Since my fiance and I have recently closed on our new house, I have not had much time for wheeling lately or working on my TJ build (amazing how time consuming that whole process can be....). This is okay because there are just a few things more important in life than jeeping lol. Anyways my great grandma had passed last year and my grandma and her siblings finally got around to auctioning off some of my great grandparents old stuff. My great grandpa spent most of his life farming along with buying, fixing up, and selling pretty much anything. He passed when I was about 10. I always remembered him having a great big old air compressor in his shop and decided I was going to try and buy it on the auction if it went cheap enough. I ended up purchasing it for $175 which didn't seem bad since I knew it worked. It was made in the early 80's, has an 80 gallon tank, and a 5hp electric motor. Basically a commercial grade air compressor for the garage in my new home! I use air all the time working on stuff so this thing will be great.
At first I decided I was going to leave it as is and just change out the compressor oil and buy a new air filter, but I then decided what the heck, why not restore it? I disassembled everything but the compressor itself. Spent countless hours in the evening wire-wheeling, sanding, scraping, etc. Finally I decided it was good enough and ready to be degreased and washed with detergent. I masked anything off that shouldn't be painted and primed it using my dad's spray gun. Once the primer was dry I topped it off with a gloss, cherry red. I was unable to find the original decal anywhere. Luckily I have a small business close to me recreate the decal for very cheap! The decal really topped it off IMO.
Total cost of project: Air Compressor - $175, Paint - $60, Wire wheels and sand paper - $25, New decal - $10, air filter - $12, compressor oil - $14 =
$296
A new compressor of similar capacity would cost from
$1000-$1500. It was a lot of work (took almost 2 months in my free time) but well worth it. It's not everyday someone restores an old piece of equipment or a tool like this and I think it's very neat. It will definitely be a piece to talk about when friends are in my garage and the best part about it to me is that it's the air compressor my great grandpa used to help him make his living as he used it daily.
Picture when I got the compressor home:
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After sanding, de-greasing, and washing with detergent:
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After primer:
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After finish coat:
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Front of compressor with new decal applied and almost assembled:
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