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I have tried to unscrew the forepart of my late father's Parker Challenger without success. I put it in to The Pen Shoppe in Brisbane, Australia, but their techie was also unable to separate the forepart from the barrel. Can anyone advise a solvent or other method that will unfreeze the two parts and allow them to be separated without doing damage to the plastic? I have thought about using a very fine, narrow-blade saw (if I can find one) but I cannot bring myself to risk wreaking such havoc on a lovely bit of kit; I would prefer to continue using it in dip-pen mode if I cannot get it open. My father kept the pen as a sentimental keepsake but did not use it for the seventy years he owned it; I have attempted to have it repaired and to bring it up to refillable condition [the nib is superb] only since my father died. Big ask, I suspect, but hope someone in the FPN community has met and solved this problem before.

Hi all! Some time ago I came across a slender Parker Challenger in my grandparents' basement. It is missing the cap, but I figure I can hopefully pick up another somewhere for a halfway decent price? The pen is a marbled red but honestly, I would not mind the cap being a different colour. I'm pretty much going for functionality without breaking the bank, ha It's got what I'm pretty sure is a semi-flex nib, which is awesome because this would be my first flex nib! Today I finally disassembled it. The section was already half out of the barrel, and was fairly easy to take out with a bit of heat from a hair dryer. I haven't touched the button or pressure bar, because the old sac came right out in one piece. Should I remove the button/pressure bar as well? It seems to be in fine working condition, and I tried pulling it out just to see and it wouldn't really budge even a bit, and since I'm very new to pen repair, I didn't want to force it. But I can't find much information at all online about the slender Challenger/what size sac it takes. I measured the 'peg' and it is 6mm, but I don't know if this is an accurate way of determining the sac size as I have seen this on a few websites saying that this size peg should take a size 16 sac. The one that came out of it is straight, too, not necked! Does anyone have any idea what size sac it might take? On that same note, I haven't been able to find many other slender Challengers on eBay or elsewhere for parts, or any stray caps. Any help in pointing me in the right direction would be much appreciated, too! Thanks! Belle

Found these two at an estate sale last weekend. Super excited to get these working. Both need new sacs, and the imprint on the Duofold Jr. is definitely worn out. But, all in all, a very good day, and both of these were really good deals. I really wish I could thank my fellow pen hunter at the sale - I wouldn't have gotten the Duofold if it weren't for him, seeing as I'm a vintage pen newbie. -Prof

Hi everyone, I'm looking for a few suggestions of how to best have two of my vintage Parkers repaired. The first is a Parker Vacumatic with lockdown filler system. The pen was working fine until the diaphragm broke (my assumption, I have not opened the pen to look). http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd236/DocSmitty7/Pens/20130319_231029.jpg The second is a Parker Challenger button fill. The pen was bought knowing it needed repairs, but everything looks to be in working order except for the bladder being non-existent.. when I opened the pen (any shellac was long since gone), tons of tiny chunks came raining out. http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd236/DocSmitty7/Pens/IMG_4184.jpg I would love to find someone that does not have a months-long backlog, but I know the most popular names will be popular because of the quality of their work. Thanks! (edited to add pics, duh!)