Last Friday I paid another visit to John Gregory's store on Drinker Street. No real rhyme or reason for dropping in, just a social visit. John had a barn burner of a morning that day. Customer after customer, from the silliest repairs (i.e. a bagless T Series with a costume Michael Jackson glove stuck in the hose) to sales of brand new bagged WindTunnels. By the time I arrived, he was looking for a much needed break! 

As always, I ended up spending several hours more than intended visiting with John. One never knows what surprises he has in store when a friend comes to visit. You all may remember in my last post from the store, I had sold him my minty 1999 Self Propelled Hoover WindTunnel because I was in dire financial condition and needed to put gas in the Explorer. At the time, the gas meant more to me than the cleaner that I had owned since I was a kid. 

Rambling aside, the cleaner was sitting in the showroom cleaned, serviced, polished, and waiting for some lucky customer to buy it. You could have knocked me over with a feather when John insisted that I take it back home, refusing to take the money back that he had given me for it. I was very touched when he said "Had I known how much this vacuum meant to you, I never would have bought it from you. Take it home again."

After a fabulous 4 hour visit, I had to leave to go to work. John insisted that I take a box filled with little odds and ends in the form of genuine Hoover parts from the glory days of North Canton, the near mint 1070 hood, the Self Propelled WindTunnel, and a very nice blue WindTunnel Supreme dated early 2007, one of the very last to be produced in North Canton before the sale of Hoover to TTI. 

Our visit began with him sitting down on a Hoover medallion emblazoned barstool to put his "Thinking Hood" on in the form of a beautiful 1070 hood that he later presented to me as a gift. 

Convertible Deluxe anybody?

When was the last time somebody saw a new old stock Hoover Convertible rear axle complete with its tag from Hoover?

While I was there, Mister Postman delivered a few boxes of NOS Hoover treasures to the store. 

Here John models a sealed in the package Dial a Matic bumper and a set of white "booties" for Convertible handle release pedals. 

On the counter is a NOS Guardsman brushroll from the 70s, a black replacement bumper for a Decade, NOS rear axles for a Convertible, and a myriad of other little odds and ends. 

Shortly after the unboxing of the crown jewels of Hoover goodness, a customer came in to drop off "Dear Dead Mommy's Old Sweeper" which turned out to be a 2007 Hoover WindTunnel Supreme. I almost plotzed when I looked at the rating plate and saw that it was one of the last still made in North Canton. 

We plugged in the machine only to find out that the switch had gone bad and it was permanently "ON". Not to worry, it soon found itself on the workbench to be operated on. 

When we flipped it over to check the belt, we discovered this nasty thing. Needless to say, the machine received a new brushroll. 

After receiving a new switch, new filters, a new brushroll, a new belt, and a HEPA Type Y bag (Genuine Hoover of course), it's as good as new!

John then showed me one of his latest projects. If only the pure, silky sound of this Convertible could transmit through a photo. Not to mention it's in near flawless cosmetic condition.

I think this NOS Supremacy bag looks much nicer on this cleaner than its original grey striped bag. 

The "take home pile" 

1999 Self Propelled Premium WindTunnel

1070 hood and box of miscellaneous Hoover doodads

2007 WindTunnel Supreme

Big thanks to John for taking time out of his day to visit and for sending me home with some wonderful things, one of which was here just a short time ago! 

Here's a beauty shot of the newly serviced Self Propelled in action!

There's a reason why that carpet stays so white. It only gets cleaned by North Canton Hoover cleaners!

And one last shot because it's such a beautiful machine!