John, Fred and all -
The Cortina pump pictured was in fact NOT a re-badged Silca, at least to the best of my knowledge. I also have one of those pumps, and while it did not come from the MPI warehouse, I did discover some spare parts that appear to be for that pump. Mine looks to be made by EBAR , as the name appears on the barrel cap and the gauge face. These pumps did have Silca chucks though.
Cortina was, indeed, the MPI "house brand", and lots of products were produced under that brand. Some were created specifically (lots of clothing and shoes, but quite a bit of hardware as well), but most were re-badged products. I do believe that MPI also sold Silca floor pumps that were labeled Cortina. MPI certainly had Silca Impero frame pumps produced with the Cortina name on the barrel, since I still have a supply of them. Like many items that MPI "commissioned" and imported back in the day, the Impero pumps were supplied as a partial assembly, and complete pumps were assembled at the warehouse. I have discovered some boxes of Impero "Cortina" pump bodies bulk-packed without the alloy handle-sleeves (or heads and seal washers, of course).
Thanks for the pix of the Silca repair kit John. That will probably help me identify what the parts are, and which I still have in stock. What I have are just typical warehouse-type cardboard trays full of little parts. Since I have several older Silca floor pumps, as well as the EBAR/Cortina pump, I'm going to try and completely rebuild them both, as a learning experience if nothing else. One of these days, when time allows, I'll get around to all that. -- Wayne Bingham Lovettsville, Virginia USA
On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 8:28 PM, Fred Rednor <fred_rednor@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > Well, Silca wasn't the *only pump they distributed:
> >
> > http://os2.dhs.org/
> > http://os2.dhs.org/
> >
> > To be fair, the Cortina pump I have seems to be pretty
> > much interchangeable parts-wise with the Silca floor pump,
> > and has held up beautifully for over 30 years.
>
> John,
> Cortina was Mel Pinto's private brand. I'm certain the Cortina pum
ps were merely "badged engineered" Silca items. Were there chrome plated
floor pumps sold under the Silca name? (I just don't recall.) Perhaps M
el had Silca produce that version especially for him.
> To me, the biggest surprise would be if you found a sub-assembly that
was not interchangeable with Silca.