This is my first venture into veteran machines. A 1956 201-2 that seems to have been used quite regularly until the lady passed away and her daughter needed to get rid of it.
This is the only picture I got before I stared polishing up the plates and bare metal.
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Because the finish is missing in areas, rather poor in others (the pictures don't capture how bad it is), and most of the decals are worn off, I've decided I'm going to refinish it. It has two jobs-to work and to look good doing it. I'm trying to convince hubby that this machine needs to be displayed.
I have a few questions though.
First is about the wiring.
It looks pretty good from the outside. How do you determine if you should crack open the motor to look at the wiring inside? I know that the only way to be absolutely sure about the wiring you can't see is to open it, but I believe I read about looking at the grease?
Also, should I replace the grease wicks regardless?
Here's a picture of the wiring leading into the motor.
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All of the wiring insulation on the outside looks pretty good. It's not as supple as brand new, but it still moves and I haven't found any cracks in it.
On to decals
My machine doesn't have the regular 201 decals on it. Does anyone know if they switched to the 201K style decals in the '50's and then continued to run them on the 201K?
If you look at this link:
http://www.keelersales.com/model-201/
for replacement decals and compare the 201 decals with the 201K, you'll see that what's left of the decals on my machine matches the 201K.
Here are pics of the decals up close
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