Gillette Fatboy Restoration

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509
Location
Peterborough
Well my next project is the legendary Fatboy. I bought this one a few weeks ago with the sole idea of learning of to disassemble, prep, plate, reassemble and paint the numbers in, so this should be an interesting learning curve! Here's what it looked like after a good long soak in the ultrasonic tank.



Right the first thing to do is release the retaining cap in the base of the handle. This particular cap is the crimped variety rather than the screw on type. So to remove this we need a 6mm socket and a hammer. I've just used a photographic clamp to hold the razor in place, but anything that will free up both your hands will do. Place the socket against the cap and hit the end of it gently with the hammer. Make sure you hold the socket against the cap after you've hit it as behind it is a spring which will take great delight in firing the cap across the room!



Here's a close up of the cap and spring.




This gives you a bit of an idea of how much crud was behind the cap, and this is after it's had several washes in the ultrasonic cleaner!!



The next stage is to simply pull the door mechanism out from the handle, this can offer a bit of resistance, depending on just how much soap etc is hiding down there!



With the assembly totally removed, this is going to need some serious cleaning once it's apart! Yuk!!!

 
Next it's time to remove the TTO knob, so first thing is to tape the handle assembly.



Then clamp it in a workbench (please excuse the roughness of the wooden block, I'll sort that out for the next one!) and then carefully grip the TTO knob with some mole grips and, well, hit the grips with a hammer!



The knob should come of fairly easily, although it may take a couple of hits...start gentle!!




782sirbrian said:
Looks like an Executive adjustable to me the knurling is slightly different to the Fatboy and of course the Executive was Gold plated.
Are you going to re plate in Gold ? The Gold ones are more valuable... interesting to see the works.

Busted, yep it is indeed an Executive. I can't plate in gold so this one is going to be clad in nickel.


Next it's the head assembly, so time to bring out our trusty spreader!





So there we are, TTO knob off door assembly out and head off.




Now it's just a case of unscrewing the adjustment assembly retaining collar.



Sliding off the adjustment ring.



Removing the adjustment spring.




And then sliding apart the remaining two parts of the base plate assembly.



And there we have it a disassembled Executive ready for a long soak in the ultrasonic cleaner before it gets some well earned attention from some wet and dry!! Bearing in mind that I ran this particular razor through the ultrasonic tank several times before this strip down I'm suprised at the amount of crud hidden in the various sections!

 
Thanks for sharing. I have wanted to strip down my fatboy for ages but after seeing that, even though you made it look easy, I may just leave as is. Cant wait to so it finally done.
 
Roy_Drage said:
Excellent another one I'm looking forward to seeing the end product. It's amazing how the crud is able to end up being so tightly packed in the inside of the Razor.

Thanks. Yes I was a little suprised, I'm sure it will benefit greatly from just being stripped down and reassembled, above and beyond the replate :)

olebluenose said:
Very interesting and informative. Thanks again for sharing.

Thanks

pingpong said:
Thanks for sharing. I have wanted to strip down my fatboy for ages but after seeing that, even though you made it look easy, I may just leave as is. Cant wait to so it finally done.

If you fancy drop me a PM and I'm sure we can sort out a Fatboy servicing package, strip down, clean, set blade gap, rebuild, that sort of thing :)
 
Sorry it's been a while, the spa is all of a sudden pleasingly busy :)

Had time to prep and plate this old girl today, all that's left now is some painting and then some reassembly :)

Here she is all shiny, not perfect, but considering the mess she was to start with not too bad :)


 
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