The organ in the sanctuary of Immanuel Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles was built in 1927 by the Boston Massachusetts builder, Ernest Skinner, who was considered the most important pipe organbuilder in the United States during the first half of the 20th Century.

Williamson-Warne & Associates was, in recent years, secured to maintain and preserve this valuable musical asset. One of the projects recently accomplished was the restoration of one of the double primary actions in the Swell division (There are 2 Swell chests, thus 2 double primaries for this division).
This was, in a sense, a true restoration of this action.

Markings on the primary action indicated that the action had been re-leathered at least twice in its life; 1957 and 1967. During one of those re-leatherings the primary was modified with different sized primary valves, thus entailing additional channeling and drilling on the primary valve cover.
These 'modifications' caused the primary to be much slower and nosier than what the original configuration was. The primary itself had developed several dead notes due to leather failure, and it was decided to re-leather this action. Attached are a series of photographs detailing the process.

After the primary was removed from the chest, and taken back to our shop, it was disassembled. During the disassembly it was discovered that it had been modified. First all primary covers and primary wire guide strips were removed. Next all primary valve wires were removed. All of the transference tubing was cut and the sections of the primary were separated. The original lead transference tubing had been replaced with a black rubber tubing, which had been glued into place, and had to be removed.

This was accomplished by drilling out the transference tube holes in both the primary pouch rail, as well as the primary valve cover to remove all of the remaining parts of the black rubber transference tubing and the glue.
Next all of the old leather was removed from the pouch rail, including lightly sanding the pouch rail by hand and slightly beveling the pouch wells to remove the sharp edge.
Next the backing discs were cleaned and sanded to remove all old leather and glue. Next all new kangaroo leather pouches were punched out and the backing discs were glued in place. After the centre holes were punched through the leather pouches, they were glued onto the pouch rail using hot hide glue.

After the pouches were glued into place, a coating of leather preservative (consisting of mixture of silicone, lanolin and saddle oil) was placed on all of the pneumatics. The primary valve board had all of their exhaust tubes cleaned and polished with a fine grade metal cleaning and polishing pad. The tubes were masked off, the primary valve board was cleaned, and then spray coated with several coats of shellac. After the shellac had completely dried, the surfaced was rubbed out, and all of the tube masking was removed. Afterwards the 2 sections of the primary were re-assembled. Then sections of new lead transference tubing were made up by cutting sections of lead tubing, straightening them out on a mandrel, and de-burring the ends with a file. They were then inserted into the primary pouch rail and primary valve board, and the ends swaged over using a specialized countersink tool to ensure a flat and air-tight fit. Next the primary valves were disassembled, all valve wires were ultrasonically cleaned and rinsed.

The valve wires were then dried in a drying box, and then the ends were hand polished using a fine grade metal cleaning and polishing pad. The ends were then dipped in a diluted lacquer wash to prevent future corrosion. The large primary valves were cleaned and powdered (using baby powder), and the small valves were replaced with exact duplicate thin metal valves that would have originally been used. All valve assemblies were done with all new leather nuts and felt punchings. All valve assemblies were installed into the pouch rail/primary valve board. The original primary covers had their original gaskets carefully removed. The primary valve covers were planned down to remove all of the 'after market modifications' Then a new piece a matching sugar pine was glued onto the remaining existing primary valve cover, and let completely dry. The primary valve covers were then cut to exact size, and then planned to thickness, and then run through a drum sander to exact thickness and to provide a flat and smooth surface.

Afterwards all valve and screw holes were drilled into the primary valve cover. After this, the primary valve cover and all of the primary wire guide strips were cleaned and lightly sanded, and then spray coated with several coats of shellac, and when dry, was rubbed out. Then original primary valve cover gaskets were carefully re-mounted to the primary valve covers. Then the primary valve covers and guide strips were mounted to the primary valve boards and preliminary adjustment was made. All of the maple cap chest magnet caps were removed, as well as all armatures. The remaining parts of the original red rubber tubing were removed, and the metal tubing nipples were cleaned and polished using a fine grade metal cleaning and polishing pad.

The nipples were then masked, The wooden parts of the magnet cap were cleaned and lightly sanded, and then coated with several coats of shellac. After the shellac dried, the caps were rubbed out, and the tube masking was removed. The armatures were cleaned with alcohol and polished with a fine grade metal cleaning and polishing pad. On site the magnet box was vacuumed, the metal magnet cap seats were cleaned and polished with a fine grade metal cleaning and polishing pad, and the entire action was wiped down with alcohol. Primary, armatures and magnets caps was re-installed in place, new red rubber exhaust tubing was installed between the maple magnet caps and the primary. The primary was activated, tested and adjusted.

Included in this process, all hardware was sandblasted, cleaned, polished and given a diluted lacquer was to protect it from future corrosion.