I was seriously fighting with the radio I'm painting... for a week... everyday it's something else.
I'm using Krylon "fusion" for plastic on a Bakelite radio. It's great smooth...like glass... paint.. but I'm screwing myself with base coat problems.
The radio came to me with repaired cracks...(top near front) not perfect but ok. So I sanded them more but not exactly perfect ..y'know
So I also wanted a gold stripe on the molding ... so I first used gray primer on the whole thing.
Ok great ...covered a lot.. I thought.
Then I did Krylon "Gold metalics"... on everything ...looked good too... lightly buffed and sanded and fine steel-wooled everything.
Then I saw imperfections I hadn't noticed before. Scratches in the Bakelite on the right side.
So removed by sanding off right side and tried to smooth out deep scratches. Too deep.
So I tried Spackle... lol.. that was a joke.. fell off.
So late at night.. so I tried Elmer's white glue. Also over major previously fixed crack on top front. Worked nicely.
Then re-primed and then repainted gold.. looked fine.
Then masked the gold trim areas.
Then painted whole thing in Maroon Fusion. Seemed nice... but then ...started to wrinkle in large areas.. from some reaction to the sub coatings.. or something... oy!
Stripped entire radio... what a mess...
I normally use Eazy-off blue can.. (works on old radio paint, and it's safe, no lye in it ... works great on older paint but not the newer stuff)
Couldn't get it in the local Kmart so bought regular stripper stuff in a spray can... burned myself on the lye .
Changed to convention chemicals.. .. then finished stripping with paint thinner, lacquer thinner, acetone and such.
Then started ALL over again.
Primer... Gold... masking... top coat... wow seemed perfect. Dried in warm over several days.. wow!.. nice.
When done I was examining it and everything was so nice EXCEPT a small tiny pimple right over the crack on the top front.
So I tried rubbing it out... seemed like it was working.. but overworked and made a real mess. Tried to touch it up.. got worse.
Removed the entire top paint on radio... down to bare Bakelite. Started over on just the stripped top.
Repainted but ran out of Maroon colored paint... so I tried instead to blend it with another Pepper-red color... seemed good (in a way) as the shades blended at the rounded top edges.
But when dry... the two paint edges were obvious from a leveling point.
Yukko !!!
Tried to strip the radio again using milder stripper... no dice... this is tough as nails..
Sanded and used paint thinners and acetone and everything got it all off AGAIN... OMG..
Start over again.
Primed... then Gold... then masking.... then top coat.. New Pepper Red.
.. seemed to be laying down nicely... nice gloss coming up... then.... Friggen WRINKLE AGAIN.. in large spots but only on the top.
Let it dry sanded those areas and repainted.. seemed to blend.
Let dry.
All looked good but two small areas that had little imperfections.. a bit like a wrinkle or something.
I rubbed it out almost completely... but discovered that what caused it was a few strands of steel wool that got imbeded in the base coats somehow while rubbing them out... Arrrg.
Tried to dig out the steel wool.. what a mess.. Finally seemed like it was out but paint was all gouged now...lol
So rubbed out that area and repainted... Ahh finally.. looking good... repaint blended and merged to hide gouges... whew.
Now it was 4:30 Am... warmed the oven then shut it off... put radio in there to cure.. went to bed.
When I got up... paint is cured... but...lol
All pimples all over entire top and some spots on front... Holy CRAP now what caused this???
Some kind of out-gassing from base layers maybe not entirely dry?.. who knows!
1/2 hour later:
I just sanded the whole radio down again... and repainted.. ARRRGH... the same pimpled areas are now wrinkling all again... holy crap.
Going out to eat.
Maybe later I'll have patience to sand it down further..once again.. a lot..lol...
It could be that in those pimpled areas I tried laying it down too heavy and maybe the propellant is attacking the base coats... who knows?
so later (maybe) re-prime the top.. not sure yet. Can't take this thing any more.. plus sore throat ear ache to boot...lol
take a break
Ok... it's 4:50am...
First thing after dinner I re-organized my garage and cleaned it on hands and knees.
