Hi stovies here is my latest addition and restoration of a PRIMUS71,and my second 71 in my collection Here is the PRIMUS71 in the condition it arrived in from the bay,as you can see in the above there is quite a lot surface rust and the front decal was in very poor condition. So i decided to fully restore the case as well with new paint and decals The above shows that the safety pin/valve at some time had been activated or the solder around the pin had failed and the previous owner had resoldered the pin with a large amount of solder which had covered up half the lettering on eithr side of the pin So on with the strip down and restoration here is a shot of the tank and filler cap,the filler cap seal had perished it was not made of any kind of rubber but either cork or maybe leather it was hard to tell as it had realy rottied Here is a pic of the cotton wick and brass wire the brass wire on the wick had realy corodied and broke apart and the wick was not charred but had picked up green from the copper in the brass wire so it was changed Here is a pick of the graphite packing which was reused Here are all the parts cleaned and buffed up the filler cap has had a new viton washer fitted and the burner feed tube has had a new wick fitted made from a cotton mop strand and a piece of 1.22mm brass wire Here is a pic of the safety pin/valve all the untidy solder work has been removed and the pin resoldered and the fuel names either side of the pin can now be seen,i heated up the access solder with a micro torch and wiped as much off with a rag dipped in flux and then carefully using a fibreglass pen removed the residue and then buffed out any fine scrtches And now on to the case to remove the surface rust and paint,instead of the usual electrolosis method which is safest and best way but does take a while,i placed the case in a plastic paint kettle filed the kettle with hot water upto about half way up the paint kettle and then added a 500ml bottle of spirits of salt which is 32% hydrclhoric acid this is the result of about 5mins of soaking in the solution.i thourgly rinsed with water and bicarbonate of soda to neutrolise the acid, there is a slight bit of surface rust on the pan suport was where i never dried it thoughly but that was removed with a fine steel wool Here is the case after it had been repainted for this i used a high tempreture silver paint what is used for manifolds and exaust pipes.sorry stovies that is my max pics at the moment will show the end result shortly
Hi stovies now on to part two of the PRIMUS71 fettle/restoration As you can see in the early pic of the stove case the front decal was in bad condition infact hardly any thing of it was left the iner door decal was not in such bad condition but the case had to be rainted so the inner decal had to be romoved, These two water slide decals arrived to day from the USA from Gas Pressure Apliance replacement decals And here is the decal fitted to the front door of the case This pic shows the stove up and running burning perfectly, and the new inner decal fitted here is a flame shot looking down sorry the flame is not that visable and there is not much cherry red as there was to much light
Beautiful work!! Thanks for sharing thru all of the great photos. Just shows there is hope for some of the ugly stoves out there.
What an outstanding fettle, Brian! The 'transfers' (UK Old English) - ok, 'decals' are very nice indeed. Must look up what's available. John
Hi John thank you very much indeed even though nothing beats the original paint work or decal even if it is not in good condition but when they are all most compleatly gone then it is worth replacing to set it off. The beauty of the older 71's is the case was just painted a plain silery colour so it is easy to get a very near colour match and make it look all most identical to the original unlike the optimus 80's and the later primus71's what was very simular to the 80
fantastic fettle Brian! I like the engravings on your tank which aren't present on my 71 of the same vintage! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Big BTU thank you very much for your comment i wonder why the fuel engraving on your 71 are not present, it is a shame that it has not got the engraving as it realy sets the stove off but then yours may be a rae example
Hi Brian, congrats on yet another fine fettle! Your 71 has changed from an ugly duck into a beautifull swan! What year is this beauty made? Best regards, Wim
Brian, You've done a fabulous job on your 71! Looks wonderful! I can't believe it's the same stove. Wow! sam
Good afternoon Wim HJ Sam Mike and T-Bone many thanks for all your kind comments, sorry Wim on this model there was no letter code any where on the tank, but this model was manufactured between 1937-1955
Hi Brian You've outdone yourself with this fettle 8) 8) 8) old mate ,well done that was an ocean of solder to clean off ,you must have been able to make a stained glass window with the leftovers keep up the good work Best regards Stu
Hi Stu and jrs08 many thanks for your super compliements There was quite a lot of solder in fact far too much,i hate seeing bad or untidy solder repairs on a stove, but once the access was heated up and wiped of the residue was not to bad to remove with one of those fibre glass pens well worth having Stu in the fettling box
