Cleared customs and got the crate home. Opened it up and although no transport damage there were a few unwanted surprises.... The cast aluminium part of the group head, has a section which the lever rests against in the upright position. Unfortunately someone has let go of the lever and it's hit hard and broken off the top of the moulding. If I can get one I'll probably just get a replacement. The glass pipe that shows the boiler fill level is broken. (not a big deal), and the mercury bulbs / switches are missing (I'm guessing they're not air freightable). Will have to go with a Sirai now. So this afternoon I managed to remove all the pipework and take out the boiler. Spent hours and hours removing rusty nuts, then struggled with the bolts which were fused between the boiler rings. Eventually got all the bolts out bar two, and one of the rings off. Hopefully I'll get the last couple of bolts out, and boiler open tomorrow. The effort to get the boiler nuts off and the bolts out was unbelievable. Penetrant, blow torch, spanner, whacking, and as a last resort cutting with the dremel..... All the pipework was reasonably clean (and each fitting complete with a metre or so of plumbers tape :🙂 ), but the boiler is pretty scaled up. The element was so caked up it wouldn't come out. I'll have to wait until the boiler is open to get a good look. Someone has tried to turn the steam wand and twisted the pipe badly so will need to find a replacment for that too. Tomorrow's jobs - get the boiler open, start descaling everything, remove the group head, and visit the plating / polishing place to find out what the replating and polishing is going to cost me. I'll likely get the frame sand blasted to get rid of rust, and then powdered coated. More pics tomorrow.
