New to vintage diving, would like some suggestions

[Slonda828]

Mattboy, Infidel, and I are all more recent vintage divers, and we love it. I also recommend Vintage Double Hose for all your needs. I also second Luis's comment about adding the mistral nozzle if you don't have it yet. Bryan stocks everything you need, and the forum there is top notch. You should also look into joining us at one of the many vintage diving events where we all dive great, restored vintage gear. Welcome to the world where all the regular divers yell at you and tell you "That old crap will kill you."

Wait until you see how good you get at weighting and buoyancy control. You'll be like a shark by the time you get good with this gear. You will fly effortlessly through the water, like a skin diver but with more down time :cool2:

Welcome to the community.

 

[Nemrod]

The Flower Gardens and the Sponge Gardens may need a double hose invasion at some point.

N

 

[herman]

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Wait until you see how good you get at weighting and buoyancy control. You'll be like a shark by the time you get good with this gear. You will fly effortlessly through the water, like a skin diver but with more down time :cool2:

Welcome to the community.

Amazing how true this is. I did a Vintage Day at a LDS and many of them were surprized at how differnet diving with no BC was. I had one new diver return to the pool with his modern gear and drop 6 to 8 lbs off his weights.

 

[Gilldiver]

Either do what others have said and send one to Bryan or if you are handy with tools do it your self.

I would recommend that you get the

Reproduction Mistral nozzle
Silicone Diaphragm
New Wagon Wheels with Silicone valves
DW/Mistral Rebuild Kit
Reproduction HP seat
Silicone duckbill
Band Clamp

You might need
New Silicone hoses

Then you could do a full chrome job and make it real pretty.

Once you have one going, then rebuild the other and sell it. Use the money for your next reg, say a DA Aqua Master.

Vintage diving
It's not a sport
It's a Disease!

Pete Johnson

 

[psiborg1812]

Thanks for the replies guys! Both sets of hoses don't leak, although I guess they are the original ones, should I replace them anyways? Great suggestions on the parts, i haven't had time to open them up, will probably do that tomorrow evening, then i can see how well the metal parts have fared in them. I'm assuming that the rubber has all rotted. What amount of corrosion is an indicator that i should replace the part?

The wagon wheels are fine, i guess. They are still solid, black in color, and nothing really wrong with that i can see, do you think i should replace them anyways?

Ideally, I want to rebuild both of them and then give one to one of my ITC buddies. We are training this May and I said i'd give one to him totally rebuilt if he stopped smoking for a month. I'm on a limited budget, but i would like to do the rebuild myself, so i could get the experience working with the older regs. Do you guys think I could email Bryan at VDH and ask him for some tips?

 

[Luis H]

If the hoses are flexible, they look good, and can be cleaned you can use the original hoses. I still use some original hoses that are in excellent shape, but for the most part I am using new silicone hoses.

Most of the corrosion should clean out OK. It would be very rare that a metal part can not be salvaged due to corrosion. Even a badly corroded can (which is kind of thin) can be refinished and re-chromed.

You can use the original wagon wheels, they work fine, but the new improved ones work better and they are one of the least expensive parts to replace. They have tapered spokes that eliminate the valves sticking due to water surface tension.
Disclosure: I may be a bit biased toward the new wagon wheels since I designed them, but I do not produce them or make any profit or have any direct business benefit from their sale.

IMHO, you should require that ownership is only valid for as long as he continues to go without smoking.

Bryan will definitely help you as he can, but you will also get a lot of great advice and pointer right here as well as in VDH and VSS. The members are very friendly, very helpful and the knowledge base is very extensive. Many of the members in the vintage community have been diving this and all other kinds of gear for a number of decades. We all don't share all the same opinion on everything, but in general you will not get bad advice.

Also you can find a number of repair manuals and other literature at VDH. There is a specific technical section (at VDH) with tips and other information and with the use of the search function you will probably find that any questions you may have has been already discussed at least once.

 

[Nemrod]

Thanks for the replies guys! Both sets of hoses don't leak, although I guess they are the original ones, should I replace them anyways? Great suggestions on the parts, i haven't had time to open them up, will probably do that tomorrow evening, then i can see how well the metal parts have fared in them. I'm assuming that the rubber has all rotted. What amount of corrosion is an indicator that i should replace the part?

The wagon wheels are fine, i guess. They are still solid, black in color, and nothing really wrong with that i can see, do you think i should replace them anyways?

Ideally, I want to rebuild both of them and then give one to one of my ITC buddies. We are training this May and I said i'd give one to him totally rebuilt if he stopped smoking for a month. I'm on a limited budget, but i would like to do the rebuild myself, so i could get the experience working with the older regs. Do you guys think I could email Bryan at VDH and ask him for some tips?

Inspect the hoses carefully for checking and cracking. Aside from leaking it would be bad if the inhalation hose tore off because it was rotten.

The cage valve housings are probably fine, just get new valves but be aware that vdh has an improved version, ask Luis for the details of that.

I would recommend that unless you have done rebuilds before you let vdh do your rebuild so you have a baseline of what it should perform like. I hear several people claim they rebuilt their regs and they did not breath well, leaked etc, one quick look at them revealed several issues even without opening the cans.

These things really are simple and you know yourself and capabilities better than anyone.

N

 

[INFIDELxx]

Congratulations! And welcome to the addiction. All of the above post's are full of solid recommendations. There are many good people on VDH. You will find all you need there. When you become a member be sure to put up some picture's of your stream air's.

 

[herman]

Here is an option, have one rebuilt and do the other yourself. At least you have a baseline for how the reg should preform.

 

[Slonda828]

Amazing how true this is. I did a Vintage Day at a LDS and many of them were surprized at how differnet diving with no BC was. I had one new diver return to the pool with his modern gear and drop 6 to 8 lbs off his weights.

You're totally right dude. This is why overweighting students make overweighted divers. People think they need to be able to sink to dive.

"We swim down, we swim around, we swim up" -Nemrod

Everytime I show people vintage gear they drop a minimum of 4 pounds of lead. It's amazing what actually having to control your own buoyancy without a gas bag on your back will do.