My new shiny floor is so beautiful.. ( and impervious) that I can't stand to make a mess in there.. and spray painting screws up everything.. I did have the cars covered in blankets but the benches and tools and windows and floor were covered in red paint dust.
I vacuumed everything first then tossed out all paint rags and newspapers covered in paint. Wiped all tools... put the new car outside and covered the whole floor in tarps and newspaper
then got that friggen radio and tried to touch it up again... BUT I just made it worse times ten!! ....
So I had to re=strip it once again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ok..now I just finished totally re-stripping this radio again for the 3rd or 4th time can't keep count.
This time I used what I thought was a "safe" stripper. (I was really looking for "CitrusStrip" but the HW store didn't have it... so I bought one you wash off with water called "DADS" it has a small spray bottle you put the stuff in to spray on so it seemed nice. Whoa!
What crazy powerful deadly crap this is. Holy cow.. it has some deadly chemical in it...(Methylene Chloride)
.... and while I sprayed it on it was burning my skin... then as I rinsed it off down the drain...and the drain started percolating! .. seems to make some volcanic reaction with the drain and water.. and the smell is really scary.
So I washed it off ( 1/2 the paint still on) and cleaned the sink ( what a mess I had made)
Finished the rest in the garage with naphtha, paint thinner, lacquer thinner, and acetone in multiple stages ... and had to open the garage door wide and wear a mask.. lol
Finally hours later.. took it back to the sink and rinsed it in warm water and Lestoil and back in the oven to dry.
It's back down to bare raw Bakelite again.
This time I will NOT use any primer at all. The Fusion can says you don't need it. But I was hoping it would fill minor blems.
But I'm not going to chance a fifth strip.
But I also don't want to try to spray paint the gold molding first either this time...as I did before and mask then paint the body... because I'm afraid the body paint might be reacting w/the gold trim over-spray.
update note: (Turns out that the Fusion does work ok over the gold)
So maybe I'll mask the trim as bare Bakelite first... then I'll just paint all the whole rest of the body red Fusion paint.
Then when that's dry and hard.. I'll mask the body and then un-tape the bare trim...exposing only the bare un-painted trim.
Then if I'm careful.. instead of spraying the trim with gold paint..
instead ...I can hand brush it on the bare Bakelite. That way I wont have any risk of the two paints interacting since I'll only be painting over bare Bakelite for the trim now too.
( update.. canceled that idea)
Hope this final plan works.. I can't take this any more... let alone my garage.. my sink and my hand burns and my lungs getting polluted and killing my half dead brain cells w/ Acetone and whatever that poison is in the paint stripper.
.Wish me luck tomorrow.
now it's 5:18 am
That was several days ago.
I painted the Bakelite with Shellac all over first.
Then rubbed out whatever runs and stuff as best I could.. but still wasn't perfect.
Placed it in 150 degree oven (turned off) for 15 mins and it sort-of melted the Shellac enough to make it all blend and shine sooo beautifully.
Neat accidental trick to get any runs out.
Then painted gold trim and let dry.
Then shellacked over the gold trim too.
When dry.. masked it.
Ok Repainted Fusion Maroon over everything.. looked great.
When dry .. I was very pleased... until I spotted some couple small imperfection that were kinda obvious on the top. So I rubbed them out using just water and cloths then water and finally tissues making it like a spit-shine over the tiny now-gone spots.. yea!
BUT.. ouch.. somewhere along the way my finger nail or something must have grazed the front grille.. knocking of a little chip right down to the black Bakelite... OMG
Okay I thought.. I'll lightly sand w/400 grit the spray over that spot.
While doing that I saw another tiny chip by the dial... and it all seemed just too brittle.
So I sanded where I could and wiped it down then tried re-painting over these couple small areas...
The grille looked good but suddenly other spots just began to WRINKLE !.. again!
OMG.
So for the 6th time I stripped it.
But under the paint was Shellac. That was harder to get off.. using alcohol for that part.
Then finally naphtha and more alcohol the Lestoil and dish soap the dry in warm oven (turned off) over night.
Then starting from scratch for the 6th or 7th time..
I painted the gold trim (and everything actually) in gold over raw Bakelite.
When dry.. rubbed it down with dry cloths and masked trim.
