On Modifying old cleaners....
Charlie,
My very first Air-Way that I ever owned was the Sanitizor 66. One of the very first thing that I did, besides replacing the cord was add a powernozzle outlet. I did this by cutting out a small rectangle on the left handside, facing the machine; and pushing thru the non-stock opening an inlet connector for a Hoover Celebrity QS Series . I then added a very plain Eureka Built powerhead with a woodgrained applique across the front that was from a Rexair D2 series, and after carefully rubbing off the Rexair logo, and stenciling Air-Way, I was off and running. For the hose I used a crushproof hose that a long dead Tri-Star once had. this gave me a 9-10 ft. hose attached to the ferrules.
What I found tho to do this was many harbingers to deal with. For example, the ferrule that the original hose had to connecft hose to cleaner was too short but worked okay. I had to used a MUCH longer pigtail from cord to machine, than was supplied originally. So a brown FilthyQueen pigtail was used and provided sufficient length. thankfully the hose/wand end ferrule worked perfectly, and the cord from the Eureka head reached this connection without additional lenghts needed.
I also found that, in order to get the power from the side body connection, down towards the bottom where the switch and cord enter and are affixed to the lower motor housing....that I had to drill a 1/4 inch hole in the aluminum beltline motor support to push a 3 ft. Hoover convertible cord to the upper outlet secured with wire nuts and a generous amount of electrical tape. I attached the black wire of the convertible cordto the black wire coming from the cord that also ran a lead to the motor. The white wire of the convertible cord, attached to the other wire leading from the switch to the motor, the wite wire from the cord being connected to the white lead of the powerswitch.
IN ALL IT ALL WORKED WELL, AND I WASN'T ELECTROCUTED!!!!!
Later in my collecting life, I chose to dissconnect all of that and remove the plug and replace the hose with the blue hose of a Royal Powertank, and use just the original wand and nozzle supplied when I obtained it. Which were actual stock. The reason for this , was I was going to give it to Jeff Parker as he was trading it for something else I believe....my mind's fuzzy as that happened nearly 10 years ago.
Anywho, I repeated the process, much better this time tho to the Air-Way 88 Mark II that I recieved from another vacuum cleaner collector a few years later. I still have this machine, and it's a joy to use becasue it has a Douglas Powerhead on it, that I purchased strictly becasue it was the current AIR-WAY powerhead, and becasue I was VERY unable to find an ABC nozzle that was also used...not to mention the Eureka head that you have showed to me thru the pictures you posted awhile back..
Another thing, I was able to retain the braided hose look by using a last of a NOS Compact braided blue hose, the original ferrules and hard plastic hose jackets that are that hard to find aqua color...and transffered the power via a Electrolux model G hose cord and straps. (Between machine and Powerhead)..the cord coming from the powerhead was white like the head itslef. In allit looks good runs good, and makes me happy as I myslef converted it to be modern and vintage all at the same time.
Good for you. You did a splendid job.
And for those who may pooh pooh such a conversion...let it be known that Metropolitan Vacuum, did these Electrolux conversions for years...using the Douglas powerhead and Eureka Spiral bound hose. Spiegel for example sold these "refurbs" to the public for very attractive prices. And YES the model 60 was included and offered a powerhead option, just as Charlie has done to his machine.
Yours
Chad
