Anyone know how it got so bad?? Maybe it sat in a baking attic or in the desert for it's life? It looks like it's also got pin rash, so I'm thinking this one was well used.

I also found some remnants of tooth picks jammed in the top gears! Someone shimmed up the thread spool(they had finally given up the toothpicks and welded it poorly). But at least one toothpick fell into the top and got trapped. Luckily, the gears look good. I also found about 1/2 spool of thread wound around the bobbin assembly. Now it turns really smooooth.

x2 on the reach out to Glenn on this. I suspect that you can repair the shellac by using his process..

Keep us posted on what you end up doing on this machine. My vote would be to try and get the shellac off and see what it looks like. At last resort, I'd go with the cherry red. Just maybe your machine is talking to you and saying she has been green long enough and now wants to be cheery cherry red!

Glenn has seconded my opinion that the shellac is too far gone. So, I'm going to go with the denatured alcohol and remove it. I'll have to see if I can remove the shellac and leave the decals intact. If I can't keep what's left of the decals I'll decide at that point about the color. I'd like to leave it original, but if it looks terrible...well, we'll see.

I would also go for a sandblasting, priming, and repainting. Red would be nice. An auto body shop might do that reasonably cheap if they were doing a vehicle the same way and color.

I won't pay anyone to work on my machines. I do the work myself. :>

Candace if you go slow you will be able to keep the original color and it will even brighten up some and look better
Skip

Glenn I have some for you to look at some time.

:DI know you have a few and we will try and get to Indy in September.

This is what I'd do too. If that's paint, the alcohol shouldn't ruin it, but will remove the shellac very easily. If you're careful there's a good chance of dissolving just the shellac.