How Drew got his groove back...

[redcarpetdrew]

As some of you already know, I had to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area to caretake my Father with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and my mother who has a few issues of her own. So, after quitting my job at Sargent's after 19 years and trading a decent home for a downstairs living arrangement in my parents home to better take care of them and drive them to their appointments, here I am. I am totally out of my element, trying to plug myself into a part time job and find where the used appliances congregate to start finding treasures. At some point, I will have a few of my machines here with me but I'm going cold turkey right now. Grrr... I miss my machines terribly and needed... Something... to work on until I find my next treasure around here.

So... I wanted a vacuum for my little downstairs domain. Something... Me. I think I found it...

Meet the Hoover Celebrity IV Elite!

[this post was last edited: 12/8/2014-05:11]

 

[redcarpetdrew]

She didn't look like this at first as she was a Goodwill thrift store find. Time to dig in. I started with the insides. Pulled the motor housings, cleaned and worked my magic.

 

[redcarpetdrew]

After that, I turned my attention to the exterior. Pulled the outer housing, cord reel, rubber gasket/bumper around the perimeter and anything else held on by screws. Cleaned paint overspray, scrunge, marks from dragging it into tables, walls, even footprints. Repaired the cord where the plug was yanked out of the wall outlet by grabbing the cord and ripping it out of the outlet. The cord reel brake was non functional. The locking tab that secures the hose to the canister was messed up so the previous owner solved that by using a ton of duct tape to hold it on. Really! How people can buy nice equipment and then abuse it is beyond me. Thank goodness that the chrome and plastic was in good shape under all that.[this post was last edited: 12/8/2014-04:56]

 

[redcarpetdrew]

Side question...

Would a redneck's vacuum look like this, up on blocks with the wheels off? LOL!

 

[redcarpetdrew]

Put it all back together. Night and day difference from the homeless orphan that came home with me and now! Installed a OEM bag. Fired her up. Thank goodness, the motor is in good order with smooth bearings and has enough suction to suck-start a cold diesel engine thru the tailpipe! LOL! Any ideas on age? Robert? Fred? Anyone?

[this post was last edited: 12/8/2014-05:13]

 

[redcarpetdrew]

Time to focus on the power head. I'll spare you the pictures of the horrors I found after I tore the thing completely apart. The brush motor was totally impacted and wanted to overheat. The locking mech that kept the wand upright was messed up. The outside of it was covered in dirt, paint spray and the like. Yuck. Fixed all that. The hose was just nasty. The beater bar was almost locked in place with carpet strands, hair, etc. Happily, it's the older metal style that allowed me to disassemble it including removing the actual brushes. Freed up the bar bearings. Installed a new belt to replace the old one that was all burned up trying to turn the bar. No wonder why this poor thing ended up at the thrift store.

Here are before and after pics.

 

[redcarpetdrew]

And there she is!

All better! There are two things I still need to do. All the tools are missing. I will hunt those down and one of the two wands has a broken clip that is supposed to hold the power head cord in place. I'll most likely try to find another wand. And, yes, the light even works. I'm surprised to see that the main suction motor has a 'speed' switch that reduces suction power. Why?

So, fun I had and hopefully I'm going to get back into my groove. This helped!

RCD

 

[toploader55]

Beautiful Drew.

Sorry you had to move... But I'm sure some appliance store/repair will find you and once the Maytags get a whiff of your scent in the area, they'll come a runnin'.

 

[pulltostart]

Drew

Great find and excellent job!  I've always liked this vacuum.  I believe this was the last version of the Celebrity and had the most glam/bling.  I think it dates from the early 1980's, but others can do a better job of giving you the date.

 

BTW, the answer to your question in Reply #4 would be "only if it were parked in the front yard."

 

Happy vacuuming!

 

lawrence

 

[countryguy]

Great job cleaning it up. Hi speed would be used when vacuuming the floors, carpets while Lo would be used for above the floor cleaning, dusting, curtains, etc.

 

[hooverwheelaway]

Nice Save, Drew!