Then painted Fusion "pepper red" again.
3 or 4 thin coats and heavier where any small imperfection marks still existed.
It goes down as heavy as you want nicely.
Let dry over night in warmed off oven.
Finally EVERYTHING came out alright.. or so it seems so far..lol
The can says you can re-coat up to 24 hours.. or after 7 days.
So now I'll wait 7 days for total curing I guess!
I hate this painting stuff!..lol
recoat? I shudder.
-Phil
you're asking about $5000 for that set now huh? ;O)
:Here's what I recently went through to get this (now) nice looking Emerson painted.:(See the other thread here " My Halloween Emerson")
:
:
:
:I was seriously fighting with the radio I'm painting... for a week... everyday it's something else.
:
:I'm using Krylon "fusion" for plastic on a Bakelite radio. It's great smooth...like glass... paint.. but I'm screwing myself with base coat problems.
:The radio came to me with repaired cracks...(top near front) not perfect but ok. So I sanded them more but not exactly perfect ..y'know
:So I also wanted a gold stripe on the molding ... so I first used gray primer on the whole thing.
:Ok great ...covered a lot.. I thought.
:
:Then I did Krylon "Gold metalics"... on everything ...looked good too... lightly buffed and sanded and fine steel-wooled everything.
:Then I saw imperfections I hadn't noticed before. Scratches in the Bakelite on the right side.
:So removed by sanding off right side and tried to smooth out deep scratches. Too deep.
:
:So I tried Spackle... lol.. that was a joke.. fell off.
:
:So late at night.. so I tried Elmer's white glue. Also over major previously fixed crack on top front. Worked nicely.
:Then re-primed and then repainted gold.. looked fine.
:Then masked the gold trim areas.
:
:Then painted whole thing in Maroon Fusion. Seemed nice... but then ...started to wrinkle in large areas.. from some reaction to the sub coatings.. or something... oy!
:
:Stripped entire radio... what a mess...
:I normally use Eazy-off blue can.. (works on old radio paint, and it's safe, no lye in it ... works great on older paint but not the newer stuff)
:
:Couldn't get it in the local Kmart so bought regular stripper stuff in a spray can... burned myself on the lye .
:Changed to convention chemicals.. .. then finished stripping with paint thinner, lacquer thinner, acetone and such.
:
:Then started ALL over again.
:
:Primer... Gold... masking... top coat... wow seemed perfect. Dried in warm over several days.. wow!.. nice.
:
:When done I was examining it and everything was so nice EXCEPT a small tiny pimple right over the crack on the top front.
:So I tried rubbing it out... seemed like it was working.. but overworked and made a real mess. Tried to touch it up.. got worse.
:
:Removed the entire top paint on radio... down to bare Bakelite. Started over on just the stripped top.
:
: Repainted but ran out of Maroon colored paint... so I tried instead to blend it with another Pepper-red color... seemed good (in a way) as the shades blended at the rounded top edges.
:But when dry... the two paint edges were obvious from a leveling point.
:Yukko !!!
:
:Tried to strip the radio again using milder stripper... no dice... this is tough as nails..
:
:Sanded and used paint thinners and acetone and everything got it all off AGAIN... OMG..
:Start over again.
:
:Primed... then Gold... then masking.... then top coat.. New Pepper Red.
:.. seemed to be laying down nicely... nice gloss coming up... then.... Friggen WRINKLE AGAIN.. in large spots but only on the top.
:
:Let it dry sanded those areas and repainted.. seemed to blend.
:Let dry.
:All looked good but two small areas that had little imperfections.. a bit like a wrinkle or something.
:
:I rubbed it out almost completely... but discovered that what caused it was a few strands of steel wool that got imbeded in the base coats somehow while rubbing them out... Arrrg.
:Tried to dig out the steel wool.. what a mess.. Finally seemed like it was out but paint was all gouged now...lol
:
:So rubbed out that area and repainted... Ahh finally.. looking good... repaint blended and merged to hide gouges... whew.
:Now it was 4:30 Am... warmed the oven then shut it off... put radio in there to cure.. went to bed.
