old orange scubapro BC

[blue433]

I have these 2 bc's, and was planning on selling them but do not know the value..the couple of ones i have seen for sale in past have the release valve on the front. Anybody know anything about these?

The serial number says 67, does that mean it was made then? One of them i think has an aqua lung release valve thing. Its hard to make out but i think it also says us divers on the logo as well.

 

[redacted]

Most of those orange BCD have degraded enough that the coating on the inside of the material is failing and they will not hold air. Yours look to be in good shape but.... I have bought a few of them real cheap just to harvest some parts. Don't expect much for them.

 

[ozziworld]

I got a couple of them on ebay for about $25. One of them had a working 2nd gen Air2. The other one I harvest parts from. Both bladders are in good condition though and I would actually not have any issues diving them.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

That iteration of the stab jacket dates from the mid to lates 70's. In the early 80s they went to removeable pockets clipped to d-rings. One on the right was standard and a second left hand pocket could be purchased as an option, but many people just clipped an SPG or console to one of the left side D-rings.

Yours has also been updated with a later style (and non-scubapro) soft cam band as well as a later style cam pack. Scubapro offerred a similar upgrade which was a common upgrade/retrofit for earlier stab jackets. The early ones used a stainless steel band with a cam lever to tighten it, and the first soft cam bands clipped on to towel bars that bolted to the pack in place of the earlier metal cam band. Scubapro later modified the pack design to allow a one piece soft cam band to be used.

I am not sure when Scubapro switched from an interal coating to a later calendared neoprene/nylon construction, but the early jackets (and the early wings on the Buoyancy Control packs) had bladders that would deteriorate while the material on the later ones last practically forever.

The later construction is a layer of neoprene rubber calendared to the heavy nylon outer layer - much like a trilam drysuit but without the inner nylon layer. In the mid 80's Scubapro offered the same thing in a "Double Blue" version with a layer of neoprene calendared on the outside creating a neoprene/nylon/neoprene trilam fabric. (In terms of production the layer of blue rubber went over the regular orange fabric and over time, the dye bled through creating an unslightly green color. Scubapro changed to the "Double Black" version and replaced the Double Blue versions under warranty. The double blue and double black versions also had velcroed eaupelets (proper spelling?) in place of the plain velcro strap to retain the hoses.

The design used double taped seams but the seams none the less became the primary area where leaks developed. With some care and a long plastic tube you can apply aquaseal on the inside of the seams through the inflator and OPV holes and produce a working and leak free jacket, but for most people it is not worth the trouble.

Scubapro replaced the stab jacket with the Finseal, using similar fabric but with cheaper to produce sewn and single taped seams.

 

[blue433]

that explanation is a little to advanced for me to understand lol

i also have these suit things, not sure if there full dry suits or what as i have not been able to find anything like it make by henderson in these colors, maybe they are custom? these are probably worth at least a couple hundred each

 

[Texfrazer]

i also have these suit things, not sure if there full dry suits or what as i have not been able to find anything like it make by henderson in these colors, maybe they are custom? these are probably worth at least a couple hundred each

What size are those suits?

 

[DA Aquamaster]

They are stock dry suits.

What size and how thick will be the major questions potential buyers would have. New they may have sold for $500 each, but there are now other options in that same price range that put $500 on the high side for a new neoprene dry suit.

$200-$250 is more realistic.

 

[blue433]

i have 5 of these suits, the thickness is 7mm.. I dont know how they size scuba gear, L says 9-10 3/4 foot measures 11, M ( 7 1/2 - 8 3/4) foot measures 11, S ( 6-7 3/4) foot measurestr 10 1/2 ( another small same measurements) XS (6-7 3/4) foot 10 1/2

They all pretty much look the same size to me.. the L does look a little wider. I dont think these match shoe sizes 101/2-11. i just measured it myself, but the 11 looks around the same size as my 10 1/2 shoe. The model says henderson KM899 . This is a picture of a vintage tank i found, posted about it in another thread, but just got pictures. Dont think its worth a whole lot, but pretty interesting.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

The HJ serial number was used by Norris industries and they were great steel tanks.

1/2" tapered thread valve tanks were the standard prior to about 1958-59 and were phased out over the next few years in preference to the current 3/4" o-ring sealed straight thread valved tanks. (There were a few straight thread o-ring sealed 1/2" valve tanks but they were never common as they never really caught on.)

Your tank was made in Janaury 1960, so it is now 51 years old and assuming it is not rusted or pitted inside, it whoudl still pass a hydro test. It also looks like it only had one hydro after the inital test date and it still has the orginal Healthways valve, so there may be some collector interest in it. That is doubly true if it still has the Healthways stickers on it, and especially if they are in good condition (although if not, reproductions are available).

For awhile 1/2" tapered thread valves were very hard to find and modern K-valve style valves were almost impossible to find for them as not many were made, so when the valve went bad, the tank was often useless. However, they have recently started to be re-produced, so you now have some modern valve options for it if you want to use it.

Norris made tanks for Healthways, and US Divers as well as other companies and tanks made specifically to order for a company back them were commonly stamped with the company name. The same practice continues today as, for example, XS Scuba, sells tanks that were made for them by Worthington who stamps them "XS Scuba".

Healthways was founded by Dick Klein and was one of the 5 original US scuba diving manufacturers. Unfortunately it went under in 1963, but was purchased and restructured that same year by Dick Bonin and Gustav De la Valle (the Beuchat US rep) and renamed "Scubapro". Scubapro obviously had close ties initially to Beuchat and most of the early Scubapro regs were clearly rebranded Beuchat regs. Scubapro regs continued to show that influence for several years after.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

i have 5 of these suits, the thickness is 7mm.. I dont know how they size scuba gear, L says 9-10 3/4 foot measures 11, M ( 7 1/2 - 8 3/4) foot measures 11, S ( 6-7 3/4) foot measurestr 10 1/2 ( another small same measurements) XS (6-7 3/4) foot 10 1/2

They all pretty much look the same size to me.. the L does look a little wider. I dont think these match shoe sizes 101/2-11. i just measured it myself, but the 11 looks around the same size as my 10 1/2 shoe. The model says henderson KM899 . This is a picture of a vintage tank i found, posted about it in another thread, but just got pictures. Dont think its worth a whole lot, but pretty interesting.

Bit of a guess here, but I suspect the sizes are Women's XS, S, M and L sizes followed by the corresponding dress sizes as there are about 1.5 to 2 dress sizes between each size interval. XL would be about a 12 and XXL would be about a 14.