The advice here is good. I too would vouch for the approach of first seeing if the movement can be salvaged or not before deciding on a donor movement.
Al posted on another thread a while back featuring a much rustier 321 and said he has salvaged and repaired worse and it's all about how much one is willing to spend to save the movement.
Al posted on another thread a while back featuring a much rustier 321 and said he has salvaged and repaired worseI recall that yes ... good luck finding that post though (I did try)...
I couldn’t find the one from Al but I did find this one from Lewis WatchCo (If I’m not mistaken/Correct me if I’m wrong)
https://omegaforums.net/threads/65-speedmaster-105-012-in-for-restoration.37297/
And to add a much different kind of restoration from Al
https://omegaforums.net/threads/how-robust-is-the-speedmaster-moon-watch.63073/#post-788887
i do know. This watch was a first prize in some kind of dance competition. The organisation/dance or meeting club it refers to doesn’t exist anymore, though. Can you imagine going home with a 66-CB after a bit of (very) amateur dancing??? 😁
thanks everyone for your nice comments. Give me 6 months and I will try to update the thread with photos 😉
As noted earlier and in the linked threads, often much of the rust can be removed and parts loosened by soaking in the appropriate cleaning solutions and then superficial rust can removed with soft brushes. Many of those parts are not made of ferrous metal, so they are not actually corroded. I assume your watchmaker is aware of this, but may not want to invest the time and effort into it. Or he may think that you don't want to pay for his time and would prefer to buy a donor movement (which will not be cheap).
What are you planning to do with the dial?