:When I got up... paint is cured... but...lol
:All pimples all over entire top and some spots on front... Holy CRAP now what caused this???
:Some kind of out-gassing from base layers maybe not entirely dry?.. who knows!
:
:1/2 hour later:
:I just sanded the whole radio down again... and repainted.. ARRRGH... the same pimpled areas are now wrinkling all again... holy crap.
:Going out to eat.
:Maybe later I'll have patience to sand it down further..once again.. a lot..lol...
:
:It could be that in those pimpled areas I tried laying it down too heavy and maybe the propellant is attacking the base coats... who knows?
:
: so later (maybe) re-prime the top.. not sure yet. Can't take this thing any more.. plus sore throat ear ache to boot...lol
:
:take a break
:
:Ok... it's 4:50am...
:First thing after dinner I re-organized my garage and cleaned it on hands and knees.
:
:My new shiny floor is so beautiful.. ( and impervious) that I can't stand to make a mess in there.. and spray painting screws up everything.. I did have the cars covered in blankets but the benches and tools and windows and floor were covered in red paint dust.
:I vacuumed everything first then tossed out all paint rags and newspapers covered in paint. Wiped all tools... put the new car outside and covered the whole floor in tarps and newspaper
:then got that friggen radio and tried to touch it up again... BUT I just made it worse times ten!! ....
:So I had to re=strip it once again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:
:ok..now I just finished totally re-stripping this radio again for the 3rd or 4th time can't keep count.
:
:This time I used what I thought was a "safe" stripper. (I was really looking for "CitrusStrip" but the HW store didn't have it... so I bought one you wash off with water called "DADS" it has a small spray bottle you put the stuff in to spray on so it seemed nice. Whoa!
:
:What crazy powerful deadly crap this is. Holy cow.. it has some deadly chemical in it...(Methylene Chloride)
:.... and while I sprayed it on it was burning my skin... then as I rinsed it off down the drain...and the drain started percolating! .. seems to make some volcanic reaction with the drain and water.. and the smell is really scary.
:So I washed it off ( 1/2 the paint still on) and cleaned the sink ( what a mess I had made)
:
:Finished the rest in the garage with naphtha, paint thinner, lacquer thinner, and acetone in multiple stages ... and had to open the garage door wide and wear a mask.. lol
:
:Finally hours later.. took it back to the sink and rinsed it in warm water and Lestoil and back in the oven to dry.
:It's back down to bare raw Bakelite again.
:
:This time I will NOT use any primer at all. The Fusion can says you don't need it. But I was hoping it would fill minor blems.
:But I'm not going to chance a fifth strip.
:
:But I also don't want to try to spray paint the gold molding first either this time...as I did before and mask then paint the body... because I'm afraid the body paint might be reacting w/the gold trim over-spray.
:
:update note: (Turns out that the Fusion does work ok over the gold)
:
:So maybe I'll mask the trim as bare Bakelite first... then I'll just paint all the whole rest of the body red Fusion paint.
:Then when that's dry and hard.. I'll mask the body and then un-tape the bare trim...exposing only the bare un-painted trim.
:Then if I'm careful.. instead of spraying the trim with gold paint..
:instead ...I can hand brush it on the bare Bakelite. That way I wont have any risk of the two paints interacting since I'll only be painting over bare Bakelite for the trim now too.
:( update.. canceled that idea)
:
:Hope this final plan works.. I can't take this any more... let alone my garage.. my sink and my hand burns and my lungs getting polluted and killing my half dead brain cells w/ Acetone and whatever that poison is in the paint stripper.
:.Wish me luck tomorrow.
:now it's 5:18 am
:
:That was several days ago.
:
:I painted the Bakelite with Shellac all over first.
:Then rubbed out whatever runs and stuff as best I could.. but still wasn't perfect.
:Placed it in 150 degree oven (turned off) for 15 mins and it sort-of melted the Shellac enough to make it all blend and shine sooo beautifully.
:Neat accidental trick to get any runs out.
:
:Then painted gold trim and let dry.
:Then shellacked over the gold trim too.
:When dry.. masked it.
:
:Ok Repainted Fusion Maroon over everything.. looked great.
