The machine I have is different than others I have seen on here and elsewhere. The group head seems different than the Romana, Ponte Vecchio machines. It has hex screws on the top of he group and if you remove them the piston and lever can be easily removed as one unit.
The machine works fine but there is some rust on the chassis, evidence of leaking seals on the boiler element and pressurestat and other signs that indicate the entire thing should be disassembled and rebuilt.
So far I have managed to rebuild the group head with a new shower screen seal (from a La Pavoni Europiccola- seemed a perfect fit, and lube of the original piston seals (2 seals- one v section and one 'double v section seal, clean piston etc. I replaced the sight glass seals with silicon seals (also Pavoni). Now I have removed the boiler- I am about to attempt to remove the element- it seems a little stiff.
I am just wondering- how should I clean the boiler? Can the element be replaced if it is defective- or worn out? Any thing I should be looking out for?
Also the machine seems to have been plumbed in- there is no bakelite cap on the boiler- just a nut. I need a new cap- or to come up with some new type of cap. I am tempted to cut a hole in the stainless cup holder top and have the bakelite filler knob above the tray- it seems a bit crappy to have to remove the tray to fill the boiler- and the spout hole is quite small- seems like it would be easy to spill water into the machine and hasten corrosion, etc. Any one have any ideas about a solution for this?
here are pics showing the machine as it is reduced to its parts:
here are some pics:











