Wow, this is an amazing resource for restoration newbies such as myself!
A friend recently picked up what appears to be a Singer 66-16 at a thrift shop for me. It's dirty, but not the worst I've seen after hours of reading about restoration. Needs a new power cable (and probably motor), slide plate and spool pin, but seems intact otherwise. Surprisingly, the mechanisms all move fairly smoothly and there seems to be only minor rust on the access plate.
The thing that concerns me a bit is that it appears that someone has painted over the mechanism on the underside of the machine. The bars are not silver (or even dirty brown) - they are matte black. I can't imagine that would be the original finish on them.
There are also a few pits on the bed where it looks like the japanning cracked and flaked off and was painted over. Otherwise, decals are intact and the head seems to be in decent shape. Any thoughts on the odd finish on the underside? I took photos of the machine, but forgot to snag one of the underside.
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