It arrived this afternoon via a Uship contact.  All I had time for this afternoon was to give it a surface wash-down.  It is surprisingly complete, I don't see any rust or holes in the wash basket, two (old) water hoses are present, what appears to be the original cord is there, only the drain hose has been cut - at the back panel.  It has an incorrect filter pan, don't know why, but the correct, original pan will not fit the top of the Activator.  I'll have to see what is the problem.  Should keep me busy for a while just making it look good.

lawrence

How excellent is that!

Not sure why my pics (above) are so fuzzy.  On the phone and in my computer files they're much sharper.

These photos were sent by the seller.  First is the washer being loaded, the last 3 show the original (nasty) condition of the washer when it arrived.

lawrence

At some point in this beautiful washer's life, likely after 1966 when your particular filter-pan was produced, somebody lost or broke the original copper-colored aluminum filter pan and a GE serviceman not only brought them a new plastic filter-pan, but also replace the original activator mount with a mount used only in 1960 to accommodate the new plastic filter pans. The irony there was that those new filter pans NEVER fit too well on that mount but the whole design was changed for the roll-out of the new perforated Filter-Flo's in 1961.

There are a few copper/aluminum filter pans still out there somewhere; the mounts are going to be harder to find. They came in 3 colors: grey, pink and turquoise.

These examples are from Unimatic's WA-955R:

That's exactly what I figured must have happened.  The cap on the Activator is fine, but the resilient collar below the cap is wrong; the diameter is insufficient to support the correct pan - which I do possess.  The plastic filter pan must be pressed down on the Activator, it doesn't seat itself.  And it doesn't surprise me to hear you say that the part that is wrong will be difficult to find.

I wonder if that might be a part that Bud (in Atlanta) could reproduce?

lawrence

Lawrence, congratulations on this stellar find!!  I can't believe what great condition the filter-flo pan support is in!!

I think I have a plain aluminum filter pan (possibly from a 56) that would fit this. Assuming I remember to look for it...

My mom had a ‘59 GE FF and it had the copper filter pan with a turquoise cap on the agitator and the control buttons were also turquoise.  I used to play around with it while it was on washing a load and there was no safety shutoff when the lid was opened even when it was spinning.  Its a miracle that I didn’t get hurt.

Eddie

I do have the correct "copper" filter pan, but like I said the collar is not large enough to support this pan.

We had a similar 1959 model, like Eddie mentioned, when we live in Air Force housing.  Where this 1958 has pink accents, the 1959 models used turquoise.

lawrence

Thanks for the information!  I was hoping that, should someone choose to reproduce these mounts, that there would be a sufficient demand to make it worthwhile.

I believe that is the correct model number.  I looked at it yesterday but did not write it down.

lawrence

I took some more photos this morning, with bright sunshine, hoping for better images.  But I'm not sure that I was successful.

lawrence

See if these are clear enough.  Not sure why the clarity is not surviving the transmission and compression process...

It's a beautiful day here so I guess that means I need to abandon this fun stuff and get back to work on my exterior painting. 

lawrence

Wow Lawrence, that machine is beautiful and appears to be low mileage after your extensive cleaning job!  I love GE laundry appliances and stoves from this period with their raised consoles.  Other than that, the console color scheme, dials and switches are nearly identical to the '58 (I think) dryer I found that ended up with Roger in Tucson.

The pink and charcoal reminds me of Miss Coral, our next door neighbors' inboard motor speed boat from the same period, named after the family matriarch. 

Based on the speed selectors, could this be yet another machine that offered a slow wash/fast spin option, or did those two switches work in tandem?

All of the switches operate independently of their mate.  So a slow/normal combination is possible.  Although not TOL, this machine offers more flexibility than the Keyboard model.  However, only the TOL model had the Rinse Injector and the fully-illuminated console.

lawrence

In a post above, Ken has a photo of a 'Use and Care Guide' front and back. (I forget if it's for the washer or the dryer).  The back features four matching pairs of their 1958 appliances, and the 850 pair is like your first pic, above.  I've never seen this in person and until Ken posted the pic I wasn't aware that they even existed.  I have a copy of the same 'Use and Care Guide' and on the back of mine, the 850 pair is just like this washer.

lawrence

Lawrence, I had the same thought. I wouldn't mind lending the one I have to Bud to let him experiment with it. It's not in good condition, but it might be enough for him to create a mold and then we could buy them in each color that was produced.

Would it be possible to 3d print these parts and more?  Adam Savage should know about this!