Thank you to everyone that helped me with my last posting.
I have a La Pavoni Europiccola circa late 70's. Now that I have learned how to use it, the machine works perfectly.
The finish on the machine is tarnished. The lacquer finish is missing in a lot of areas. Some areas look more brass than others. The cooper on the boiler has some green spots. The basin where the coffee drips is quite dirty and feels a bit pitted.
My son thinks that I should keep the machine showing its "patina of age". My question is: If I leave it like this will it eventually pit up and hurt the metal parts or will refinishing it extend its longevity?

My Europiccola (probably 1980s model) has chrome a plated brass boiler and group head which I don't think will be harmed if the chrome plating wore off however the base is made of chrome plated non-stainless steel.

That base was so rusted it had holes all the way around the perimeter where the boiler joined and jagged edges on the bottom where a rubber matt fitted.

I actually dremeled off my old boiler screw on ring (old fine thread version) to disassemble it because it was stuck so tightly. This was before I knew about using an oil filter remover but who knows it still may not have come off. Got lucky and found a used ring on ebay but now they sell them new for about $70 I would have bought it new if they had it then the used one works great though.

I did a lot of work attempting to fix up my old pitted, rusted base (removed rust and repaired about 3 times) and did a decent job but the rust kept comming back.

After repairs the rust would always come back on the lower edges and other places as well it was never bad but I did NOT want ANY RUST at all and nothing I did stopped it. So I bought a new base for about 100 dollars could be more or less I don't remember exactly and that took care of the rust.

I still have the old base but it just sits and looks nowhere near as good as the new one. My impression is once the steel base starts to rust it will spread quicker than I am comfortable with and eventually destroy the base.

If your old base is not as pitted and corroded as mine was maybe you can send it someplace to be stripped and baked powder coated in a color you like. Some people have reported that worked well and is a method that at least one reputable business known for restoring lever machines uses.


Oh watch out when using strong espresso machine cleaning detergents like Cafiza the stuff works great for cleaning coffee crud and oils but it will make quick work of discoloring the chrome on the machine if you let it sit Be warned from my dumb mistake.

Here are a few pictures of my machine when I got it. Since then I have cleaned it up and it looks pretty good. In the process of cleaning it I found the date of when it was manufactured when I removed the bottum lid from the base. It is a 1978 La Pavoni Europiccola. It works great. I did not take much of it apart to clean it since it doesn't leak any ware. I'll post some pictures of how well it cleaned up if anyone is interested. It was suggested to me that I use Barkeeper's Friend. I stated out with that but found it to be too abrasive. I cleaned it all with Brasso. It took a bit of elbow grease but it shined up pretty nice. There is still a little bit of pitting. It doesn't look like a new machine but I think it adds to its character.