:
:When dry .. I was very pleased... until I spotted some couple small imperfection that were kinda obvious on the top. So I rubbed them out using just water and cloths then water and finally tissues making it like a spit-shine over the tiny now-gone spots.. yea!
:BUT.. ouch.. somewhere along the way my finger nail or something must have grazed the front grille.. knocking of a little chip right down to the black Bakelite... OMG
:
:Okay I thought.. I'll lightly sand w/400 grit the spray over that spot.
:
:While doing that I saw another tiny chip by the dial... and it all seemed just too brittle.
:So I sanded where I could and wiped it down then tried re-painting over these couple small areas...
:The grille looked good but suddenly other spots just began to WRINKLE !.. again!
:
:OMG.
:
:So for the 6th time I stripped it.
:But under the paint was Shellac. That was harder to get off.. using alcohol for that part.
:Then finally naphtha and more alcohol the Lestoil and dish soap the dry in warm oven (turned off) over night.
:
:Then starting from scratch for the 6th or 7th time..
:I painted the gold trim (and everything actually) in gold over raw Bakelite.
:When dry.. rubbed it down with dry cloths and masked trim.
:Then painted Fusion "pepper red" again.
:3 or 4 thin coats and heavier where any small imperfection marks still existed.
:It goes down as heavy as you want nicely.
:
:Let dry over night in warmed off oven.
:
:Finally EVERYTHING came out alright.. or so it seems so far..lol
:
:The can says you can re-coat up to 24 hours.. or after 7 days.
:So now I'll wait 7 days for total curing I guess!
:
:I hate this painting stuff!..lol
:So Peter...figuring the cost of your labor I spose
:you're asking about $5000 for that set now huh? ;O)
:
:
:
::Here's what I recently went through to get this (now) nice looking Emerson painted.::(See the other thread here " My Halloween Emerson")
::
::
::
::I was seriously fighting with the radio I'm painting... for a week... everyday it's something else.
::
::I'm using Krylon "fusion" for plastic on a Bakelite radio. It's great smooth...like glass... paint.. but I'm screwing myself with base coat problems.
::The radio came to me with repaired cracks...(top near front) not perfect but ok. So I sanded them more but not exactly perfect ..y'know
::So I also wanted a gold stripe on the molding ... so I first used gray primer on the whole thing.
::Ok great ...covered a lot.. I thought.
::
::Then I did Krylon "Gold metalics"... on everything ...looked good too... lightly buffed and sanded and fine steel-wooled everything.
::Then I saw imperfections I hadn't noticed before. Scratches in the Bakelite on the right side.
::So removed by sanding off right side and tried to smooth out deep scratches. Too deep.
::
::So I tried Spackle... lol.. that was a joke.. fell off.
::
::So late at night.. so I tried Elmer's white glue. Also over major previously fixed crack on top front. Worked nicely.
::Then re-primed and then repainted gold.. looked fine.
::Then masked the gold trim areas.
::
::Then painted whole thing in Maroon Fusion. Seemed nice... but then ...started to wrinkle in large areas.. from some reaction to the sub coatings.. or something... oy!
::
::Stripped entire radio... what a mess...
::I normally use Eazy-off blue can.. (works on old radio paint, and it's safe, no lye in it ... works great on older paint but not the newer stuff)
::
::Couldn't get it in the local Kmart so bought regular stripper stuff in a spray can... burned myself on the lye .
::Changed to convention chemicals.. .. then finished stripping with paint thinner, lacquer thinner, acetone and such.
::
::Then started ALL over again.
::
::Primer... Gold... masking... top coat... wow seemed perfect. Dried in warm over several days.. wow!.. nice.
::
::When done I was examining it and everything was so nice EXCEPT a small tiny pimple right over the crack on the top front.
::So I tried rubbing it out... seemed like it was working.. but overworked and made a real mess. Tried to touch it up.. got worse.
::
::Removed the entire top paint on radio... down to bare Bakelite. Started over on just the stripped top.
::
:: Repainted but ran out of Maroon colored paint... so I tried instead to blend it with another Pepper-red color... seemed good (in a way) as the shades blended at the rounded top edges.
