Plastic Body Coronet

September 26, 2012

Depending on how you look at it, you could just see the first photo and enjoy the eye candy of one of the Coronets that is not shown here too often. Or you could look upon the series of photos as a photoessay on the components of this model, or you could think of it as a tutorial on the dis-assembly repair and reassembly of this often very fragile pen. There is a LOT of photo content to follow. Well, Here goes!

Here is the pen in question. I purchased it on Ebay and it was not the cheapest of acquisitions, but they are rare.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75/wahlnut/P1010065_1024.jpg

Here's what I found when I removed the cap:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75/wahlnut/P1010066.jpg

Now to take it apart. This pen has some very fragile areas not the least of which is the visualated area of the barrel. It is actually a 2 stage area. The clear area of the outer barrel is very thin and very prone to breaking when the inner clear section tail and nipple are removed. So when the section was delicately removed (it is a friction fit and removal must be done without torquing or distorting the fragile plastic of the barrel. The use of a small amount of a certain penetrant-releasing agent that I can't appear to promote here,eased that job. Then I was presented with what was stuck inside the barrel...the visualated section tail and nipple which unscrewed from the section when the section was removed (because I used a twist motion.):

Here you are looking down at the open end of the barrel.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75/wahlnut/P1010069.jpg

The clear plastic subsection and the clear barrel window had become stuck together. How to remove it? Another few drops of penetrant, and a 10 minute wait and then inserting a thin wire hook through the open section subsection tail and pulling on the hook when it engaged the end of the sac nipple and then pulled the section tail out of the barrel.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75/wahlnut/P1010070.jpg

Whew, that was a relief!

Here is waht came out so far:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75/wahlnut/P1010072.jpg

Now to proceed with the re-sacking and plastic cleaning...well almost. These pens, as did many WAHL-EVERSHARP pens of this era, used a compression ring to hold the sac in place. Seems like a belt and suspenders thing to me but hey that's how they did it. That is what the metal band in the picture is. Problem is the old sac material was trapped under the compression ring, and the ring DID NOT WANT TO come off. They have a mind of their own sometimes. Some judicious probing with a very sharp pointed tool got a lot of the old sac out, but the ring would not move...you guessed it...a few drops and a little heat and slowly the ring came off. Then removing the old sac material was a snap.

Here is the cleared and cleaned subsection:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75/wahlnut/P1010090.jpg

Hey look and you see the wick, tail that many have asked about on this forum. Here it is from the section end showing how the yoke of the tail fits into the subsection:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75/wahlnut/P1010084.jpg

Now turning my attention to the section I was a little puzzled by this:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75/wahlnut/P1010067.jpg

It took me a fee seconds to remember that this was an ink-shut-off pen and to realize that the inner object was the ink shut-off gasket/seat. That popped out easily.

So here is the disassembled pen in liner exploded view:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75/wahlnut/P1010086.jpg

Now the new Silicone sac was cut to size and shellacked in place and the compression ring replaced:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75/wahlnut/P1010091.jpg

You can see through the silicone sac and see how the wick contacts the inner sac wall to create a path for the ink to flow better.

The Shut-off gasket/seat was hard as a rock (a lot has been written maligning WAHL-EVERSHARP's shut-off mechanism, but most of the negative opinions are (in my opinion)related to the failure of this gasket after a year or 2 of use. Back in the day, it needed to be replaced periodically, but today we have better modern silicone-rubbers that last almost forever and stay supple. I punched out a new gasket blank:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75/wahlnut/P1010093_1024.jpg

The original was black. I use red to help identify both a replacement at some future repair date and to identify it as my work. I do not have a photo, but the next step was to punch out the center. The gasket is dropped into the back of the section and the clear sub section hold it in place when screwed into the back of the section.

After some polishing of the inside of the barrel window the pen was ready to go back together. Here is the assembled pen with the window clean and clear and showing the wick body inside:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75/wahlnut/P1010096.jpg

Time, use and the cleaning process I did, caused the color of the barrel sections (made black at the factory) to fade. Well I also know of a very fine blackening agent that works on plastic as well as rubber and a few brush strokes and the threads were black again:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75/wahlnut/P1010102.jpg

That was it. All in all took about an hour and a half to do.

Hope this was of some interest.

Syd

Edited September 26, 2012 by Wahlnut

October 1, 2012

Very informative post.

Thank you for sharing it here.

October 8, 2012

Great post. But what is the penetrating agent? Seems to be one of several keys to the process.

October 10, 2012

Great post. But what is the penetrating agent? Seems to be one of several keys to the process.

It's shown on the website page

PENATRATE

Because it is my website that's all I should say here or else I am guilty of self promotion and commercialism on a forum that is not for commercial purposes.

Syd

Edited October 10, 2012 by Wahlnut

October 10, 2012

Syd, that's a fantastic repair resource - thanks for adding this thread! [understatement] One doesn't see these pens very often [/understatement] and the 'Half-Coronets' are indeed beautiful pens. Plus, the step-by-step repair description with ample pics is priceless if one comes across one of these great pens! It's a shame a lot of them died because of bungled repairs plus in many cases the transparent portion section is often prone to crystallisation (and eventually - discombobulation). Anyway, these pens are on my list of the most beautiful Deco pens ever made.

P.S. The ink-view section looks almost like new (hardly any darkening/ambering) so I doubt it that anyone really used this pen.

i.