# Late 70s/early 80s Europiccola rebuild



## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

Saw this advertised a couple of hours ago and grabbed it straight away - couldn't resist the lure of a brown Europiccola in a relatively good condition.

Element works on both settings, minimal rust under the drip tray and chrome seems good on the whole!

Not sure when I'll get round to sorting it out but I'll get the parts on order in the week 😊


----------



## KTD (Dec 28, 2017)

MartinB said:


> Saw this advertised a couple of hours ago and grabbed it straight away - couldn't resist the lure of a brown Europiccola in a relatively good condition.
> Element works on both settings, minimal rust under the drip tray and chrome seems good on the whole!
> Not sure when I'll get round to sorting it out but I'll get the parts on order in the week
> 
> <img alt="IMG_20200831_183331.thumb.jpg.5bb02e627d32303dff5025dc7b995309.jpg" data-fileid="44646" data-src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2020_08/IMG_20200831_183331.thumb.jpg.5bb02e627d32303dff5025dc7b995309.jpg" src="https://www.coffeeforums.co.uk/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">


Looks like a good one, where did you pick that up from?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

KTD said:


> Looks like a good one, where did you pick that up from?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


 Saw it on FB Marketplace 👍


----------



## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

After having bad luck simply trying to remove the upper sight glass retainer plug (felt like it was welded in!) i'm going to do a 'restomod' with it and fit the grouphead, heating element, Pressure-stat, wiring & gauge from my broken post-millennium Gaggia Factory - I _think _it should all fit but if it doesn't then i'll of course rebuild with the original components.

The base is firmly attached to the boiler so that's a blessing and minimal rust to worry about. A few areas would benefit from some TLC but other than that for a 35-40 year old machine she is very solid!


----------



## Morningfuel (May 19, 2016)

Lovely, looking forward to this.


----------



## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

Fully stripped of its parts now - just the donor machine to carefully take apart later and get some seals & washers on order


----------



## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

MartinB said:


> Fully stripped of its parts now - just the donor machine to carefully take apart later and get some seals & washers on order
> 
> View attachment 44826


 Paint the base


----------



## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

coffeechap said:


> Paint the base
> 
> View attachment 44847
> 
> ...


 I'd love to but taking the base off is beyond me right now! I'll get her up and running and see what's cracking. Tempted to send off for powder coating. Stripped the donor machine down this evening. Everything looks like it'll swap over in terms of element, wiring and switch. Mocked up the sight glass bracketry whilst I await seals...


----------



## TomHughes (Dec 16, 2019)

MartinB said:


> I'd love to but taking the base off is beyond me right now! I'll get her up and running and see what's cracking. Tempted to send off for powder coating. Stripped the donor machine down this evening. Everything looks like it'll swap over in terms of element, wiring and switch. Mocked up the sight glass bracketry whilst I await seals...
> 
> View attachment 44849


 Why can't you take the base off?


----------



## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

TomHughes said:


> Why can't you take the base off?


 Haven't got a vice, breaker bar (it'll probably need it!) or oil filter tool at present so will leave it as is for now.

If I decide to keep it then i'll probably invest in tools and get it sent off for coating.

Although I have also have a similar era Professional on the way as well, which may become my main machine!


----------



## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

My Pavoni-ness took an unexpected turn this week due to the arrival of another machine! This time a Professional from the same era. The overall goal is to replace my broken tin man with a keeper and probably sell whatever else I get along the way. Anyway...

So the disruption to my plans meant this one will be sold at some point. Yesterday saw the boiler seals/copper washers and element seals getting replaced along with the standard element and wiring getting refitted too.









Sight glass holders fitted from a higher spec model to allow fitment of the Pavoni Romantica/Gaggia pressure gauge:









Then the post-millennium grouphead was trial fitted:









Steam valve rebuilt with new seal and washers:









Didn't get any pictures of refitting the wiring, but here she is just after firing back up:









The standard smaller group is going back on to sell, which means I need to rebuild it! More seals required... A job for next week 😁


----------



## StevenG91 (Dec 7, 2019)

coffeechap said:


> Paint the base
> 
> View attachment 44847
> 
> ...


 Love this colour 👌👌


----------



## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

StevenG91 said:


> Love this colour 👌👌


 Me too, it's a copper hammered finish


----------



## StevenG91 (Dec 7, 2019)

coffeechap said:


> Me too, it's a copper hammered finish


 I'm impressed! I ended up going a bit outside the box haha.


----------

