Vacumatic Missing Cap - How To Determine Correct Cap?

[Inkysloth]

Hi all,

 

I've won this Vacumatic http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/vintage-parker-fountain-pen-/261208379828?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&nma=true&si=I%252F54QePjwSIBcPn4t%252FY06icTTi8%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

and am wondering how I tell what the correct cap would be?

I'm figuring even if it's knackered and I can't find an appropriate cap, it's worth it for the nib alone. But I'd rather not strip it if I can avoid that.

[penmanila]

i can't see the blind cap too well but it seems to be a double jeweled pen, given that it was made in 1940 (date code) and that it has a two-tone nib (marking it as an earlier vac). thankfully, for this pen, almost any major or junior cap should be correct. at this point, the vac would lose its speedline filler and its jeweled blind cap, and the nib would become monotone, but the rest of the pen would be pretty much the same.

 

what you'll need to check for is size, as the caps for the major/junior and the debutante will be different.

[Inkysloth]

Thanks!

I've had advice that it may be a Maxima or Senior Maxima, and now it's arrived I can measure it and find out.

 

It's in a bit of a sad state and needs a new plunger - this one is oxidised and chipped, a new breather tube, and the nib needs a little bit of work to bring it back to beauty.

 

Still, I think it's definitely £13 well spent!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7349/8727419985_9fdd5ec05b_c.jpg
1940 Vacumatic Maxima in bits by Inkysloth, on Flickr