Hi everyone. Long time lurker, occasional single hose parts customer, first time poster. I finally “joined the club” came into possession of my first (actually second, but that’s another story) double hose: a rather decent condition DW Mistral, likely circa 1968-1970.
Based on a quick check on a cylinder the reg seems to be holding pressure and functioning normally. Nevertheless, I’m very much looking forward to performing a complete servicing including replacing the relevant parts. I’m not without skills in this regard. I’ve been servicing single hose regulators for over ten years, including some of the old Aqua Lung single stages (even a few Scubapro and Dacor thrown in for good measure). But this will be my first double hose servicing so I’m sure I’ll have questions once I get to it.
I’m very much interested in turning this Mistral back into a “diver” and not just a showpiece so perfect historical accuracy is not terribly relevant to me on this. I have a friend who has worked with DH regs quite a bit so I have another source for solid input. Here’s what I think is a reasonable VDH shopping list for “Rebuild Phase 1” – anyone care to offer any comments?
* US Divers/Voit Single Stage Service Kit
* Band Clamp Ring (would like to mothball the c-clips for now - frustrating little buggers)
* Duckbill Eliminator (seems like a reasonable upgrade)
* US Divers/Voit Single Stage High Pressure Seat (I typically replace HP seats in single hose regs so perhaps it is reasonable to expect to do it here as well?)
* New Diaphragm (would you suggest changing current one regardless?)
Moving on from the above … The hoses, mouthpiece and mouthpiece valves actually seem to be in pretty decent shape (mouthpiece is perhaps just a little bit crunchy). I see that I can get silicone replacement hoses and curved mouthpieces from VDH which is great to know. Are the Improved Wagon Wheels w/ Mouthpiece Valves a worthwhile upgrade for the Mistral? My thought is that mouthpiece, hoses, valves would probably constitute “Rebuild Phase 2” and be enough to get it back in open water.
“Rebuild Phase 3” is what I like to think of as the “vanity phase” . I would like to repaint the label as mine is rather worn. I’ve seen lots of comments on the forum about this and some partial information on different approaches. But if someone can point me to a reasonably complete “tutorial” or feels like just walking me through it that would be quite helpful. I’ve done a lot of painting in my life so I have some experience here as well.
Thanks in advance.