marukap
Well-known member
I have just last weekend finished work on these five beauties. It has been an ongoing project for nearly two years. Each of these Hoover 150s has been restored to the very best of my abilities.
All of them were completely disassembled to allow for thorough cleaning and lubrication. All wires were replaced, all the way down to the leads coming out of the field coils. I removed the coils from the field irons, unwound the brittle and soiled cotton wrapping tape, extracted the old lead wires, soldered in new wires, wrapped the coils with new cotton tape and reinstalled them. The only wires I did not replace were those running from the switch in the handle to the handle fork. Having spent the past 70 years in the relative dark cool and calm of the inside of a Hoover handle, they were all in amazingly good condition.
Bearings were cleaned and re-greased.
Armatures were cleaned; commutators polished and reseated; carbon brushes inspected and replaced where necessary.
Agitators were cleaned, rebuilt and NOS brush strips installed.
I picked over the wheels and replaced those that were beyond all hope.
All gaskets were replaced. I used weather stripping felt on the underside edges of the belt/pulley covers, closed cell vinyl foam stripping for the motor gaskets and rubber o-ring stock for the bag rings.
Some of the power cords are original Hoover, some are new, fit-all black vinyl.
All but the "Special" have original Hoover 2-speed switches. The "Special," when it was made into a "Special" many years ago: Was converted to single speed (equivalent to the high speed on the other machines); The full-bag indicator was removed and the fan chamber was reinforced or armored with an internal perimeter steel band. It originally came to me wearing a smart black bag that proclaimed itself to be "THE HOOVER SPECIAL." Tragically, it all but crumbled in my hands when I tried to clean it. The bag it is modeling in these pictures is the black rayon Hygienisac assembly that came to me with one of the other 150s. The screen printing on this bag was quite faded, so I hand embroidered it back to life.
The cleaner in the center of the group pictures (with the blue ribbon from VCCC 2006 in St. Louis) has all original finishes, cord, bag and bag support strap and furniture guard. You may recognize it, Charlie Lester. I bought it from you several years ago!
Two of them have new, black, cotton twill "to fit" Hoover bags. One has a vintage charcoal gray with white thread genuine Hoover bag.
The internal bag support straps have been either rebuilt with nylon webbing or the original cotton tape was in good enough condition to be reinforced with stitching. The Special uses an external hook and spring.
The hoods and the hood bands were hand polished.
Four of the five were completely stripped down to bare metal, primed, painted and clear coated. The fifth machine, as I mentioned above kept its original finishes.
All five motors sound great.
All five automatic height adjusters work perfectly.
Of the four with full bag indicators, three work as they were designed to and one just kinda sits there. Here's the theory: As the bag fills with dust and air flow becomes restricted, the internal air pressure increases. This back pressure forces air through a small rubber tube connecting the inside of the bag to the indicator device which is essentially a small rubber bellows that, when inflated by the back-pressure air, causes a small metal disk, painted with a red dot to move in line with a site hole on the right rear side of the main casting. They're fun but not very accurate. . .at all! The rubber bellows on the fourth indicated had completely deteriorated. Despite repeated attempts with a variety of materials and membranes, I could not get it to operate.
Enough already! Here are some pictures.
All of them were completely disassembled to allow for thorough cleaning and lubrication. All wires were replaced, all the way down to the leads coming out of the field coils. I removed the coils from the field irons, unwound the brittle and soiled cotton wrapping tape, extracted the old lead wires, soldered in new wires, wrapped the coils with new cotton tape and reinstalled them. The only wires I did not replace were those running from the switch in the handle to the handle fork. Having spent the past 70 years in the relative dark cool and calm of the inside of a Hoover handle, they were all in amazingly good condition.
Bearings were cleaned and re-greased.
Armatures were cleaned; commutators polished and reseated; carbon brushes inspected and replaced where necessary.
Agitators were cleaned, rebuilt and NOS brush strips installed.
I picked over the wheels and replaced those that were beyond all hope.
All gaskets were replaced. I used weather stripping felt on the underside edges of the belt/pulley covers, closed cell vinyl foam stripping for the motor gaskets and rubber o-ring stock for the bag rings.
Some of the power cords are original Hoover, some are new, fit-all black vinyl.
All but the "Special" have original Hoover 2-speed switches. The "Special," when it was made into a "Special" many years ago: Was converted to single speed (equivalent to the high speed on the other machines); The full-bag indicator was removed and the fan chamber was reinforced or armored with an internal perimeter steel band. It originally came to me wearing a smart black bag that proclaimed itself to be "THE HOOVER SPECIAL." Tragically, it all but crumbled in my hands when I tried to clean it. The bag it is modeling in these pictures is the black rayon Hygienisac assembly that came to me with one of the other 150s. The screen printing on this bag was quite faded, so I hand embroidered it back to life.
The cleaner in the center of the group pictures (with the blue ribbon from VCCC 2006 in St. Louis) has all original finishes, cord, bag and bag support strap and furniture guard. You may recognize it, Charlie Lester. I bought it from you several years ago!
Two of them have new, black, cotton twill "to fit" Hoover bags. One has a vintage charcoal gray with white thread genuine Hoover bag.
The internal bag support straps have been either rebuilt with nylon webbing or the original cotton tape was in good enough condition to be reinforced with stitching. The Special uses an external hook and spring.
The hoods and the hood bands were hand polished.
Four of the five were completely stripped down to bare metal, primed, painted and clear coated. The fifth machine, as I mentioned above kept its original finishes.
All five motors sound great.
All five automatic height adjusters work perfectly.
Of the four with full bag indicators, three work as they were designed to and one just kinda sits there. Here's the theory: As the bag fills with dust and air flow becomes restricted, the internal air pressure increases. This back pressure forces air through a small rubber tube connecting the inside of the bag to the indicator device which is essentially a small rubber bellows that, when inflated by the back-pressure air, causes a small metal disk, painted with a red dot to move in line with a site hole on the right rear side of the main casting. They're fun but not very accurate. . .at all! The rubber bellows on the fourth indicated had completely deteriorated. Despite repeated attempts with a variety of materials and membranes, I could not get it to operate.
Enough already! Here are some pictures.
