Restoration ministrations for Inspiration vibrations

[boji]

Inspire others by posting restos you're proud of?

I'll start by putting a bug in the ear of Fazer to restore his wurli. 
'78 rhodes I did a few years back:
The whole thing was left to rot in a basement so patina of rust or gunk was on everything except the tonebars.
Nothing worked, either mechanically or electronically.  Mice probably made a home of it as I found chewed up paper everywhere. I found like 30 chestnut shells in the bottom of it also.

Soundboard stripped, stained, refinished.

Polished all metal----what a flippin' chore that was, seriously the worst choice ever to hand do it..
I should have just sent it all out to be plated if I was going for blingy bling.

Realigned and replaced bad bobbins, sanded poles and clear coated pickups, restrung lines that daisy chain across coils down to input jack.

Sanded, cleaned and repaired all keys (some were swollen and terribly unalignable, capstans unglued, missing felt), set action/spacing rocker height, replaced all felt, tips and paper shim washers, realigned balance key posts, cut and bent out custom back checks (bump stops?), etc.

Edit: forgot to mention I boiled all the plastic hammers (is it a 'whippen' if it's plastic?),  full replacement of heavier gauge tonebar springs.
Stripped down the case, Sanded and painted the top cabinet and reupholstered it. The reupholstery I am least proud of, as there's an art to it for sure.  I should have gone for seams to take stress out of corner pulls.  Anywho, replaced all end caps, hardware etc. I'll try to locate more picts if anyone asks to see it fully gutted.
It still needs mute/hammer pullback replacements to perfect the action.

 

[Bo Deadly]

Sweet. I'm not a keyboard guy but that looks glorious!

 

[fazer]

That’s a beautiful job and I love the finish wood.  I pulled the keys out of the wurly
and vacuumed mice turds and paper but I’ve got a long way to go after seeing yours.  Big job ahead.  You went over the top on that one boji!

 

[L´Andratté]

Inspire others by posting restos you're proud of?

Check

 

[scott2000]

Concrete?? ;D

 

[fazer]

Wurly restore sometime. Needs some work but keys feel nice.

 

[dmp]

I cleaned a restored a '73 Rhodes a few years ago. I used parts from vintage vibe and the final feel and action is great.
I modified the electronics a bit with higher resistance pots.

 

[dmp]

And restored a Farfisa - needed re-capping and cleaning.  Was in really bad shape when I got it (but it was a cheap CL buy)

 

[dmp]

Has 12 channel cards for each note that needed re-capping plus the amplifier cards.
Keyboard contacts were dirty and needed contact cleaner + lots of playing.

 

[Tubetec]

I bought a farfisa a good few years ago ,the identical red one to yours ,didnt take that much work to get it going .
I was always sorry I sold it afterwards ,it had some nice tones .

I also missed the chance to take away a proper hammond tone wheel organ ,was a big old beast though ,and space to store it was limited.

 

[boji]

Fazer, I jus know yer old wood wurli gonna look awesome!  Glad you guys posted pics, love em!

Hey that concrete is flat. 

But not true level, to wit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-wbWGwZ7_k

 

[fazer]

“Reality is posion ,  I wanna go back”. 

Give me true level.  Bahaha!

 

[scott2000]

Fazer, I jus know yer old wood wurli gonna look awesome!  Glad you guys posted pics, love em!

Hey that concrete is flat. 

But not true level, to wit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-wbWGwZ7_k

Love it!!!!

Melodyne for slabs...

 

[boji]

When I hear Rick say, "I also dabble in PRECISION..."  I imagine it to be PRR speaking.  ;D ;D

 

[fazer]

pouring concret is a man's job (or a deplorable's job).  You must be a true man Scott2000.

 

[scott2000]

When I hear Rick say, "I also dabble in PRECISION..."  I imagine it to be PRR speaking.  ;D ;D

Ahahaha Too true....

 

[JohnRoberts]

I just tried to make it prettier...  The flaws are what make it beautiful imo...

In this case..... no trip hazards.....

If flaws make concrete beautiful, this must be gorgeous. 

Some hydraulic engineering adjustments I made, pointed a bunch of rain ditch overflow toward the hwy shoulder causing erosion.  My adjustments made after hurricane Katrina over a decade ago started eroding the road side shoulder so i feel lucky that several hundred pounds of sack concrete will git er dun... at least for my lifetime.

JR

 

[scott2000]

reminds me of having to help my neighbors after they had their backyard raised with a retaining wall to hold the tons of dirt..... They never thought to put a drain in at the wall and, to top that off, whoever did it, sealed up the timbers.....so no water could get out..... poor wall.....

so we did this sorta.....

Digging was a lot of fun especially since it rained most of the days we were working on it......not to mention having to get  tons of rocks by wheelbarrow through the mushy side access....

 

[scott2000]

Sweet. I'm not a keyboard guy but that looks glorious!

++++++1 Glorious!!

My goodness!

 

[JohnRoberts]

reminds me of having to help my neighbors after they had their backyard raised with a retaining wall to hold the tons of dirt..... They never thought to put a drain in at the wall and, to top that off, whoever did it, sealed up the timbers.....so no water could get out..... poor wall.....

so we did this sorta.....

Digging was a lot of fun especially since it rained most of the days we were working on it......not to mention having to get  tons of rocks by wheelbarrow through the mushy side access....

A proper retaining wall would be overkill for my roadside ditch.  The erosion I am managing occurred next to a 3' pipe that flows a great deal of water.

The erosion only showed up after over a decade with only a small single digit number of major rain storms per year.  That major flow in the picture did not occur before I rearranged my landscape.  When that flow hits the normal flow coming down my front ditch it creates turbulence and related erosion.

It took a long time to show up, but now that there is a pattern it is eroding more quickly, so I hope to nip it in the bud with a few hundred pounds of sack concrete for another decade or two.

JR