The Grants 727 Medalist typewriter: bleached and beautiful

Click on the top two images for more on the Grants 707 and 737.

The typewriter was a bit yellowed.

Painting it with hair-salon peroxide ...

Wrap it in plastic to slow down evaporation:

Let it sit in the sun for a couple of hours:

Peroxide also bleaches clothes and skin! (The skin effect doesn't last long.)

Looking good!

Let's dig into the machine a little. The white part of the shell can be removed if you take out two screws and gently pry it off the turquoise base.

Here's the underside...

... and a video of some functions (tab, space, automatic spacer, typing).

According to The Typewriter Database:

Nakajima serial numbers are datecoded so that the first numerical digit 

in the serial number is the last digit of the manufacture year.

That would make this a 1971 machine.

Since the Grants sticker was missing, I filled in the space with the Urban Legend Typewriters logo. This typewriter will probably be sold sooner or later to benefit WordPlay Cincy.

Grants 737 Deluxe typewriter

It was over a decade ago that I last saw a Grants 737 in person—a thrift-store find. Now a customer of Urban Legend Typewriters has brought in one that needs cleaning. This typewriter was made in Japan by Nakajima for Grants stores in the 1970s. (For more information, see my post on the Grants 707 electric.)

This is a good typewriter! It's smooth, snappy, precise, and solid. It is actually a pleasure to type on—unlike the far more common Smith-Corona Corsair and its ilk, which it superficially resembles. The Corsair is smaller and lighter (not necessarily an advantage), rattly, imprecise, and easily bent out of shape. There's no contest.

If you enjoy turquoise plastic—and I do, since it somehow evokes my childhood—then I advise you to hold out for one of these. 

The Grants 707 Gullwing Electric typewriter

Here you see the gullwing ribbon covers (also found on some Vosses):

 

(Clarification: the '74 Christmas season and a month thereafter.)

 

The spinning shaft with three flanges is the horizontal piece in focus in this photo (obviously, the typewriter is turned off):

 

 

Here are all the ads I could find:

Gouverneur (NY) Tribune-Press, September 4, 1974:

 

 Ft. Walton Beach (FL) Playground Daily News, December 8, 1974:

Medina (OH) Medina City Gazette, December 13, 1974:

Salem (OH) News, December 31, 1974:

Oneonta (NY) Daily Star, January 22, 1975: