LENCO - GL75 Project - PART II 8-<>

[Wakefield Turntables]

Yep another lenco. I'm restoring a really sorry mess of a deck. Should be fun going over old ground. I love these old Lenco decks. I guess it's a case of deja-vu, should make an interesting read for some of you. As ever, stay tuned..

[brian2957]

Yup, this is one for me Andrew. Mind the pics please :D

[Wakefield Turntables]

OK Brian. Lots of pics. I'm still waiting for this to be delivered. This is one that I'll be selling once it's finished. It's going to be another nuts and bolts resto!

[brian2957]

Thanks Andrew, i look forward to it. I am probably going to get the GL75 out of its box this summer and might find a few pointers here, so I'll be watching this thread :)

[Wakefield Turntables]

It's arrived, therefore it shall begin.....

[Marra]

Signed in and popcorn bought.

[brian2957]

+1 :)

[Wakefield Turntables]

Signed in and popcorn bought.

Good, should be a decent journey.


+1 :)

Ah, Brian, nice to see you on board again.

[Jimbo]

Always good to see Lenco restoration.:)

[Jac Hawk]

Never had the pleasure of working on a Lenco, i'll read with interest Andrew

[Wakefield Turntables]

Always good to see Lenco restoration.:)


Never had the pleasure of working on a Lenco, i'll read with interest Andrew

Nice to see more peeps along for the ride. :eek:

[Wakefield Turntables]

Pt I - Lets get the party started.

So the deck arrived and I decided to start on the bearing. Here's what I did. This is a list of things that I offer when I do bearing refurbishments for customers.

Completely dismantling the bearing.
Cleaning old oil from the intrinsic shaft of the bearing and then cleaned out.
Thrust plate examination and replacement (if needed)
Spindle cleaned and polished (removes old oil and scratches).
Ball bearing checked and polished or replaced if needed.
Mounting screws ultrasonically cleaned and hand polished.
Bearing housing ultrasonically cleaned.
Bearing housing professionally polished.
New oil change with our specially formulated oil.
Replacement felt oil "O" ring (if needed).

So, here's what it looked like.

https://i.ibb.co/Vtt9t9p/WP-20210404-006.jpg


And after it got stripped down.

https://i.ibb.co/tc8Z8xL/WP-20210404-007.jpg

And then the components got a 24 hour soak in our special oil that we had formulated.

https://i.ibb.co/Nx5cgsm/WP-20210404-008.jpg

I polished the spindle and the bearing housing.

https://i.ibb.co/2FcvP6V/WP-20210404-011.jpg


Bearing now completely assembled and ready for another 45 years!

https://i.ibb.co/7bGCkZS/WP-20210404-009.jpg

The deck was in a sorry state. It needs for new mounting bolts. These are 20 minutes work to make, not difficult. It does indeed spin. I had to rewire the motor and get rid of the dodgy wiring but everything turns. The motor is very quiet which is a bonus but it will still get a service when the time comes. The platter was scratched to hell, it's had a first run polish but still needs some work.

We have a video over on www.facebook.com/wakefieldaudio (http://www.facebook.com/wakefieldaudio) please like us, or even follow us!

Stay tuned..

[brian2957]

Wow!..that bearing looks like brand new Andrew. Excellent work :)

You're right, the GL75 does look a bit of a state, but I'm pretty sure you'll turn it into something special :)

[Jimbo]

Got my spindle looking new but the housing looks like I just took it out the dump compared to yours!:eek:

[Wakefield Turntables]

Wow!..that bearing looks like brand new Andrew. Excellent work :)

You're right, the GL75 does look a bit of a state, but I'm pretty sure you'll turn it into something special :)

I've had worse, the Goldring G99 I restored was in a hell of a state!



Got my spindle looking new but the housing looks like I just took it out the dump compared to yours!:eek:

Thanks. The platter mat and the platter now look very similar.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Part II - Easy like Monday evening.....

I did a lot more work on the deck today. I completely stripped the Lenco down to it's top chassis. Everything has been separated ready for re-installation when the time comes. The paintwork was too far gone for a gentle refurbishment so I've started to strip this off which will probably take a couple of 2 hour sessions. I've noticed some corrosion under where the platter sits but hopefully this will be removed with some wet and dry. I've also removed the faceplate, again too far gone for salvage. I'm also going to fill in some of the chassis where the old tone arm lived but I'm leaving the original hole so that the future purchasers of this deck can install something of there own choice. The Lenco is versatile in that it will happily accept more Jelco, some older Linn and Ortofon arms. The platter mat got refurbished as well, it now looks mint, just like the bearing. Hopefully the deck will be fully stripped in the next couple of days. I think I'm going to do a midnight black paint job. I post some more pictures tomorrow. Stay tuned...

[Jimbo]

Excellent looking forward to pic updates.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Pt 3 - Strip Show

The Lenco now known as 7000 (it's serial No) has been stripped. As we can see everything is sitting in little plastic pots. Idler arm and motor awaiting servicing and refurbishment.

https://i.ibb.co/7rTq6VL/WP-20210405-019.jpg

7000 has some pretty bad areas of scraping and corrosion, nothing too complicated but still need to be fixed.


https://i.ibb.co/5h1z21Y/WP-20210405-009.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/hCSjyWz/WP-20210405-008.jpg

And finally 7000 is totally naked with all her bits removed.

https://i.ibb.co/1fy1wjc/WP-20210405-021.jpg

There is a new videoclip of the fully refurbished bearing over on www.facebook.com/wakefieldaudio

I'll try and get around to doing the idler arm tomorrow and finish removing the dodgy paint job from the top plate.

Stay tuned....

[brian2957]

That top plate is in a bit of a state. What's the plan for that Andrew?

[Jimbo]

Proper restoration job and great to see how it all begins.

[Wakefield Turntables]

That top plate is in a bit of a state. What's the plan for that Andrew?

Repair the corrosion, fill in a few holes, then a complete respray.


Proper restoration job and great to see how it all begins.

Thanks! :cool:

[brian2957]

Any chance of detailing how you respray the top plate Andrew. Type of undercoat and top coats. I've seen your previous work and it looks excellent.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Any chance of detailing how you respray the top plate Andrew. Type of undercoat and top coats. I've seen your previous work and it looks excellent.

ok, I'll do that in a later post.

[brian2957]

Thanks Andrew :)

[Wakefield Turntables]

Pt IV - Nice and clean!

I've not really shown 7000 any love or attention over the weekend. I've been looking after a poorly Lenco PTP 5. So, I've got a few pictures to show the current state of affairs. Firstly I have polished out the corrosion to the top plate. Lots of wet and dry have really fetch up the top plate and this should make for a pretty good paint job.

https://i.ibb.co/N7RBgbR/WP-20210409-003.jpg

I've saved the transit screws. They looked a little worse for wear and the paint was chipped.

https://i.ibb.co/wS0JM0b/WP-20210409-001.jpg

A little later and I've painted them back to the original colour. I saved the circlips as they were in perfect condition.

https://i.ibb.co/G5VxNX9/WP-20210409-002.jpg

I polished the rim of the platter but I'm not happy with the finish so I'll redo this at some point. Hopefully, I should have the top plate primed and ready for re-spray. Stay tuned.

[brian2957]

That's a very thorough job Andrew. You could almost use that top plate as is :)

[Wakefield Turntables]

That's a very thorough job Andrew. You could almost use that top plate as is :)

Yes I have thought about doing something like that.