Thanks for the pics and the expert commentary.  In this type of market, would the prices be negotiable?

No, it's a dull almost avocado green reminiscent of 70's/80's appliances (although the typewriter is from the 50's).  I'll never get used to it...  

Sadly, one of the original colors it came in is a metallic silvery green and THAT color I would have immediately liked and would have kept as is.  

The paint is also in rough shape.  And while I wouldn't normally repaint a typewriter, the physical characteristics of the machine lend itself to being painted a color one might find on a sports car.

I know I haven't let on what it is. It isn't super rare or anything, it's just interesting (to me).  I plan to talk about it in the Recent Acquisitions thread once I get my act together about taking its picture and figuring out where its serial number is...

Ok, at the risk of being ridiculed, I'm going to ask:  "Is pressure washing a typewriter a bad idea?"

Yes, I know it involves water.  And water could lead to rust.  But hear me out.

I've tried vacuuming.  And blowing with compressed air (sort of--with a leaf blower).  Just air pressure (neither vacuum or compressed) doesn't remove gunk.

I've read about bathing the mechanical bits in solvent, with a pump that sprays solvent under some amount of pressure.  But I'm not prepared to make that kind of investment nor would I like to have flammable liquid sloshing around anywhere near my house.  Also, I already have a power washer.

I'm thinking of the following:

On a hot sunny day, I put out the typewriter to bake for say an hour to get it nice and toasty warm.  

Then I fire up the power washer and blast the segment, basket, underneath--anywhere I can get high-pressure water.  

Immediately engage a leaf blower and blow away any loose water.  Do this for a few minutes (10?) to get as much of the water out as possible.  During the process, I'd move or wiggle anything that can be moved so the air stream can get to most areas.

Leave the typewriter out in the sun to dry for hours.  Maybe days.

Hopefully after all that, there's no longer any water left in the typewriter to cause rust.

What do you guys think?  Crazy?

A related question is:  "Does it matter if there are areas in a typewriter that are a gooey mess IF they aren't involved in the typing process?"  An analogy could be the underside of a car.  It's not involved in the driving process.  It can be covered in mud and dirt (and it is) but at the end of the day, it's irrelevant.  And the act of blasting all that out could actually do more harm than good.  

It's just that with many typewriters, especially some of the more "skeletal ones", grime on the mechanical bits is easily visible.   And part of the fun I have with typewriters would be putting them on display.  The less grime the better.

In the recent acquisitions thread, tojeem mentioned that he bought a typewriter with a missing platen know.

What can one do about something like this?  

I have an Underwood 6 with a broken right platen knob.  It's still there but for some reason, maybe a fall, a big chunk is missing from it.  Sometimes I idly think:  "how could I fix it"?

I suspect that parts for pretty much every typewriter are no longer available.  Is this right?

I could always try to find a donor typewriter.  But that seems to be a lot of work and expense (think of even the shipping) for just one part.

A wild thought:  Is there an affordable 3-D printing service for a plastic part like this?  Or would the setup cost be too high for a one-time thing?  

And would the plastic of something that is printed in 3-D be too soft for the high-torque forces such as that experienced by a platen knob?
 

So I'm not liking the color of a recent acquisition.  

What are other collector's thoughts on re-painting it--especially to a different and not OEM color?

The paint condition isn't great anyways.  So I'm thinking of lightly sanding the surface so that it's rough and new paint will stick (i.e. not down to the metal) and then taking a spray can to it.  

This is a 50's machine (guessing, haven't looked for the serial number yet), so it's not particularly exotic. But it's not super common either.