Glossy Adler Favorit 2 portable (with extra weight)

This glossy Adler Favorit 2 typewriter was bought from another collector, already some time ago. It was not working, some linkages loose and a very wobbly carriage, so first kept safe in its case. There is some damage to the decals, but the paint remains incredibly shiny - a wonderful glossy black. Last week had a go a repairing this glossy machine, to make it type as nice as it looks.

Several repairs indeed made the Adler mostly functional again. 

Linkages are not too hard, but re-adjusting carriage bearing races on these is hard by-design. Pinning screwed parts in place is great, until some parts get bent and need re-adjusting. The escapement also needed fixing; the trip-points of spacebar and universal-bar were not agreeing.

It is overall a bit of a mystery how this machine got damaged. Cosmetically it is fine, but somehow 3 mm thick steel of the carriage got bent out of shape. E.g. the escapement bracket is bent, but the bell with its tiny mounting-screw are pristine. Must have had a very 'lucky' fall.

A puzzling design choice of these Favorit's is the routing of keylevers to their keys; the A and the Z keys trade places along the way down from the comb-plate. On the right-side of the keyboard the IJ and the 'accent grave'  keys play slalom around the 'accent aigu' key.

Don't think there is a strong need for that, but it does look fancy complex.

Another puzzling item was a strip of metal (zinc?) glued to the inside of the top cover, with a sticky-plaster to keep it all in-place.

No idea if all (or any other) Favorit's have this. Maybe a later modification by an owner / service - perhaps to dampen noise of a 'singing' top-plate?

After repairs, adjusting and some cleaning, the Adler favorit 2 typewriter writes fairly well. Even though the platen is uncomfortably hard, with a new ribbon the print-quality is not bad at all.

The serial number 610,385 is quite late for a pre-war Adler machine. This places manufacture at the very end of 1940 (actually, this means it is not a pre-war machine). Sold likely early '41.

The dealer decal shows it was sold in Amsterdam by Moolhuijsen.

This firm dealing in kantoormachines (office machines) was established in I think 1925 and today still is in the business of selling office equipment in Amsterdam. Today not typewriters, but mostly digital printers.

Like all Adler thrust-action machines experienced so far, this machine is very snappy - when clean these mechanisms are very light and fast machines to type with. And glossy - this one is very glossy too!