Fatboy repair

Ben88

Ben88

Messages
708
Location
South East
Gents,

Does anyone here know someone that might be able to repair my Gilette Fatboy? I managed to drop it in the bathroom this evening

I seem to have managed to knock one of the silo doors off the hinge. Until I relocate that I can't assess if there is any other damage. I can provides photos if required.

Thanks
 
Captain Murphy here in the US is the only person that comes to mind.

That guy does things with razors you wouldn't believe. For a fun afternoon project he once put a super adjustable tto knob on a slim...
 
Fatboys are fairly easy to put back into shape ......... Getting the door on will be a doddle, but you have to make sure you haven't bent the safety bars, centre bar / push rod assemblies out of whack when you dropped it.

First off, look inside the end of the handle. 1958 (D), '59 (E) and earlier issue '60 (F) models had a threaded cap in there. You can tell them apart by the two notches on either side of the cap. These allow you to get a tool of some description in there and unscrew the cap. Once that's off, you can strip down and do pretty much what you want with the razor insofar as bending it back true is concerned ..... including refitting the door to the hinge with relative ease. If you have a later model, however .... then the cap is press fitted, crimped and, unless you have the right tools and technique, you won't be stripping that one down as you'll never get it back together again.

Let us know which one you've got....... throw a few pics up, if you can ........ and we should be able to help you :)
 
That is the sorry truth of the matter. YOU CAN recrimp the later fat boy and slims but it takes patience and skill. Its why I thought my E4 in mint physical condition was really worth 60$.
 
You should be able to pop that silo door arm back onto it's pivot lug with a little leverage, just depends if or what's been bent out of shape as to whether it'll remain in place and line up correctly.
 
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Thanks Ant. I was hesitant of forcing the door arm back into the locating position as it felt like it would need significant pressure and I didn't want to warp the metal. As it turns out a little tweak of the pliers seems to have done the job! Everything seems to line up and operate correctly so maybe I got lucky?!
 
When you close the doors (slowly) observe (closely) to see if everything is in alignment and that both doors sit evenly on either side of the center and that also the gap is even on either side. As well, does it have the last "hard" 1/4 turn when you close it completely? However, the latter may be because you have never totally disassembled it to clean decades of soap scum & hair out of the "guts".

P.S. Just to be safe, let your ex mother-in-law have the first shave. ;)
 
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