Hi All I recently won a Coleman L427 on a bay of evils auction. The lantern, dated 9 3 representing March 1929, came from an Australian seller. The following is an “as it was” photo from the bay of evil. The major component breakdown. The curiosity is that a small square section of the frame plate has been factory cut out. It transpires that frames that were meant for Slant lanterns were also used on some L427s. There are quite a few examples of this occurrence in existence. Further, the original brass plate that sits in the frame base is not plated or stamped with any lettering, just a blank polished brass plate with a turned down rim. The fount and parts were cleaned and polished with “Mothers Mag and Aluminium Polish”. All the various components were stripped and cleaned by first soaking in a weak warm to hot citric acid solution for about half an hour, then thoroughly rinsed and put into a sonic cleaner. A new graphite seal was installed onto the valve control stem and a new filler cap seal was installed. The leather pump cup was soaked in neats foot oil and successfully reused. The frame was stripped from all corrosion and buffed with 00 steel wool only. The frame was then spray painted with high temperature clear paint and baked for 1 hour at 200degC. Understanding that the original generator would have been a Q99, I reused the R55 that came with the lamp. I was able to restore the old R55 generator by alternative heating and quenching and removing a lot of carbon, then a final clean was carried out in the sonic cleaner. Finally, all the parts were reassembled back into a L427 lantern. An excellent Fred Kuntz replacement mica chimney was installed completing the fettle. Now the money shot ....... This 90+ year old lamp lit very easily and runs very well on Shellite. I enjoyed this fettle very much and the L427 now graces my sitting room. Cheers Pete
You did a great job! Really came out nice! I thought this was the first mass produced Coleman lantern that had the R55 as standard equipment?
Top restoration Pete, that came out really well. Nice and shiney shiney! I like the coleman quicklites and have just enjoyed a good weekend playing with some.
@James K Thanks you. Yes I too have a definite like for the Coleman Quicklites. To me, they look good, run well and hold their age really well. It’s surprising how a seemingly wrecked one can be brought back to life. A testament to their overall sound design. Cheers Pete
