Thought I'd share my first complete restoration with the community, since its a pretty big accomplishment for me (I essentially learned how to do each step as i went), and because there is a surprising gap in photo evidence of the inner workings of these older Gaggia machines. So, with out further ado.....

Here is what I started with, at first glance it doesn't look to bad. The drip tray grate and the cup warmer grates were removed in this pic. This machine came from an estate sale, then I bought it on craigslist. The guy I bought it from had no info on it's history.



I think the previous owner used house paint to paint the exterior panels and the frame, and not sparingly:


here it is with all the hardware removed from the front. Side panels are also removed.



The backside of the front stainless panel really starts to tell the whole story--lots of rust and sloppy painting.


here is the frame behind the front panel. the pitting from the rust here is pretty signifigant, almost the worst i've seen on a machine, but there is still that lower panel....what could be behind that?

More rust is the answer. So much that the pitting was mm's deep in parts. rust removal was the absolute hardest part of this whole restoration. Lesson 1: take it to a sand blaster next time. I spent literally weeks scrubbing, grinding, and sanding to get the rust off, so $150 for sandblasting, in hindsight, is WELL worth it



here's what I was able to accomplish with all of my power tools. I fortunately was able to use a small sandblaster on the small parts and some of the frame to get the final parts clean.



Here's the "new" frame. I painted it with a Hammered finish rust-preventative spray paint. I'm really pleased with the results. you can still see the areas where the pitting was substantial.



Now it was on to polishing all the shiny stainless and non stainless parts. I used polsihing compounds and buffing wheels. This was also a learning experience. Here is a sample pre-polish:



And here it is after: I think that my drill didn't have enough oomph to really dig in and get all the fine scratches out of the stainless, but, nevertheless, I'm still very pleased with the results.

Next was cleaning all the working parts.

Here is the group head (this is just one of three that I was restoring at the same time). In my post about dialing in this machine, the middle "nut"---the large hex par on the group---is what is tightened to compress the stack of gaskets inside the group below, thereby creating the seal around the piston. I'm finding that tightening this to the proper level takes a few tries of pulling shots and checking the resistance on the spring.



Here's all three group heads taken apart (it doesn't look like it, but i took special care to keep all the parts separated by group). The other two are from the 1959 Gaggia America that I started on before I got distracted by the Orione. Turns out that there are very slight differences in the toothing of the pinion gear that you attach the lever handle to between the original '50's and the newer Orione (the pinion is sticking straight up from the top of the group in the first pic). In the white tray, on the right, is the actual piston, the stainless part is what makes the seal with the stack of gaskets. The threads on the top of this, when re-assembled, comes out the top of the group and is secured by the large nut and acorn nut on top (the brass ones in the first pic).



Here's an a shot of the stack of gaskets in the group head. They are arranged from left to right, and from top to bottom. The stack sits vertically starting with the left-most ring, with subsequent rings stacking underneath. From top to bottom, they are separated by material. The top is rubber, followed by brass, then fiber, then paper. This is how they were made originally, but since you can't get the fiber gaskets anymore, there's a workaround using two extra sets of the rubber and its corresponding brass o-ring.



Here's the exploded valve The brass piece in the middle actually unscrews at its widest point--i figured this out after nearly destroying the rubber o-ring that is supposed to sit recessed in it.



Here it is, assembled and shiny (this has the water fill handle on it, but all the valves on this machine are identical.)

Now i'm starting to put everything back together. You'll notice that I don't have the typical picture of the bucket of all the piping and the shiny results afterward. This is because all the piping was nickel plated, including the boiler, and polishing them seemed like overkill, I did however soak everything in citric acid, and polish all of the brass (i actually went over all of the plumbing with steel wool, but you wouldn't know it unless you saw it in person--its shiny I swear! )



I forgot to mention, but I updated the p-stat to a Sirai, and all of the wiring and cord to heavier gauge wires, since the old stuff was in pretty bad shape. Now that everything was re-plumbed and tightened, and all the wiring was checked, it was time to fire it up and see how many leaks i had. I was pleasantly surprised to find only one finicky leaky nut--the one for the top of the sight glass. I was not pleasantly surprised when i over tightened it.



Yes, I broke the sight glass while the machine was under pressure. I was very lucky to have been behind the machine, and that the steam and water were directed by the sight glass housing. My mistake was in not realizing that the front part of the sight glass housing is not secured by the frame (i thought it was recessed into the frame for support). The extent of the damage was a broken sight glass, about a gallon of boiling water flowing through my kitchen, which quickly filled the room with steam like a sauna, and i might have had a small heart attack when it initially broke, but all in all, i'm VERY lucky.

As it is now, the machine is up and running, but i'm waiting on some custom Cocobolo knobs and handles, so I'll leave you with a teaser shot of the back until I get the new handles....

What a beauty! Thanks for sharing.

looking great mike. i'll have a play with the various adjustments on a gaggia gr tonight in my workshop and get back to you re the tuning in.

Looks great! I picked up a 2gr Orione about a year ago that I have yet to start working on. Mine's from 1973, which I bought from a local Italian restaurant. Where did you source the gaskets for the group? Deluxe (formerly ABC)? I spoke to them once, briefly, but am now getting ready to restore it and would like more info on tearing down the groups. Any help would be great! Feel free to contact me via email.

Cheers,

Matt

Beautiful restoration! Congratulations.

Matt--just sent you an email

Hal--Thanks! still waiting for the custom handles, but she's pulling shots like a champ now (that is, when the operator is doing everything correctly

In pics 12 (right hand side of pic) and 13 (second from left) from the top - how did you remove the brass sleeve in the base of the grouphead? Does it unscrew, and if so, how?