orphanespresso wrote:Your curiosity about the Olympia timeline is understandable and relevant to a point....after all, the Olympia Express records were lost in the fire (from what I understand) and again, my understanding is that most if not all of the old timers from the original factory in southern Switzerland have retired (I know that the technicians who would have the information you are seeking did not move to the new factory in Glarus).

I have seen some general trends in the machine trimming and badge/color combinations. Most of the copper case machines I have seen have the old case badge (small aluminum art deco placed at the bottom corner of the back of the case) and these copper color cases are almost all on 220v machines or 220to 110 conversions. I have seen silver hammertone frames but usually with red cases. There are a variety of feet styles, with the square feet and chrome cover following round screw in feet, and then square with no chrome, and then rubber round push in feet. Currently using round bolt in feet.

There was a time, from my observation, that all of the 110v machines were conversions, with the element brazed in to the boiler base. These machines had the yellow power plug and the yellow power plug continued on 110v build machines from some time, going to a plug with the prongs out the side, some with a round plug as well. The strain relief also changes from a round push in to the two piece one still used today.

At some point the hammertone silver that had a red case was changed to brown for all the cases, brown or red, with white cases in the mid 80's through the early 90's. Black cases on black frame in the 90's along with the blue case machines (late 80's early 90's). Many of the black or blue machines had a plastic drip tray.

I see clearly that the time period you are focusing on is that with the copper color cases, as it would seem that the frame badges present contradictions in the model 67 numbering system, with some people thinking that they have very early machines built in 1967 with features that seem later, while the 220v conversions or other machines with the small frame badge actually look older than these large badge 67 serial numbers.

It is confusing but good that you are trying to sort it out. Like Olympia, I have not kept the kind of records that I should have (on paper) on the hundreds of machines I have seen to provide a database for investigating these quirks of Olympia machine history and my biological computer system contains a few corrupted files.

I think that the boilers were plated with a single layer or chrome, or even tinned by a dip plating method before they were coated with asbestos, thereby coating both inside and outside. I often soak the asbestos covered boiler in a solution of citric acid to both descale the boiler inside and remove the asbestos outside so the thin layer of plating dissolves in the asbestos removal process. It was not until the post asbestos period that the fit and finish of the boiler became important...again, there are two kinds of asbestos coating....the oldest one looks line sculpted whipped cream and has a kind of a skin on it and the second type is smooth and has no skin or shine. The later coating style is thinner and often when removed reveals a fairly ugly boiler, not shiny or well joined like yours.

Keep investigating and maybe a picture will emerge.....and by the way, I have made a few of the Frankenminas that you mention and this was usually to improve the machine....to high grade parts from two machines into a best machine due to worn parts or damaged cases. I have used different case badges to produce a better badge color to case color combination and sometimes modified the feet due to damaged or worn feet.....but have never changed the frame ID plate to make a machine seem older or more special in some way. There are ways to tell if a machine has been "made" by a shop or not and this is usually very obvious that something does not make sense....you get a feeling for this after a while.

I get machines in for rebuild or service that the owner says this or that about as far as maintenance but I always know the real story....I never say anything because it does not matter....the machine is in front of me to repair and when I take it apart and it is obvious that it has not been used in many years the owner report of "it was working just fine until last week. etc etc"....well, what is the point of it? I know when it is a valued in service machine and when it was picked up on ebay last week but knitting up a story for me does not change what needs to be done. I don't charge any less for a good story about how much a person loves their machine (after all, if they loved it so much they would have lubed the lever pins once in a while or even covered it with a rag before painting the kitchen!!!). But I am getting sidetracked here....Keep up the investigating !!!!

orphanespresso wrote:The early 90's saw a number of blue case models...some on a black frame, some with the painted on logo on the case instead of the applied rectangular badge....some of the blue case models are on a dark blue frame and a few have the face plate painted blue as well, not left chrome. The blue cases are usually semi gloss finish and not high gloss as in the browns and reds and these usually have red inserts in the steam knob and boiler cap (but the boiler cap is often missing the insert). The red inserts when present can grey out pretty badly but can be wet sanded back to color. One drawback of the dark blue is that with this paint they used a white color primer instead of the old orange/brown primer filler that they used before and any blem or scratch on the blue shows as a white mark and is really detracting from the overall appearance. They often have white marks on the top case edge where the chrome cap tightens against the case.

... the drip tray ... is plastic as many of the early 90's model...black matte finish plastic. The dull grips are usually from putting the pf particularly in the dishwasher and this generally will not polish out...dishwashering a portafilter is generally not a good idea unless you like dull grips. Some of the early 90's actually started out with a type of matte grip instead of the shiny thermoplastic that we are used to seeing...perhaps to make them more grippy, before the advent of the soft touch handles that are pretty common today.

drgary wrote:Hi Folks:

This is a simple question for my Cremina restoration. I've got an Olympia Express badge that I'm repairing. It originally had a red background and gold raised surfaces. Since I'm having the case powder coated in black, I was thinking of changing the badge color to a black background, and I've seen some that have that. But I haven't seen them up close. Is the raised portion on those gold or silver?.."

drgary wrote:Here's Clay Riley's 1975 Cremina with a white and red badge:

Boldjava wrote:Don't go by mine. I had a slight surface dent that the powder coating brought out that we weren't even aware of. The logo is now seated over it. It was in the upper left-hand corner; it now is in the lower right.