Yestereday, at the quilt show, in Paducah, I spent a lot of time at the booth with FWs and talked with the repairman at length. He stated that people buy FWs on Ebay and send them to him to repair. He says "buyer beware".
Some of the machines are really messed up, with broken hooks, bent shafts and lots wrong with them. He says they can be repaired, but end up costing a lot for parts. He had machines with black, painted, balance wheels as well as chrome. Some light switches have plastic bezels and can be broken by tightening them too much. He had one with a steel bezel on the light switch however. He was glad to share the pitfalls of FW and stated they were the best machines Singer ever made. His wife stated the 201-2 was. Hummmmmm.