That was until I got it home and really began to inspect it. The zipper on the case was broken and it was sticky and reeked of smoke. Pretty gross. You can see above where I cleaned off half the case to show just how dirty it was.
The machine itself was absolutely filthy. And not just inky fingerprints or mildew filthy, this thing looked like it had taken a bath in cooking oil. It was sticky and filmy with a tobacco smoke residue that stank up my whole living room. The guts were covered in pink eraser shavings that were stuck to the strange "old oil" slime and were gumming up the keys.
I guess the photos don't really do a good job of showing the nastiness this thing was steeped in. If you could, imagine the smell of stale cigarettes and old french fries wafting out of its insides. I almost wouldn't be surprised of some idiot used spray cooking oil to lubricate the inner workings.
Well anyway, I've been wanting a Lettera for some time now. I've heard great things about the Olivetti machines. The absolute stankiness was really more of an excuse to focus all of my attention into restoring it. Aside from the dirt and grime, there were a few mechanical issues to it. The bell didn't work (gasp) and the ribbon wouldn't spool properly, plus the slugs were gummed up and the keys stuck. The margins kind of didn't work either. Ugh.
So once I had it apart to clean it and make all those little repairs and adjustments, I figured, what the hell, and gave it a new coat of paint. I don't know if I'll be doing too many more painting projects. It's fun and all, but a small part of me laments the loss of the original paint, even if it was an awful color. ^___^
Now she's orange and beautiful and another lovely addition to my collection.
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