Frigidaire Gold Crown

[pdub]

Look what I found. It's a 1968 Gold Crown set.
When I went to look at them I expected a 1-18 set
and was surprised when I found out they were an
earlier set of rollermatics. Here's a few pics.

 

[pdub]

Here is another pic of the controls.
It does have some nice options.

 

[pdub]

Here is a pic of the cycle selector.

 

[jetcone]

Nice Settage!

Gold Crown was Frigidaires' In house store brand. JC Penny would sell Gold Crown while Imperial and Custom Imperial were sold by independants. It was like Kenmore is to Whirlpool.

They look like '68s to me.

jet

 

[pdub]

It's a Rapidry!

 

[pdub]

Yes, thats right. They are 1968 vintage.
That's cool to know about how they got
there designation. Thanks Jetcone!

Here's the dryer selector.

 

[pdub]

Here's the heat selector knob and start button.

 

[pdub]

And the dryer cycle selector.

 

[southernmdgeguy]

Another dream fulfilled!

How well do they work? They look to be in great shape. Is that a vintage Stang in the background 71-73? Lets see that too!

Scott

 

[pdub]

They aren't perfect ...

Unfortunately the washer needs some work. It runs but noisily.
Someone tried to remove the agitator but apparently the nut
wouldn't budge and so the force broke the splines on the agitator shaft that keep it from turning **(Thank You Gansky1-
for your diagnosis, I appreciate it!)** It's agitator rattles
due to a missing spacer between the cones and the transmission
sounds rough when running due to the damage to the shaft.
There is also a slow leak at the top of the water pump which seems minor and the bleach dispensor and agitator cap were
missing, but...... I love them anyway and want to restore them.

I was thinking with all the machines people have found lately
maybe someone out there has one where the cabinet and tub aren't worth restoring but the basic mechanism is good that they would consider selling. Any thoughts, help, suggestions, please send them my way.

I love the inspiration I have received from this forum and look
forward to hearing from you all. Thanks, Patrick

 

[pdub]

Also, the dryer appears to be in perfect shape but I haven't put a power cord on it to test it yet.

Yes Scott, that is a 1972 Mustang in the background.
I'll get some pics of that and post them in the Super
forum.

 

[appnut]

Patrick, what a beautiful set. I"m so glad you rescued them. You know me, I love Frigidaires!!! And the windowed-lid to boot And the Mustang ain't bad at all!!

 

[westytoploader]

YAY!!! Congratulations! Your first Rapidry 1000, in lovely Harvest Gold!!!

Well...if the agitator nut won't budge, it's virtually impossible to remove by hand, IMHO. Your best bet is to use an air-impact wrench...used mine on the 1-18 and it hammered it off like nothing!

 

[westytoploader]

Btw...nice Mustang too! Does it have the 302?

I also have a spare upper agitator cone (complete with splines intact). Let me know if you need it.

--Austin

 

[rayjay]

Grew up with the washer. My parents had it in white. We had only the washer and a NOrge dryer. The washer lasted quite a while. Then we bought the 1-18.

Good Luck with the machines.

Ray

 

[pdub]

Austin-

I remember you saying that about the impact wrench when you were working on your 1-18. I am surprised the shaft splines
could be stripped by someone turning a wrench on them but I guess I'll never know for sure how it happened. The rapidry spin is great I have to say. It really spins like it says and the towels I pulled out were much dryer than when they come out of the 1-18 or the Frigidaire front loader. So apparently the damaged shaft hasn't affected the spin speed!

 

[pdub]

I agree Appnut, you really take notice when you see a window lid!

Thanks for the good luck wishes Ray and sharing your memory.

Austin- I'll send you an email about the agitator. Thanks for your kind offer. And yes, the Mustang has the 302 with 2V carb. I'll get some pictures up on it soon.

Patrick

 

[tlee618]

Congratulations Patrick on the beautiful set. I hope that you will soon have that washer running like new! Terry

 

[bostonwash]

Excellent find!!

They look like new.

 

[thirtyater]

Wow this is the same washer we had for seven years except in white when I was a child. That really brings back the memories. It was great to see one again, Thanks for all the pics.

 

[filterflo]

Wonderful set, Patrick and wonderful looking Mustang. The shaft of your washer is probably not damaged, its the brass keyway at the bottom of the spin tube assembly that has gotten damaged. The brass keyway serves as both a bearing for the agitate shaft, and also as a keyway to keep it from turning and twisting the bellows. The shaft is hardened steel and very hard to hurt, but the brass keyway is soft and easily snapped. Ive done it many times trying to get the big nut off the pulsator. The noise is usually a bad agitate arm and or a loose agitator cone(s). The best way to remove the agitator now is to unscrew the shaft from the agitate arm (at the bottome of the tranny), unsnap the bellows retainer rings (big one and small one under the pulsator) and remove the complete agitator and shaft in one piece. Its pretty easy to then disassemble the cones from the shaft. Next step would be to find a donor tranny to get a good spin shaft from. Good luck, its really not as difficult as it sounds!

 

[angus]

Great set- where did you find it?

 

[rickr]

Nice catch Patrick! And a fun looking vintage Mustang too!
Hope you can get that Gold Crown set running great soon. With the help of the Frigidaire guys here you should have no trouble in doing so.
Congratulations!

 

[foraloysius]

Great set and great car!!

Louis

 

[mayken4now]

You have found some of my dream machines! Good luck and I am happy for you!

Steve

 

[Unimatic1140]

Nice Find Patrick, hopefully a spare spin shaft can be found. They look like they are in nice shape otherwise! Congrats again.

 

[christfr]

yeah

cool set my friend..i think what you need now is a filtrator dryer..

 

[pdub]

Thanks everyone for your encouragement and congratulations. I found this set on Craigslist and the guy had originally listed them for $75 for the set and then lowered them to $50. I was hesitant at the time to respond but when I looked a couple weeks later they were still listed so I took it as a sign. I was thinking Gold Crown had only been used on 1-18's so when I arrived and saw these I was very surprised.

The guy told me they had come with the house when they bought it last April and were still hooked up and running but he later swapped them for their newer Whirlpool/Kenmore set and stuck these in the corner. The pump and drain hose were still full of water when we moved them so I took that as a good sign they hadn't been used that long ago.

So all you Frigidaire experts, collectors, restorers: Anyone know of a good spin shaft laying around collecting dust? I would be forever grateful. Thanks, Patrick

 

[swestoyz]

Hey ~

Those look like fun!! Nice catch ~

Ben

 

[frigilux]

Wow, they really are beautiful; and you got the Rapidry 1000 spin speed, too. I used to babysit our local Frigidaire dealer's kids and they had a similar pair but with a infinitely variable agitation speed. I used to find an excuse to run the machine and play with the speed knob. You could get the agitation down to a very slow ker-plunk, ker-plunk, then all the way up to the thrashing fast speed and anywhere in between. Frigidaires were so much fun.... Congratulations and may the repair gods smile upon you!