Front Panel Touhups
 

The patient is an otherwise nice Globe Scout 40A, but it suffers from
the common malady of moisture getting under the enamel paint
on the front panel, which caused some of the paint to bubble and
flake off. There is some residual rust on the now bare metal.
The problem seems worse at the edges, as would be expected.
Here's a real closeup shot, which makes the problem look worse
than it is:

http://antiqueradios.com/albums/temp...rust.sized.jpg

Question: What is the best way to handle this? My first impulse is
to have a decal set made, strip the panel, and repaint.

On the other hand, I'm wondering if I can have some paint matched
to the original color, and using an artist's brush, touch up the bare
areas as needed.

Or, should I mask the otherwise good decals, and spray the whole
panel with a fresh coat?

I'm also wondering how to match the sheen of the new paint to
the now "dead" flat finish on the old enamel? Can I overcoat
the old and new with some clear acrylic to balance out the sheen?

Ideas?

Pete

Well not trying to be glib or what ever....

Have you checked around with folks who "collect" older radios?
Some items that collectors balk at buying are items that have been
"refinished".
If your looking to just use it... I gots no advice. But I would check into
the
wisdom of redoing the panel. If the ol' radios are any thing like old items
on
the antiques TV shows, refinishing and refurbishing kill the value of the
antiques.

Good luck 73 Gary

" Uncle Peter" wrote in message
news:6iCDe.156684$go.139282@fed1read05...
The patient is an otherwise nice Globe Scout 40A, but it suffers from
the common malady of moisture getting under the enamel paint
on the front panel, which caused some of the paint to bubble and
flake off. There is some residual rust on the now bare metal.
The problem seems worse at the edges, as would be expected.
Here's a real closeup shot, which makes the problem look worse
than it is:

http://antiqueradios.com/albums/temp...rust.sized.jpg

Question: What is the best way to handle this? My first impulse is
to have a decal set made, strip the panel, and repaint.

On the other hand, I'm wondering if I can have some paint matched
to the original color, and using an artist's brush, touch up the bare
areas as needed.

Or, should I mask the otherwise good decals, and spray the whole
panel with a fresh coat?

I'm also wondering how to match the sheen of the new paint to
the now "dead" flat finish on the old enamel? Can I overcoat
the old and new with some clear acrylic to balance out the sheen?

Ideas?

Pete

Pete,
The picture was worth 1000 words. If you're going to keep this for your
own collection and re-sale is not an issue (at least at this point), I'd
say go to your local automotive paint emporium and have a small batch of
paint made up. RCarefully refinishing that small area is not at all like
trying to do the whole panel. Any reasonable collector (myself
included) would appreciate and necessary repair like you'd be doing.
Unlike pieces of vintage art, etc. vintage electronics aren't
value-destroyed by well-made repairs. That's why I'd say do just the
small area that's necesssary. Regarding remarking, if you can match the
size and font... have at it! Although nice to use, standard DATAK dry
transfers are all too obvious. Sometimes a complete refinish is
indicated, e.g.: a rusted out Halli. R-48. I had some decals made up
for several of those speakers and did a complete strip, pickle, and
repaint. Yeah, they're acceptable but I know the truth... so to speak,
but they're far better than they were. Regards and good fortune with
the project. de Jeep/K3HVG

On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 05:33:12 UTC, "Mr Fed UP"
wrote:

Well not trying to be glib or what ever....

Have you checked around with folks who "collect" older radios?
Some items that collectors balk at buying are items that have been
"refinished".
If your looking to just use it... I gots no advice. But I would check into
the
wisdom of redoing the panel. If the ol' radios are any thing like old items
on
the antiques TV shows, refinishing and refurbishing kill the value of the
antiques.

Good luck 73 Gary

Well that's true but I think the antique road-show people are in a
different reality. ie. They're nuts.

Some of the radio folk might be tending towards that but radios are
nothing like the antiques on TV.

All of that antique stuff is way overpriced. I'm not disputing that
some whack-job collector will pay tens or hundreds of thousands of
dollars for the weird lamp, table, or wooden chicken.

I'm saying that there is no reason for those items to be priced that
high. Especially since a lot of it could be duplicated to a 99.9%
acuracy by a skilled forger or craftsman.

None of the radios that we discuss here have anything like the
valuations of "antiques". If they did, a KWM-2A, "Vietnam
War Antique from the Last Century, Cannot be duplicated, even by
the most skilled craftsman as the parts are no longer made.", would
be priced to the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

They're not. An M-2A is maybe $1,000-$2,000, Less than the
original price. That era Corvette or Porsche was less than ten
thousand dollars.

If just adjusted for inflation, an M-2A should be ten to twenty
thousand dollars.

If the collector people discover that we actually use "Military
Communications Gear from the Vietnam or Cold War", they would throw
money at us to get this stuff.

I'm counting on that not happening for a while and have been slowly
and selectively buying a few interesting items.

I hope to make the Howard County BRATS hamfest this weekend. Likely
someone who doesn't think like I do will have an interesting
boatanchor for sale.

About 40 years ago, I saw a KWM-2A that had been modified to include
a built-in 312B-4, or at least that's what it looked like. There
were two horizontal slots cut below and to either side of the PTO
knob. In each slot, the fellow had added the two levers from the
312B-4.

Would a collector turn it down? Probably, but I thought it was an
interesting radio.

Anyway, boatanchors are interesting radios. Fun to use. It's nice
to fix them up. I'm not into modifications though.

de ah6gi/4 at least none that can't be reversed.

Well there you got a couple of responses. Hope you have luck with your ol'
rig.
I just tossed out my 2 cents worth to get the string going. I was kinda
curious
what others thought too. I don't have any toob rigs but them 807's just
ain't
what they used to be what with the light versions and all. Cheers Gary
WB9SMX


"K3HVG" wrote in message
...
Pete,
The picture was worth 1000 words. If you're going to keep this for your
own collection and re-sale is not an issue (at least at this point), I'd
say go to your local automotive paint emporium and have a small batch of
paint made up. RCarefully refinishing that small area is not at all like
trying to do the whole panel. Any reasonable collector (myself included)
would appreciate and necessary repair like you'd be doing. Unlike pieces
of vintage art, etc. vintage electronics aren't value-destroyed by
well-made repairs. That's why I'd say do just the small area that's
necesssary. Regarding remarking, if you can match the size and font...
have at it! Although nice to use, standard DATAK dry transfers are all
too obvious. Sometimes a complete refinish is indicated, e.g.: a rusted
out Halli. R-48. I had some decals made up for several of those speakers
and did a complete strip, pickle, and repaint. Yeah, they're acceptable
but I know the truth... so to speak, but they're far better than they
were. Regards and good fortune with the project. de Jeep/K3HVG