Lovely restoration Drew! That machine is from about 1977-1979, I would say, give or take a year. The last iteration of Celebrity had the "Quadraflex Powermatic" power nozzle, which is totally different than that one, so your is about middle of the run. The Celebrity was out until about 1985/86, I'm pretty sure.

Those are one of the best cleaners that Hoover ever made, and that model was TOL at its time. If you didn't take the bottom tray off of the cleaner (what all of the wheels are attached to), you may want to go back and do that. I think you'll have to take the motor cover off again to access the three acorn nuts. There was a foam "donut" in that bottom tray that acted as a baffle of sort, to quiet the machine down and catch the carbon dust from the motor. Over time, these foam donuts desintigrate, and will literally start shooting out from the vacuum as you're using it. You can get a light-weight foam like air conditioner filter and cut a new one to fit.

Tools are out there, keep your eyes open on eBay, or even hit up an old vac store if there's one in your area. At least you have the tool caddy for it.

Conveniently enough, my username on VacuumLand is 'HooverCelebrity' .. here's a link to a thread from the last time I found a Celebrity and gave it a spa day: http://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?20295

Thanks for sharing, wishing you best of luck during this transition in your life; I think you've probably only just begun to get your groove back! Looking forward to following your adventure! Happy Hoovering!

 

[redcarpetdrew]

Thank you

It was fun. I will go and check what you suggested, Fred. I forgot about the baffle. In a previous life, I worked at a place in Eureka, CA that did vacuum repair. That's where I learned overhaul of these guys. Your day spa treatment was superb! This one had just been dropped off in the donation pile when I got there. In its condition, I fear it would have gone to the great beyond and not on the floor there. So I guess I rescued it in the nick of time. I am curious. Were the tools color matched?

RCD

 

[hooverwheelaway]

Yes, I'm pretty sure the tools would have been a very light shade of blue, almost the same as the hose.  I have a mint green Celebrity as well, and the tools have the slightest green tint to them.  Those coloerd tools are pretty rare, you'll probably be better off watching for an attachment set for a Convertible and just swiping the attachments from that.  I'm pretty sure I have a Celebrity spec-sheet at home.  I'll have to snap a picture later.

 

 

 

 

 

[redcarpetdrew]

Thank you again, Fred! It's funny. My parents asked why I went for such a older 'clunky' machine. I said that it was because it was 'me'. Insert parental eye roll here. Just wait until I bring a few of my collection here. Lol!

At least one thing they did to help make me feel at home was to have a really nice laundry sink installed with water hook ups for my washers and a separate 220v dryer plug in the garage as well. It'll feel like home soon enough...

RCD

 

[tennblondie78]

Looks awesome! Nothing more satisfying than saving a diamond in the rough. "Parental eye roll..." I get that on a regular basis. Along with friend eye rolls, coworker eye rolls, etc. They all think I'm nuts.

 

[hydralique]

Clunky?

Nope, not with all that chrome and nice trim; I think a new translucent plasti-vac looks clunky! I always loved the shape of the Celebrity, so very space age. The early wheel-less air-ride models really fascinate me but they don't have much in the way of features and are less powerful than the late models, looks like you have a real winner there.

 

[revvinkevin]

YAY Andy!

 

 

Great job on the 'oovah Andy, CONGRATS!    Pretty vacuum, as vacuums go.  

 

Also good to see you posting!

 

Kevin

 

[goatfarmer]

Nice job, Drew!

 

[washdaddy]

Great job on the restore Drew. Can't get over the difference---totally night and day.

Oh and btw....the speed switch could also be used on lighter area carpets. Too much suction can suck the carpeting off the floor into the vac head causing excessive stress on it where as the lower speed allows the carpet to lay on the floor and the vac head to sweep the carpet while the vac still sucks up the dirt it sweeps out of the rug.

If that vac had been made like todays plastic machines it would have been long gone by now. Those old metal clunkers are die hards when you take care of them properly. Hopefully you'll be able to find the missing tools.

Good luck with your search!