::But when dry... the two paint edges were obvious from a leveling point.
::Yukko !!!
::
::Tried to strip the radio again using milder stripper... no dice... this is tough as nails..
::
::Sanded and used paint thinners and acetone and everything got it all off AGAIN... OMG..
::Start over again.
::
::Primed... then Gold... then masking.... then top coat.. New Pepper Red.
::.. seemed to be laying down nicely... nice gloss coming up... then.... Friggen WRINKLE AGAIN.. in large spots but only on the top.
::
::Let it dry sanded those areas and repainted.. seemed to blend.
::Let dry.
::All looked good but two small areas that had little imperfections.. a bit like a wrinkle or something.
::
::I rubbed it out almost completely... but discovered that what caused it was a few strands of steel wool that got imbeded in the base coats somehow while rubbing them out... Arrrg.
::Tried to dig out the steel wool.. what a mess.. Finally seemed like it was out but paint was all gouged now...lol
::
::So rubbed out that area and repainted... Ahh finally.. looking good... repaint blended and merged to hide gouges... whew.
::Now it was 4:30 Am... warmed the oven then shut it off... put radio in there to cure.. went to bed.
::When I got up... paint is cured... but...lol
::All pimples all over entire top and some spots on front... Holy CRAP now what caused this???
::Some kind of out-gassing from base layers maybe not entirely dry?.. who knows!
::
::1/2 hour later:
::I just sanded the whole radio down again... and repainted.. ARRRGH... the same pimpled areas are now wrinkling all again... holy crap.
::Going out to eat.
::Maybe later I'll have patience to sand it down further..once again.. a lot..lol...
::
::It could be that in those pimpled areas I tried laying it down too heavy and maybe the propellant is attacking the base coats... who knows?
::
:: so later (maybe) re-prime the top.. not sure yet. Can't take this thing any more.. plus sore throat ear ache to boot...lol
::
::take a break
::
::Ok... it's 4:50am...
::First thing after dinner I re-organized my garage and cleaned it on hands and knees.
::
::My new shiny floor is so beautiful.. ( and impervious) that I can't stand to make a mess in there.. and spray painting screws up everything.. I did have the cars covered in blankets but the benches and tools and windows and floor were covered in red paint dust.
::I vacuumed everything first then tossed out all paint rags and newspapers covered in paint. Wiped all tools... put the new car outside and covered the whole floor in tarps and newspaper
::then got that friggen radio and tried to touch it up again... BUT I just made it worse times ten!! ....
::So I had to re=strip it once again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
::
::ok..now I just finished totally re-stripping this radio again for the 3rd or 4th time can't keep count.
::
::This time I used what I thought was a "safe" stripper. (I was really looking for "CitrusStrip" but the HW store didn't have it... so I bought one you wash off with water called "DADS" it has a small spray bottle you put the stuff in to spray on so it seemed nice. Whoa!
::
::What crazy powerful deadly crap this is. Holy cow.. it has some deadly chemical in it...(Methylene Chloride)
::.... and while I sprayed it on it was burning my skin... then as I rinsed it off down the drain...and the drain started percolating! .. seems to make some volcanic reaction with the drain and water.. and the smell is really scary.
::So I washed it off ( 1/2 the paint still on) and cleaned the sink ( what a mess I had made)
::
::Finished the rest in the garage with naphtha, paint thinner, lacquer thinner, and acetone in multiple stages ... and had to open the garage door wide and wear a mask.. lol
::
::Finally hours later.. took it back to the sink and rinsed it in warm water and Lestoil and back in the oven to dry.
::It's back down to bare raw Bakelite again.
::
::This time I will NOT use any primer at all. The Fusion can says you don't need it. But I was hoping it would fill minor blems.
::But I'm not going to chance a fifth strip.
::
::But I also don't want to try to spray paint the gold molding first either this time...as I did before and mask then paint the body... because I'm afraid the body paint might be reacting w/the gold trim over-spray.
::
::update note: (Turns out that the Fusion does work ok over the gold)
::
::So maybe I'll mask the trim as bare Bakelite first... then I'll just paint all the whole rest of the body red Fusion paint.
