Engineering archaeology
As an archaeologist with a great dislike for ‘as new restorations’ – in professional terminology called a-historical restorations, because you delete history in the process – this was quite a counter-intuitive move for me.
However, repainting this 60 years old induction or asynchronous motor will ensure higher attractivity for buyers of whom most will not buy an 3 fase 380 Volt motor to fill their private museum, but as a functional object. So, as I as an archaeologist have a duty to point out the value of the old and discarded, and help its survival in the future, it seemed the best option in this case. Of course, I also checked and greased the bearings and made the interior spider-free, as we all know one can fall for good looks, but without a good heart the relationship will still be shit. Well, from a heritage perspective anyway… 😉
This is a common restoration dilemma in modern heritage care. And now just hope that someone will buy it for more than the maintenance costs, or my passion will have screwed me again.