For some reason, I never take pictures of the "before." This one I really should have. It was a dull brown, the decals barely visible, the metal brown. I put off refurbishing this machine for quite awhile because I was afraid I'd destroy the decals in the process of uncovering them. Luck was with me, and using an auto product called TR3 Resin Glaze, the brown came off and the decals kept their gorgeous colors. I'd used that product on another machine before, and it did not work well. Which just goes to show, every machine is different. The metal parts were soaked in Dawn, scrubbed, polished with metal, polish, polishing paper and lapping compound using a buffing wheel on a grinder... whatever it took to get the crud off.
The serial number on this machine is G9987366, commissioned May 1, 1923. She doesn't look bad for almost 100 years old, eh?
The only part that didn't clean up well is the clutch knob, where the chrome started peeling. The wheel cleaned up very nicely using the buffing wheel on a grinder, with polishing compound. Note the thumbscrew on the pillar; that's the stitch-length "lever," characteristic of this sub-model. This machine was missing its thumbscrew when it came to me; thanks to Jai in NY for sending me one.
I'm really amazed that all the decals on this machine are darn near perfect! Beautiful old-style fancy needleplate, too.
Back view. I dropped the machine into my treadle cabinet and took her for a spin. Nice, nice stitcher! Makes more noise than my Necchi (which makes zero noise), but it's rather a soothing rhythm, not clackety. As a rule, I'm not a big fan of the model 15, but this machine is definitely the exception.