Parker 51 to Fully Restore or Not?

[Bristol24]

Recently I was able to get this Cocoa Parker 51 with a 1/10 12k gold cap.  The imprint is fully legible with the date code showing that the pen was made during the third quarter of 1951.  The pen looked pretty rough when I got it with dark spots in the gold cap and spots on the barrel.  The barrel was easily cleaned up with some very fine polishing compound but the cap proved to be another matter until I reached for my can of Never Dull.  A small wad of Never Dull did wonders for the cap (has anyone used Never Dull this way?).  All of the dark spots faded to tiny specks and one small dark streak on the cap opposite the clip at the very top of the cap. 

There is also a small ding in the cap at about 9 O'clock from the clip.  

Spoiler

 

 

In addition to the ding and small spots on the cap (actually small pits and flaws in the gold filling), the breather tube is apparently either loose or corroded in two as I can hear and feel it move about if I slowly shake the pen with the barrel off.  The pen fills and writes quite nicely, albeit a bit dry for my tastes but certainly doesn't miss a beat regardless how fast one writes.  So, the question is: Do I fully restore this Parker 51?  I can remove the sac and probably change out the breather tube here.  The ding in the cap is another matter.  I don't have the tools for that so I would need to send it off.  Removing the ding should be straight forward but there would still be the flaws in the gold filling.  Can those flaws be repaired or will I end up reaching escape velocity on this with the costs exceeding the pen's value.  Right now, I am into the pen about $50 and could do the sac and breather tube here for another $15.00 or so.  I heard that Cocoa is a somewhat rarer color.  Is that true?  Your input would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Cliff

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

I already answered your ? WRT to the ding in the cap in the other thread

 

you got a cocoa for $50… with a gold cap… wow. I’m jealous.

 

you do not need to remove the sac to fix the breather tube. You remove the hood/shell/section and pull the collector out of the connector and then you can get the breather tube out and see if it needs to be replaced, or simply put back in.

 

The nib can be tweaked to be a little wetter if that’s what you want while you're doing the breather tube

 

Cocoas are not “rare” but I guess they could be called “uncommon”

Or “less common” and they do command a premium because of that.

 

Personally I don’t do the sac unless it smells terrible or leaks or is otherwise compromised. If it’s just stained, i leave it, since the new one will just stain eventually anyway. But that’s your call.

 

WRT to the cap and wether it’s worth it, as stated in the other thread, Ron’s price is (IIRC) $50 (and up) so wether you want to spent that money (plus shipping) to get the pen to as close to perfect as possible is up to you.

 

Nice pen BTW, Cocoa is a really nice colour. I wish they were more common.

[gyasko]

Leave the sac alone unless there is something wrong with it.  Definitely replace the breather tube.

 

I don't think it's worth it to send a GF cap off to get dings ironed out unless it's a watermelon cap or something like that.  51 GF caps pick up dings when you look at them too hard.  Unless you plan to stash this in a case as a collection item, chances are you'd end up with another ding or dent somewhere down the road anyway. 

[FarmBoy]

On 6/15/2021 at 2:51 PM, gyasko said:

Leave the sac alone unless there is something wrong with it.  Definitely replace the breather tube.

 

I don't think it's worth it to send a GF cap off to get dings ironed out unless it's a watermelon cap or something like that.  51 GF caps pick up dings when you look at them too hard.  Unless you plan to stash this in a case as a collection item, chances are you'd end up with another ding or dent somewhere down the road anyway. 

I'd probably forgo doing anything to a Watermelon cap.