::Then when that's dry and hard.. I'll mask the body and then un-tape the bare trim...exposing only the bare un-painted trim.
::Then if I'm careful.. instead of spraying the trim with gold paint..
::instead ...I can hand brush it on the bare Bakelite. That way I wont have any risk of the two paints interacting since I'll only be painting over bare Bakelite for the trim now too.
::( update.. canceled that idea)
::
::Hope this final plan works.. I can't take this any more... let alone my garage.. my sink and my hand burns and my lungs getting polluted and killing my half dead brain cells w/ Acetone and whatever that poison is in the paint stripper.
::.Wish me luck tomorrow.
::now it's 5:18 am
::
::That was several days ago.
::
::I painted the Bakelite with Shellac all over first.
::Then rubbed out whatever runs and stuff as best I could.. but still wasn't perfect.
::Placed it in 150 degree oven (turned off) for 15 mins and it sort-of melted the Shellac enough to make it all blend and shine sooo beautifully.
::Neat accidental trick to get any runs out.
::
::Then painted gold trim and let dry.
::Then shellacked over the gold trim too.
::When dry.. masked it.
::
::Ok Repainted Fusion Maroon over everything.. looked great.
::
::When dry .. I was very pleased... until I spotted some couple small imperfection that were kinda obvious on the top. So I rubbed them out using just water and cloths then water and finally tissues making it like a spit-shine over the tiny now-gone spots.. yea!
::BUT.. ouch.. somewhere along the way my finger nail or something must have grazed the front grille.. knocking of a little chip right down to the black Bakelite... OMG
::
::Okay I thought.. I'll lightly sand w/400 grit the spray over that spot.
::
::While doing that I saw another tiny chip by the dial... and it all seemed just too brittle.
::So I sanded where I could and wiped it down then tried re-painting over these couple small areas...
::The grille looked good but suddenly other spots just began to WRINKLE !.. again!
::
::OMG.
::
::So for the 6th time I stripped it.
::But under the paint was Shellac. That was harder to get off.. using alcohol for that part.
::Then finally naphtha and more alcohol the Lestoil and dish soap the dry in warm oven (turned off) over night.
::
::Then starting from scratch for the 6th or 7th time..
::I painted the gold trim (and everything actually) in gold over raw Bakelite.
::When dry.. rubbed it down with dry cloths and masked trim.
::Then painted Fusion "pepper red" again.
::3 or 4 thin coats and heavier where any small imperfection marks still existed.
::It goes down as heavy as you want nicely.
::
::Let dry over night in warmed off oven.
::
::Finally EVERYTHING came out alright.. or so it seems so far..lol
::
::The can says you can re-coat up to 24 hours.. or after 7 days.
::So now I'll wait 7 days for total curing I guess!
::
::I hate this painting stuff!..lol
:Peter, I love reading your posts. While the planets are aligned to screw up your projects, they are leaving me and my bad luck alone! ~{;>))
:
:
:
:
:
::So Peter...figuring the cost of your labor I spose
::you're asking about $5000 for that set now huh? ;O)
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:::Here's what I recently went through to get this (now) nice looking Emerson painted.:::(See the other thread here " My Halloween Emerson")
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:::I was seriously fighting with the radio I'm painting... for a week... everyday it's something else.
:::
:::I'm using Krylon "fusion" for plastic on a Bakelite radio. It's great smooth...like glass... paint.. but I'm screwing myself with base coat problems.
:::The radio came to me with repaired cracks...(top near front) not perfect but ok. So I sanded them more but not exactly perfect ..y'know
:::So I also wanted a gold stripe on the molding ... so I first used gray primer on the whole thing.
:::Ok great ...covered a lot.. I thought.
:::
:::Then I did Krylon "Gold metalics"... on everything ...looked good too... lightly buffed and sanded and fine steel-wooled everything.
:::Then I saw imperfections I hadn't noticed before. Scratches in the Bakelite on the right side.
:::So removed by sanding off right side and tried to smooth out deep scratches. Too deep.
:::
:::So I tried Spackle... lol.. that was a joke.. fell off.
:::
:::So late at night.. so I tried Elmer's white glue. Also over major previously fixed crack on top front. Worked nicely.
