Malcolm's restoration busines idea
That's a really good idea Malcolm. I used to have such a business in the 1990s, which is where I got much of my working experience on these machines. It was strictly a hobby, I did it in my spare time out of my garage, and for the most part I loved every minute of it, at least early on. I eventually rebuilt (or mostly so) something like 55 or 56 WPs and Kenmores, 1967 to 1986 models.
I had intended to do this ever since my Dad and I put a basket drive in our '74 Kenmore in 1981. I felt it was too soon to dispose of the washer, nor did I want to let it go to scrap (I didn't know there were rebuild shops then) so I talked my parents into trying to fix it, AFTER Mom had bought a new, but as yet undelivered machine. We succeeded, I was ecstatic, and long story short, I decided that I would do the same work on other machines when I had my own house since both parents flat-out said "NO!" to the idea of doing this at home when I was 16.
I enjoyed it from fall 1990 to about 1997. I worked out a deal with Sears in Charlotte for my washer buddy/mentor to pick-up all their haul-aways, and we saved countless hundreds of machines from the Sears compactor. Of those, my buddy and a colleague of his worked on them full time for many years, and I got to pick from what was left, especially when he was overloaded. That is where some of my machines that I have today came from, including the 1974 machine on the left of the twin pair in this post.
I could go out to the garage on a Saturday morning and start on a machine, and stay out there ALL DAY until it was dark. Never ate anything, no phone, no socializing, just the radio (1960s oldies mostly which today remind me of washer work) the machine, and me. What a way to blow a whole day!
In the mid 90s I moved across town, and stopped spending so much time with my friend (I feel bad about that to this day). I kept working on my own, and had enough business that word of mouth referrals sold every machine I could complete. It became less fun and more work, and finally the last machine I sold, which I worked on when I had bronchitis only to get a nagging referral off my back, sapped the last enthusiasm I had and I put all the rest of my machines in the infamous storage trailer and the rest was done history until I found AW.org in very early 2008.
I would love to find homes for many of these machines now. I got many of them to save from the crusher or because it was too easy not to. However, I don't want to recreate the "work" that they were toward the end last time, and I am not sure many people here would be willing to wait for me to get them a machine ready on my schedule. Time will tell - I have a couple machines including both the coppertone machines in this post, the 63 and the 72, that I want to get running this spring and summer. I have the '64 Lady and the other '61 70 that I must do soon too. After those, if there is something in my collection that someone would like that I don't want to keep, I'd be all for it. I think this year is going to be a good year for washer work, at least I hope and that's how it feels, so we'll see.
Gordon
