Category Archives: Uncategorized

Bringing Life back to A 1970s Kitchen Aid Mixer

One of my friends had a mixer his mother used for many years and he wanted to get it running again after it stopped working. Knowing I like a challenge and like to fix things he asked me if I could look at it and get it running again.

Tearing it down since I had no idea if it had been taken apart or if it was all there I discover a really well built mixer…

A K45 Kitchen Aid mixer, circa 1970

Electrical had a wire that had fallen out of the wire nut… I soldered the connections and taped them off, not the cleanest, but it made sure they won’t come apart.

You can’t see it but one of the red wires is not in the bundle.

Old grease and clean up of the old grease will definitely reduce the load on the motor.

Since the age of the grease is approximately 50 years old, I decided to take out as much as I could and clean all the mechanical gearing.

So after cleaning, fixing the stator brush: ‘A carbon brush, also known as a motor brush, is the small part of the motor that conducts electrical current between the stationary wires (stator) and the rotating wires (rotor) of a motor or generator. ‘

And of course making sure all the wires were soldered together, a quick plug into the GFI outlet, a flick of the power lever, a soft smell of ozone after arcing the motor…. the mixer came alive!

One other issue I forgot to explain, the bar on the power switch was bent, so moving the power lever to 1 or 2 never made the switch make contact…. I bent the metal bar that is seen above so that the switch makes contact as soon as the power lever is pushed into the ‘1’ speed position, thus making the electrical path.

This was one of the first things I look for when repairing old electronics is the power switch and the contacts… some get worn out, due to arcing and a build up of carbon deposits, if you can see the pads, you can clean them, but in this case it is a sealed switch. Sometime there is a mechanical interface issue, (which was in this case) or sometimes the switch is just broken.

A $60 Box

So taking a chance on ebay, I bought a $60 box full of vintage LEGO bricks… what I got was a gold mine. I had a break on Friday from working on the car and spent the day researching and then building 6 Vintage LEGO kits!

The day before I bleached and cleaned every part after sorting by color and they all seemed in really good condition and not much wear on any of the peices, so i was very happy with the purchase.

Cleaning the blue pieces in the deep sink.

The Police station, of course these hits were all before the mini figures got movable arms and hands and legs that moved.

The fire house.

The helo and white are is from a different set.

The rock quary

A few missing pieces but i will dig through my own collection to get this one finished.

From my own collection the windmill which would have been in the same time frame from the ones I built out of this ebay purchase.

LEGO kit 362 Windmill 1975

And the last one is an even older police station with Helicopter.

354: Police Heliport (1972)168 pieces.

Police car, helicopter, and a police station.

Closer in scale to the Town Plan sets than modern minifig scale builds.

I think I have one more kit to build out of this ebay score and i think it is the Lunar landing!

I will write more about that one once I get it built.

Progress is a slow process but it is still progress!

With a long weekend and time at home I was able to get much more accomplished on the Stuka… headliner, pillar vinyl and seals. I have parts come in weekly as I can find them and have been cleaning and polishing as I go.

The wrinkles will be easy to push out once I have cut the hole for mounting the rear view Mirror, but the headliner is done!

The trick is to use a heat gun after everything has had a chance to settle and the windows, seals and everything in place. I will then go in and heat up the areas with small wriinkles and help tighten the headliner.

Rear passenger side seal is in, and now I know the trick to get them seated in under a half hour!

The interior panels are in and making the car look much ,ore like a car!

The new headline looks so nice, I feel bad even cutting it to put in the handles.
Handle number one! Back seat passenger side!

More work, but I feel like it has been a good weekend getting the stuff done at a good pace.

More photos of the same stuff:

The new glue I purchased for the headliner works great!
The new pillar vinyl looks great and really makes it look like a new car.

Grills, lights and Kidneys!

Front grill with LED strip lighting

This weekend I got a few more items done on the stuka. I had worked the head lights a while back but wanted to add a cool feature tot he front of the car that required I keep the grills off until I got the strip of LED lights mounted in the front top of the engine bay.

It will be hooked up to the head light switch so they will only power on if I have the head lights on. The center kidney grill looks good with a bit of light to highlight the over 50 years of the signature double ovals!

other side of the car with the LED strip on

Quarter window BMW E10

This was one of the hardest seals to get into the car so far… I had no problem putting the chrome on with the rivets… or the window seal with the four screws in the bracket holding the window… it was the seal… it just would not sit in the channel nor could i just push it in… might have to research some tips or tricks for all the seals.

New Rubber Gaskets

This was an easy fix to all old rubber seals that needed to be replaced, I bought a dozen packages of the rubber sheets, mark them out and trace, then I use an a razor blade to cut them out. Once on the car with a thin plastic backing to protect the paint, (this plastic will be removed after I cut to the correct size) behind the rubber, I then trim to exact fit!

Progress! Lights… camera… Dash!

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I brought in the tail light assemblies last night to clean. All torn apart, ready for new gaskets and cleaned…

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Cleaning the tail assemblies

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New tail assembly seals….

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Trunk seal done… Chrome and tail lights… everything fits perfect!

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Checked all the lights in the tail….turn lights and brake where swapped… easy fix, just swap the spade connection.

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Found my AZ plate… was put in a box and then moved…

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Dash is removed… cleaning as I go

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Gonna make a new center console… will look similar but will have new center cover.DSC_0757

This heater vent will be replaced by one from the other donor car.

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Head lights in and working

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Turn signals installed… and working

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Dash crack and rot scrapped out and will fill and sandDSC_0763

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More rot and cracks taken out and will fill with a glue saw dust mixture before sanding out all bumps.

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More later…. gonna cover the dash with all new vinyl to cover both dash pieces.

Headliner replacement

Tore out the old one marking each rib for placement into the new liner.

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The original foam still looked good after 50 years so I left it up, no need to get that crap all over the place trying to rip it out.

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New headliner in the house with the ribs.

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cleaning all the edges for the new glue

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Looking forward into the cabinIMG_2581IMG_2582

Placement and dry fit.

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tomorrow I will start the process of cutting and gluing. I Know I have a lot of work ahead, but doing it each day for a few hours and taking my time I should have a really nice show 2002 BMW!

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The painting is complete!

Getting my 1968 BMW 2002 back from the shop on July 25, 2020 allows me to work on the rest of the car each weekend for the foreseeable future.

The old head liner is shot and will replaced. I am sure that in the next few weekends I will have a lot more photos to post…

A few other major tasks I am going to do is the interior… redo the dashboard, fill cracks and cover.

Other tasks will be getting all the seals and glass back in, next the door and trunk seals, the last part will be getting all the seats in. And saving the chrome and bumper for last… the paint looks incredible and nice and clean repairs have really made the car look new.