Repair of Gillette slim vintage

[tinpanalley]

I've got a Gillette Slim vintage razor that has one slightly bent safety bar. May have been from a short fall. In addition to this, despite continued deep cleansing in soap and hot water (usually necessary after about 6-10 shaves), the TTO nob just refuses to ever stay loose. I live in France and would like to know if there happen to be any repair people here that can look at this razor for me. I don't have enough of the special tools to open this thing up and clean it myself otherwise I would.
Thank you!

 

[BSAGuy]

There are threads here that show how to straighten bent safety bars. If you really want a top to bottom rehabilitation, you can look up Capt. Murphy here. He is a wizard at taking adjustable razors apart, fixing them, and re-assembling.

Good luck and excellent English, by the way.

 

[DaltonGang]

Post pics of the safety bar. They are somewhat easy to repair.

 

[tinpanalley]

Post pics of the safety bar. They are somewhat easy to repair.

Great. Not home right now, but I'll post some shots later on today.

 

[tinpanalley]

Here's two shots front and side view. I tried to demonstrate with straight lines the bend of the safety bar.

 

[Anthonyjhc]

Don't you just hate French people who can speak perfect English? Or Italian people who can do the same? Or ... just about anyone really.
As someone who just loves visiting Italy and France and Spain (my wife and I fly this year to visit Seville, Rome and Venice .. always Venice) I am so deeply envious of my multi-lingual brethren.
Now I have to practice to get ready for the trip, how to ask in markets/junk shops if they have any old razors for sale ....

 

[DaltonGang]

I had two Fat Boy Razors that were much worse than that. I used a butter knife repair. It worked great, on both. One was so bad, that when closed, the safety bar was touching on one side.
Hopefully someone can post the repair with the knife link. It sounds odd, but works, without disassembling the razor.

 

[tinpanalley]

Here is the link with the butter knife fix, just in case anyone happens to search for a similar situation with the same razor in the future: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/410091-Issue-With-Gillette-Slim?p=6388156#post6388156

 

[Jacquers]

Thx for the link with pics. I've noticed that my Slim has a gap issue as well, similar to the pics posted here. Guess I need to get some feeler gauges and look up what the proper gaps should be. I'm tempted to leave it as is, to have a Gillette Slim Slant

 

[heysi]

I have the same issue with my Slim (are they the only ones that suffer from this?). I'll have to get out a butter knife and hope the wife doesn't see me (I can just hear her, "WTH are you doing?????").

 

[Jacquers]

Could someone please help with a list of correct blade gaps for each setting on the Slim? The wiki only lists the 1st (.022mm) and last (.045mm), which might be good enough, but I'd like to double check the in-between ones as well. Thx

 

[DaltonGang]

The butter knife fix will usually fix the gap issue too. Just go slow, and make sure the bars are even, on the underside too, and not touching anything. I also found it useful not to lock the doors closed, with the 1/4 turn, when making adjustments.

 

[heysi]

Fixed mine last night. Looks fantastic. Can't thank you guys enough. Now I can shave with my birth year/quarter Slim.

 

[DaltonGang]

Great job.

 

[Jacquers]

So I can basically tweak any Gillette TTO (non-adjustable) using this method to make it milder or more aggressive?