubes that attach to it get plugged with dirt, it thinks the bag is always full. Sometimes running the selector on the highest setting (6) will get you by or I think you can bypass the system by unhooking the tubes. If you want to fix it correctly, I believe the diaphragm is still available but fairly pricey. Hats off to you for restoring your grandma's vacuum! I got my Silverado from my grandma recently (thankfully she is still with us). I just wanted to see if I could get it running and how nice I could clean it up. The plan was to sell it but I decided to keep it as it is sentimental, I was born in '84 so she has had it my entire life and she always kept it out in the kitchen so I saw it a lot. I am not a collector but it's always nice to have things that remind you of the people you love!

 

[jo]

You may want to…

See if you can find a 1205 on eBay with a dead motor and put your motor into that body. I suspected the motor in yours would be good because of the way these models were sealed from the back end.

You have to have a bag in the bag compartment for the machine to run or the bag light will come on. You may need to turn the dial to show more stripes if the bag door is immediately popping open and shutting off.

If you want to temporarily run the motor without a bag you can by opening the bag door, turning the machine on and pressing the plunger that would press against the bag cardboard when the door is closed and the bag light will shut off and motor run. Try that and see what happens, if the old bag is in there but it got wet it could be the cardboard collapsed from the wetness and is not holding the plunger switch on the inside of the door in. Try a new bag with a solid flat cardboard top.

Jon