'63 Frigidaire Imperial thread

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A few years ago I acquired my matching '63 Imperial set. It all started with a conversation with Dick_S in Palm Springs. I told him at the time that those would be a dream set for me but I'm sure I'd never find them. He said he knew of someone in California that had a set and may be willing to sell them. He put me in touch with the seller and we struck up a deal. Of course I was hoping for Custom Imperial's with the turquoise pushbuttons but when I saw these I knew I had to have them.

It's like an old house that's a fixer upper. They needed some work but I knew what I would have once they were done. Here is the set on the first day they were delivered.

 

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A little 409 and some leveling makes a big difference.

 

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OK, let's plug them in and see what they look like all lit up.

 

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Preliminary tub shot; a liitle rust around the edges, rubber diaphragm a little deformed from sitting for years, and the agitator cap is missing.

 

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So let's pop the top. OH DEAR.... we've got some work to do.

 

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Crusty that's for sure. I can feel the carpal tunnel setting in now!

 

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As bad as it looks the lid switch operates just fine.

 

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Let's take off the pulsator column. I've seen worse.

 

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What lurks below the wash tub??? Hmmm, kinda orangie looking!

 

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The rust around the edges of the wash tub will have to be dealt with too.

 

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For now, let's button her back up and see what happens when we run her.

I started with a hot fill and let it overflow into the outer tub so the pump seal would be nice and lubricated. Thanks Robert for teaching us that important tip.

Fill valve works perfect on hot, warm, and cold. Good start.

 

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Lights, camera, action. We've got agitation.

 

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Timer advancing wonderfully. Add some nice sudsy soap to clean out her insides and you can see the overflow rinse portion of the wash cycle has begun.

 

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Everything ran fine, no leaks, no hiccups, just LARGE CHUNKS of rust flakes exiting drain hose while pumping out. NOT GOOD. Time to take out the tub and see what needs to be done.

Some rust spots at bottom of tub but not too serious.

 

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Wash tub out. YIKES

 

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Bottom of wash tub.

 

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Well, well, well... Look what we have here.

Bottom of outer tub (or water container as they call it).

 

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Drain port leading to pump. I think this having a raised lip contributed to its rust problem. This would always leave the outer tub holding a small amount of water. Even though there is a small hole on one side of the lip, it would easily clog with lint and not be effective.

 

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Transmission hump. At least the seals and support were in very good shape. No need for replacement and no leaks evident on other side.

 

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Interesting place for the model tag. (left front corner of cabinet brace)

 

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Let the scraping begin.

A lot of this stuff came off in chunks and the porcelain was still intact in many places. It looked like it consisted of lint, soap scum, and rust all formed into a nice crust.

 

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MUST protect mechanism. Covered with plastic bag and sealed with tape.

Looking much better already and NO rust holes through to other side.

YAY !!!

 

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Wash tub cleaned, prepped, and POR-15 coating process started. I found a nice shade of gray that worked well with this tub.

 

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First coat of POR-15 to outer tub. Still wet.

Definitely need good ventilation when using this stuff. It'll knock you out if you don't!

 

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Outer tub all done with 2 coats on sides and a 3rd coat on the bottom.

 

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This is the out of balance trip lever as viewed from the top of the sub top. If the tub starts wobbling too juch in spin then it hits this lever from under the sub top and then the upper tab pushes another lever which pushes the timer out and stops the machine.

 

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What were they thinking??? I don't think this will be stopping the machine any time soon!

The tab that the tub hits against in an out of balnce condition has rusted away.

I just removed the whole thing as finding another one of these would be like finding a pink matched set of something rare these days. LOL

 

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It's time to reassemble the machine. Wash tub back inside.

 

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"Keyway" where tub locks onto spin shaft. A 1" long small piece of steel fits into the middle tab. If you forget and leave this out during reassembly, the spin shaft will not be able to grab onto the tub when it spins. If you lose yours you can still get them at Ace Hardware in the small parts area. They are called a steel key. (thanks to rollermatic for that info!)

 

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Tub nut with flange up and tabbed washer underneath. One of the tabs gets bent upward to lock the tub nut in place after tightening. You can see it better in the next photo.