# Old School 'Gaggia Coffee' to 'Gaggia Coffee Classic' Conversion



## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

Saw this on eBay a couple of weeks back and duly purchased it:










Received it this week and it's mint! May 1995 vintage. It's lovely, being the same chassis of a classic it'll be rude not to convert it to full Gaggia Classic internals just for the hell of it really.

Got this machine as a donor:-










Bit bruised but internally sound.

This is machine unpacked etc:










Started stripping it this morning, didn't take long. Decided to give it a bath to clean it up too.


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## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

That's where i'm up to currently. Well I dismantled the donor classic and realised two of the boiler/group head bolts are stuck in and looks like a previous owner or repairer has buggered them up royally! Will take it over to my brothers' next weekend and we'll see if we can remove them.

Other than that it should be a straight swap. One thing that is needed is a hole drilling in the chassis for the decompression pipe fitting to bolt into, again, this is straightforward and will be done next weekend all being well.

I have new boiler and grouphead seals to fit when the classic internals get bolted in. Will update in due course!


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## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

One in the bath...










Decompression tube fitting:


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## Martyn (Oct 16, 2011)

Looks in surprisingly good nick, no rust. Is the body stainless or mild steel?


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## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

Not sure, think it could well be mild?


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Looks like a clean body in such good nick for its age

What a great thread. Thanks for posting the photos!


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## bespokelogic (Sep 4, 2011)

Looking closely at the inside of the case, I can tell its definitely mild steel.. I'll look into helicoils today and see what we may need after removing boiler bolts! Just made a fabulous cup using the two day roasters espresso blend, pump really had to work to squeeze the goodness from beans after grinding







project looking good there, machine really does look better in the flesh


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## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

bespokelogic said:


> Looking closely at the inside of the case, I can tell its definitely mild steel.. I'll look into helicoils today and see what we may need after removing boiler bolts! Just made a fabulous cup using the two day roasters espresso blend, pump really had to work to squeeze the goodness from beans after grinding
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Cheers bro, finding those boiler bolts to be wrecked has annoyed me as it should be a straight swap! We could drill them out and use nut,bolt & washer to seal boiler in place of allen bolt? You're the expert with this kind of thing!



Glenn said:


> Looks like a clean body in such good nick for its age
> 
> What a great thread. Thanks for posting the photos!


Cheers Glenn! I'm hoping to have it working in the next week/10 days. Will post on my progress.


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## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

In Oxford at my Parents' this weekend, popped into the garage and got some tools to attack the two knackered boiler bolts.

I smashed an M6 spline socket into each bolt and the heads snapped clean off when I went to undo them. Managed to prise the boiler apart and there was enough thread remaining on the bolts to remove them fully. Result!

I was met with this disgrace!



















Soaked in puly caffe for a couple of hours and it's a lot better now.

Decided to replace some bolts with newer black items as I have a big box of assorted nuts and bolts:


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## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

Popped the group head into the chassis to get a feel for it and to start building the machine back up:










This afternoon i'm popping over to my brothers where we will drill the hole in the chassis for the decompression pipe.


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## gaggiamanualservice.com (Dec 22, 2009)

you really need to change the boiler, its too far coroded to be safe now

mark


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## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

Mark, the boiler didn't scrub up too bad to be honest. I will be descaling the machine before I start to use it. If i come across a decent boiler I will pop it in but for the meantime i'll see how it goes.

Success, the machine is now working!

Many thanks to Mark (gaggiamanualservice.com) who helped me out a treat with the wiring. Turns out that one of the wires in the classic has been replaced with one of not the same colour so it was a bit of a headache at first! Tripped the fusebox many times.

Fully working now. Looking back it was a straightforward swap really, all that was needed was to get a hole drilled for the decompression pipe to fit to as per the Classic chassis. Also, i've learnt a lot about the intricacies of these machines.

When first powered up:










New bolts fitted:










All shut with new group head seal:










^^ Decompression pipe just needs a fettle, it does fit straight, honest!










I'd love to tuck this machine away for when I get a new pad, i'd also like to make it my everyday machine so I may well be fitting the Silvia steam arm and bottomless portafilter across from my current Classic.


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## gaggiamanualservice.com (Dec 22, 2009)

glad i could help mate, looks bloody great

mark


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## maarten_booij (Jan 28, 2011)

Wow Martin,

that machine is amazing!

Very good job!


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## LeeWardle (Nov 16, 2008)

Great thread! You should create a single document and put it in the Wiki as a project


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## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

3 years on and the machine is still in daily use and going strong







replaced the boiler about 2.5 years ago, fitted a PID & broke the PID (water-related issue!)and set the OPV to 9 bar too.


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## qpop (Jan 4, 2015)

This is great - I'm tempted to try it with my Coffee Deluxe (different front panel). I have zero technical skill though so I suspect it would go horribly wrong!


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## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

Do it, there are enough faulty Classics around that just need a simple fix and can be bought for a good price. The switch banks are visually different but still have 3 buttons that carry out the same functions as the classic = not such a big headache to connect up!


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## eza1981 (Aug 25, 2016)

Trying to bring back this thread.

Martin I also have an older Gaggia Classic model and want to add the decompression pipe. I was wondering what work needs to be done. It needs to be connected to the boiler? Need to add any hoses? A picture will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Edwin



MartinB said:


> Mark, the boiler didn't scrub up too bad to be honest. I will be descaling the machine before I start to use it. If i come across a decent boiler I will pop it in but for the meantime i'll see how it goes.
> 
> Success, the machine is now working!
> 
> ...


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## MrShades (Jul 29, 2009)

eza1981 said:


> Trying to bring back this thread.
> 
> Martin I also have an older Gaggia Classic model and want to add the decompression pipe...


You can't just add the decompression pipe unless you also have a solenoid valve internally to fit it to. Post a pic of the inside of your machine, let's see what's in there...


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## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

It's still alive!

Looks like I've lost a lot of pictures to photobucket sadly but took a new picture this evening after fitting another PID - attempted to control both steam and brew this time round, but couldn't decipher how to get the steam wired up as well ?

Anyway, set the brew to 102c and poured a lovely Yirgacheffe double shot as an early evening aperitif


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## Jdelliott (11 mo ago)

I'm looking to do this as well. One block for me- how did you power the solenoid? I can add the Classic boiler with the 3 way but there is no existing wire to power the solenoid since one did not exist originally.

thanks for any assistance!


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