The Swinging Sixties - Hotpoint Supermatic 1450

[supermaticjames]

Morning all,

On Thursday afternoon I took delivery of a very strange looking consignment and underneath all that packaging sat a lovely Hotpoint Supermatic 1450 from October 1966!

This was a model that I always wanted ever since I discovered the community here, it's those blue lids and sleek knobs with a touch of pink that I found attractive.

I have to admit it was a pricey purchase but I couldn't let it go knowing how seldom found they are now. It was listed on eBay as "not working" but that was a risk I had to take. I have a selection of spares and an entire 1464 to sacrifice to get it into tip-top condition. The 1450 was originally fitted with a metal outer spin can but these had the tendency to corrode. They were often replaced with plastic outer spin can in the form of a kit and my machine has been treated as such. It is evident that it was looked after by an official Hotpoint service engineer judging by the sticker on the back.

Structurally and cosmetically the machine is okay and it will clean up nicely. However the following problems exist:
The gearbox shaft floppy so a gearbox replacement or rebuild is on the cards.
All of the hoses need replacing.
The spinner bellows seal needs replacing.
The clutch shoes need replacing.

One thing that has me worried though is that with the gearbox shaft being floppy the gyrator was rubbing against the side of the heater well in the wash bowl. The enamel has been rubbed away but the metal isn't penetrated so it doesn't leak. How do I go about repairing this? I don't want to give up the original wash bowl. I'm hoping I can get paint in a similar colour but how do I treat the damage first of all.

I'm so happy to have one of these at last despite the work it needs.

James

 

[supermaticjames]

[No message]

 

[supermaticjames]

[No message]

 

[supermaticjames]

[No message]

 

[supermaticjames]

[No message]

 

[supermaticjames]

[No message]

 

[supermaticjames]

[No message]

 

[supermaticjames]

[No message]

 

[keymatic]

Hi James, congrats on your new toy..i am sure you will get it back to tip-top condition. These machines really take me back to 1990ish - we had a redundant one in the "textiles" room at school. It had hardly been used. I use to pull it out from under the sink unit and have a bit of a play before getting caught!!
Wish i had asked now if i could have had it.
Good luck !!
Keith

 

[supermaticjames]

Hi Keith,

It's nice to hear you have some sentimental thoughts about this model. Hopefully I'll be making memories with mine soon.

I spent the day stripping it down to the chassis so I've been very productive. I would love a scan of the user manual for this model if you or anyone else here owns one.

Regards

James

 

[supermaticjames]

An update is well overdue!

Finally, I'm now in a position to start rebuilding the machine after carrying out the majority of the work that was required.

The first issue I tackled was the gearbox. I've never worked on a gearbox before apart from that brief encounter with the one in my Hotpoint 15790 top loader. Basically, I had a choice of three gearboxes to use in this machine however all three of them had there own issues. The original gearbox had a worn gyrator driveshaft from being basically ran into the ground, otherwise this gearbox was quiet despite the oil having congealed (nasty!). The gearbox from the younger 1464 had no play in the gyrator driveshaft but it was noisy and I don't fancy a noisy but glamorous 1450. I also had a gearbox from a very young 9404 that I stripped for parts but that gearbox had the later nylon gear which was prone to wear and despite having no wear and having no play in the gyrator driveshaft I didn't fancy taking a risk with the nylon gear so back into the spares cupboard that gearbox goes. In the end up I went down the surgery route and transferred the 1450 gears into the 1464 gearbox which was a fairly straightforward but messy job as the gears were identical. The result is a quiet 1450 gearbox with no gyrator driveshaft play.

The second issue I tackled was the damaged enamel in the wash tub. I needed a paint that could stop any rust, that was water-resistant and was available in a similar shade of grey as the original enamel on the tub. 15 minutes spent in Homebase and I came out with some Rust-Oleum spray paint that ticked all the boxes. It isn't a perfect match to the enamel but it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb so I'm happy and hopefully it does it's job.

Those were the two major jobs out of the way so I proceeded to fit a replacement wash motor as the original didn't work when tested, possibly due to the aforementioned gearbox issue. Luckily the relay wasn't ruined so I went ahead and fitted the wash motor from donated by the 1464.

The two original pumps had their leaky cork gaskets replaced with a generous application of silicone. I have plenty of spare moulded plastic pumps but I like trying to keep the original parts going for as long as possible and it's nice to know that a machine still has some of its original parts.

I then had to source a new support tube and seal...

 

[supermaticjames]

Cue new support tube!

This was a lucky find, it's very hard to obtain alloy support tubes now. These alloy support tubes were much more solid than the later plastic ones but they can corrode like the support tubes in the Hotpoint top loaders which is a drawback but I don't think I will face that problem for many years to come. The 1450 would have originally had an alloy support tube when built but mine obviously had it replaced with a plastic one. As far as I know, the plastic support tube was introduced on the 1467 and 1469 in the 1970s so the 1450, 1460 and 1466 definitely had an alloy one when built.

 

[supermaticjames]

Currently the machine looks like this but not for much longer.

James

 

[supermaticjames]

[No message]

 

[supermaticjames]

That's better! Some polishing to be done the next day and I'll be finished.

James

 

[supermaticjames]

[No message]

 

[supermaticjames]

[No message]

 

[supermaticjames]

[No message]

 

[slowspin66]

Service info

Dear James these machines are really fantastic and the washing results are brilliant .i have one of the 1450s which is still one of my favourites to use. When I get chance I have a paper copy of the service info which I will get scanned onto the computer and send to you. . Really nice little job you have done another great machine saved. Perhaps if you get chance you may get a chance to do a video. Well done Darren