So, getting back to the 328 after a looooong hiatus.
Further inspection revealed that I needed to just tear it right down to the bare frame.
I'll spare you the long version and just say it was not fun trying to get it apart. Several times I had to wail on parts with a hammer and I had to drill an extra hole in the head to get the thread take up cam off. the hole isn't a big deal, it's under the top cover and looks like it could have been factory-ish.
The steel parts are laying in "evaporust"right now and are cleaning up nicely.
The motor is a different story. It kept speeding up and slowing down when held at a steady foot pressure and top speed would change each time you used it. Close inspection revealed the brushes weren't sitting square on the commutator. The "plate" they were attached to had somehow "bent/warped" upwards and pushed the brushes out of position. So I figured no problem, just reshape it....
Well, that's a non starter. Turns out the brushes are mounted on some of that old cardboard/hardboard stuff and it doesn't bend, it breaks.
So I have to think about this for a bit. I can just make a metal plate to hold the brushes, but I'm not certain yet if the cardboard functions as both a locating plate AND an insulator. I can get around that if I have too, I'm just not sure if I want to...
The color I'm up in the air about. The paint is OK, but it has fadded spots. It's not chipped up much, but the fade makes it look like several shades of brown on just the bed plate alone. I'm batting around the idea of maybe goin gthe mint green of my 319W:
Or maybe the "robins egg blue" on my industrials:
I know a lot of people like the machines the color they were born in, but I'm not overly sticky on that. I like my machines to look clean and fresh and paint is a big part of that. I also like to have my machines the same (or similar) colors. Just looks bette rto my eye when I walk into the room....