Mine had the same smell. There is a felt pad in the bottom of the machine that catches oil. If you have that replaced. And ditto on Febreeze your case and set it out in the sun. It will help alot. Mine has very little smell now.

Hope this helps.

she's great I bought one a month ago
there is product called bad air sponge
I had bought a large shelf unit they had a strange Oder I opened the jar and put it on the self over time it toke the oder away

wow nice!!!..try a bag of coffee grinds worked for me..

Take the machine out of the case and put a bar of soap (?Irish Spring) it will really help. Worked better for me than sitting it open on the deck on a hot sunny day. Congratulations!

Antdebby1

Beautiful machine, I am envious!

To get the odor out of the cover, what I would do, is to put the cover in either a large plastic container or bag and take a large cup/mug half filled with fresh coffee grinds and then filled with boiling water and put that in the bag or bin. Close the bag or bin as tight as you can and leave it there for a good 24 hours. That should take the odor out of anything.

I cleaned a fridge that had rotting broccoli in it with this, and you would have never known that there was rotting broccoli in it ever!

TreeFrog

You will love her. I love mine.

I have a April, 1954 FW too. I added her to my collection of machines after I got my 1964 white FW that I'd been coveting for some time. I just had to have one from my birth year.
Mine is a bit younger than me--as you are: I was born in March.
My daddy used to tell me that it was a very good year as he was a staunch republican and Eisenhower got into the white house.
Another interesting tidbit...I was also a Debbie for a very long time. Now it's just Deb. Debbie Reynolds gets the credit for so many little girls being named the same in those days--though, it was my momma's love of Deborah Kerr that I wound up with the name.
Enjoy your FW! They are heaps of fun!

There is a group for featherweights that you might one to join. There is alot of info on it that will help get rid of the smell.

I've had a FW since the 90's but have no idea when she was born. How do you tell? Mine is named Winnie becuz she was from Winthrop MA, a section of Boston. My hubby rescued her from a hoarder!

I had heard that it is standard practice to name them after your grandmother. But I like Lil Debbie.