Hi all,

I recently saw a series by Bishop Thirteen _AKA_ Sean, and saw his beautiful restoration and it gave
me the courage to tackle one too.

I just purchased an old, (any ideas here) La Pavoni 2 group machine,
it was put away wet, the previous owner said the sight glass broke and he put it in storage. It had
a model tag, Model 4000, the serial number is: 11553






The tank was FULL of calcium deposits, and the electronics boards have some corrosion as well.

1) how do I clean the tank, and should I remove and clean all of the copper tubes as well?
I have not removed all of the fittings from the tank as yet either, should I do that too?


2) the heating element seems to be welded to the tank as well, how do I separate it without damage? Then how do I clean it?

3) how do I identify the unit and can I still get parts like the gaskets etc.?

Here a few more pics of some of the subassemblies

Here is the nasty boiler:


Here is the end plate with heating element


I will post progress as well.


Thanks in advance

A warm citric acid solution soak should dissolve the scale.... to be honest, its not that bad. You could have so much scale that it "explodes" the element. I'm not sure if you need to take precautions on maintaing that nickel plating... anyone?

I'd remove and soak all bits that you feel comfortable taking off/apart.

On the element, try again after the soak... you might have a case of disimilar metals interacting however.

For restoration pointers, be sure to check out http://www.espresso-restorations.com/

On parts, try a call to EspressoParts.com or peruse CafeParts.com. Google SREWeb (warning bad web page design), their parts guy was super informative when I got him on the phone and directed me to other folks that he knew.

Hey Jeff,

Thanks for the info and kind support. I am about to go get some citric acid from my local
brewing suppler. Also, is is advisable to re=chrome stuff, or just polish and use them?

Thanks to your tip, I found a source for the main boiler gasket, and with further disassembly
will find a need for a few more bits and pieces.

Also, any ideas on the age of this little beauty?

Thanks

Here are a few more pics of some progress:

I have de-scaled the boiler and associated parts and pipes

Cleaned and painted the frame

I have one of the group heads out for re-chroming, $$$ I am going to buy new replacements
it is less expensive than re-chroming

I am waiting on some small parts I ordered






The "brain" had some corrosion on one of the circuit boards, I think I cleaned it successfully,
also one of the edge connectors has a marginal pin, I might have to replace that.

I have about $50.00 into parts, paint, and citric acid. I will get a bill for the other gaskets
fittings, etc.

My next challange is wiring up the motor and plumbing in H20, any offers of help appreciated.

Making Progress:

Wired my garage for 220 and am having water plumbed in this week

Also should be receiving most of my parts tommorow.

Still would like to polish out the stainless steel, any ideas on how to do that?

hi denny,

SS - is this currently a brushed or mirror finish? For mirror I use a good metal polish and a damp wadded piece of cheese cloth (mutton cloth etc, sorry I don't know if it goes by that name in the US). To restore a brushed finish I use wet/dry sandpaper of increasingly finer grades and a straight edge. I sand going over the length of the piece using a clamped piece of straight wood as a guide.

A little comment about your wiring - you may wish to enclose your wires in fibreglass sheathing to protect them from the heat. I would sheath them in bundles rather than individually.

great work, looking very nice.

I used a car buffer, started with buffing compound (gritty stuff), then polishing compound (less gritty stuff) then polish (like Mothers or Eagle 1 mag polish) then waxed a couple of times, all using the buffer. My machine had brushed SS so I ran the buffer with the grain of the stainless and got a nice shine back.

Faema Rebuild Project

Thanks for SS polishing tips guys.

Got the plumbing and power in... Hooked up the water, turned on the machine, it got
very hot in about 10 seconds. WOW Leaked like an s.o.b. ! Managed to stop most
of the leaks, it hit the green zone on the pressure gauge, but no action when I pushed
any of the buttons on the front. I removed and cleaned the edge connectors on all of
the little pcb's in the controller box, found one of the pins was almost gone. Found an unused
pin, so I put it in place.

Now it will dispense water through the groupheads, but does not activate the external
pump , I suspect it's the relay on the main pcb. The pump works by itself.

Another issue, I replaced the sight glass, and put in new seals, etc, but it did not show
any level when I turned on the water. It just kind of steamed around the top fitting.

Any ideas on this?

Thanks again for your help and suggestions

Hi Denny,

sight glass - I betcha the bottom fitting is blocked, either from a compressed rubber seal or some hidden gunk.

electrics - best of luck, hope it's easily repaired.

There is a ball valve in the lower tube on most machines, it could be stuck. My rebuild, the lower tube was completely scaled shut.