Nautilus Pullover Restoration/Retrofit Project

[deadwoodgregg]

Back in June, I found a late 70's Nautilus Aluminum Cam Plateloaded Pullover. I had read that some of the old plateloaders were, perhaps, the best pullovers ever made. Upon trying out my new purchase, I decided to totally restore the machine and retrofit it with cables and needle bearings in place of the old chain and bushings. I disassembled the machine and had it sandblasted and repowdercoated. New parts ordered were pads, pulleys, seat belt, olympic weighthorns, cables, 6 tiny Torrington needle bearings, as well as all new hardware. I wanted to chrome the handlebar and counterweights but that proved to be too costly. This particular early model didnt have an adjustable seat, so I ended up raising the seat 2 1/4" to better fit me personally (I am 5' 9"). It took a while to get all of the parts, but I finally got it all back together. It really turned out better than I thought it would. The cables and bearings made it a ton smoother. Hope this is kind of interesting. I have 9 or 10 (before and after) photos of the project to download. Enjoy.

[deadwoodgregg]

Back in June, I found a late 70's Nautilus Aluminum Cam Plateloaded Pullover. I had read that some of the old plateloaders were, perhaps, the best pullovers ever made. Upon trying out my new purchase, I decided to totally restore the machine and retrofit it with cables and needle bearings in place of the old chain and bushings. I disassembled the machine and had it sandblasted and repowdercoated. New parts ordered were pads, pulleys, seat belt, olympic weighthorns, cables, 6 tiny Torrington needle bearings, as well as all new hardware. I wanted to chrome the handlebar and counterweights but that proved to be too costly. This particular early model didnt have an adjustable seat, so I ended up raising the seat 2 1/4" to better fit me personally (I am 5' 9"). It took a while to get all of the parts, but I finally got it all back together. It really turned out better than I thought it would. The cables and bearings made it a ton smoother. Hope this is kind of interesting. I have 9 or 10 (before and after) photos of the project to download. Enjoy.

More of the finished pullover.

[deadwoodgregg]

Here is a picture of the old bushings and the new needle bearings. You can see just how small the bearings are compared to the lines on the notebook paper.

[Northernmoris]

That came out great. It looks real nice. I'm assuming you did most of the work?

[deadwoodgregg]

That came out great. It looks real nice. I'm assuming you did most of the work?

I had someone do the sandblasting and another guy did the powdercoating. After that it was just ordering parts and assembling. I had to learn how to attach the cables to the aluminum cam. Luckily, I sold an old Flex shrugger to a guy in Knoxville (3 minutes from Legend) who knew how and he showed me what I needed. This was really a fairly easy project.

[dumb.bell]

That really came out nice, and I love those Intek Plates

[Skidmarx]

WOW.

That is the best restoration I've ever seen. Awesome job man.

Looks brand new !

[ProtienandIron]

That is one nice refurb job, very impressive. Good choice of colour too.

[OutKlast]

Top notch work man. That thing looks like it just rolled off the assembly line floor. After you mentioned refurbing this pullover in healthnuts thread I actually had a dream about buying a used one and refurbishing it. I am not a very exciting man.

[AwesomeStranger]

Turned out very well, I love the color as well!

[OSUDimond]

That's incredible. Great work. This may be a dumb questions but... What was your reasoning for switching from the chain setup to the cables? You don't see many chain driven machines anymore so that leads me to believe they are obsolete.

[deadwoodgregg]

That's incredible. Great work. This may be a dumb questions but... What was your reasoning for switching from the chain setup to the cables? You don't see many chain driven machines anymore so that leads me to believe they are obsolete.

Thanks OSU. It was only for less friction. I know that might sound strange because you would intentionally place more weight onto the machine to create "resistance", but you still want the machine to be as smooth as possible.

[irongrandpa]

that's a great looking job. congrats.

[TXBRASS]

Great job! That thing looks amazing....

[smittysgym2009]

Great job! That thing looks amazing....

What he said.

Deadwoodgregg, that machine looks nicer now than when it was new!!! And probably smoother too.

Did you buy it from a guy west of Cleveland?

[ndmike99]

You did an awesome job. Seeing this makes me miss my old pullover. I have seen a lot of people redo these with belts, but I had not seen a cable used before.

[Josephbd]

You did an awesome job. Seeing this makes me miss my old pullover. I have seen a lot of people redo these with belts, but I had not seen a cable used before.

You did a great job. Just awesome!

[ironwill2008]

Great job, OP.

[TheDude8734]

Amazing job with the restoration!
I agree with anyone who says that it looks better now than it probably did when it was brand new.
That's something to be proud of

[rlundregan]

I almost missed this thread thinking it was the pullover repository thread. I'm glad I didn't--looks great!

[deadwoodgregg]

What he said.

Deadwoodgregg, that machine looks nicer now than when it was new!!! And probably smoother too.

Did you buy it from a guy west of Cleveland?

HAHA! no, but I bought it off of a guy whose last name was Cleveland.

[deadwoodgregg]

You did an awesome job. Seeing this makes me miss my old pullover. I have seen a lot of people redo these with belts, but I had not seen a cable used before.

I think belts would probably be even smoother especially if you are going around more than one small pulley. My project was very simple and the cable was just going around a large cam and then one pulley so the friction is not too bad. Smaller diameter cable helps as well (1/8" w1/16" jacket).

[AttyGuy]

There are probably collectors out there crying right now because of the alterations.

It looks really great and I gather it works much better. I would like one of these. . . .

[sl13620]

Hi, great info, incredible restoration. I was wandering...looking at the frame, the left and right frames are welded to the bottom frame, correct? That is, they cannot be disassembled right. I asked because I would like to purchase a similar plate loaded pullover, but the stairway to my basement is narrow @ only 27". Looking at the picture, the shortest dimension is greater than 27" right?

[deadwoodgregg]

Hi, great info, incredible restoration. I was wandering...looking at the frame, the left and right frames are welded to the bottom frame, correct? That is, they cannot be disassembled right. I asked because I would like to purchase a similar plate loaded pullover, but the stairway to my basement is narrow @ only 27". Looking at the picture, the shortest dimension is greater than 27" right?

The largest dimension after breakdown would be 32" at the feet of the machine, front to back. Although I see no way to get a machine like mine down a 27" stairway, there would be an ever so slight chance that it would squeeze through a 27" doorway.

[AttyGuy]

Gorgeous, but I do like the old blue color of Nautilus machines.

[Skidmarx]

I think the red is badass

Still the best restoration ever.

[jdforsy]

Looks really good! Awesome restoration!

[2MoreRepz]

Deadwood what was your process in getting the cams polished out?

[deadwoodgregg]

Deadwood what was your process in getting the cams polished out?

I first used steel wool and various metal cleaning and polishing compound/liquid abrasives to get them clean. Then I used my badass Flex random orbit auto polish machine and whichever one of those polish liquids that worked best to help put the shine on them.