:::Then re-primed and then repainted gold.. looked fine.
:::Then masked the gold trim areas.
:::
:::Then painted whole thing in Maroon Fusion. Seemed nice... but then ...started to wrinkle in large areas.. from some reaction to the sub coatings.. or something... oy!
:::
:::Stripped entire radio... what a mess...
:::I normally use Eazy-off blue can.. (works on old radio paint, and it's safe, no lye in it ... works great on older paint but not the newer stuff)
:::
:::Couldn't get it in the local Kmart so bought regular stripper stuff in a spray can... burned myself on the lye .
:::Changed to convention chemicals.. .. then finished stripping with paint thinner, lacquer thinner, acetone and such.
:::
:::Then started ALL over again.
:::
:::Primer... Gold... masking... top coat... wow seemed perfect. Dried in warm over several days.. wow!.. nice.
:::
:::When done I was examining it and everything was so nice EXCEPT a small tiny pimple right over the crack on the top front.
:::So I tried rubbing it out... seemed like it was working.. but overworked and made a real mess. Tried to touch it up.. got worse.
:::
:::Removed the entire top paint on radio... down to bare Bakelite. Started over on just the stripped top.
:::
::: Repainted but ran out of Maroon colored paint... so I tried instead to blend it with another Pepper-red color... seemed good (in a way) as the shades blended at the rounded top edges.
:::But when dry... the two paint edges were obvious from a leveling point.
:::Yukko !!!
:::
:::Tried to strip the radio again using milder stripper... no dice... this is tough as nails..
:::
:::Sanded and used paint thinners and acetone and everything got it all off AGAIN... OMG..
:::Start over again.
:::
:::Primed... then Gold... then masking.... then top coat.. New Pepper Red.
:::.. seemed to be laying down nicely... nice gloss coming up... then.... Friggen WRINKLE AGAIN.. in large spots but only on the top.
:::
:::Let it dry sanded those areas and repainted.. seemed to blend.
:::Let dry.
:::All looked good but two small areas that had little imperfections.. a bit like a wrinkle or something.
:::
:::I rubbed it out almost completely... but discovered that what caused it was a few strands of steel wool that got imbeded in the base coats somehow while rubbing them out... Arrrg.
:::Tried to dig out the steel wool.. what a mess.. Finally seemed like it was out but paint was all gouged now...lol
:::
:::So rubbed out that area and repainted... Ahh finally.. looking good... repaint blended and merged to hide gouges... whew.
:::Now it was 4:30 Am... warmed the oven then shut it off... put radio in there to cure.. went to bed.
:::When I got up... paint is cured... but...lol
:::All pimples all over entire top and some spots on front... Holy CRAP now what caused this???
:::Some kind of out-gassing from base layers maybe not entirely dry?.. who knows!
:::
:::1/2 hour later:
:::I just sanded the whole radio down again... and repainted.. ARRRGH... the same pimpled areas are now wrinkling all again... holy crap.
:::Going out to eat.
:::Maybe later I'll have patience to sand it down further..once again.. a lot..lol...
:::
:::It could be that in those pimpled areas I tried laying it down too heavy and maybe the propellant is attacking the base coats... who knows?
:::
::: so later (maybe) re-prime the top.. not sure yet. Can't take this thing any more.. plus sore throat ear ache to boot...lol
:::
:::take a break
:::
:::Ok... it's 4:50am...
:::First thing after dinner I re-organized my garage and cleaned it on hands and knees.
:::
:::My new shiny floor is so beautiful.. ( and impervious) that I can't stand to make a mess in there.. and spray painting screws up everything.. I did have the cars covered in blankets but the benches and tools and windows and floor were covered in red paint dust.
:::I vacuumed everything first then tossed out all paint rags and newspapers covered in paint. Wiped all tools... put the new car outside and covered the whole floor in tarps and newspaper
:::then got that friggen radio and tried to touch it up again... BUT I just made it worse times ten!! ....
:::So I had to re=strip it once again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:::
:::ok..now I just finished totally re-stripping this radio again for the 3rd or 4th time can't keep count.
:::
:::This time I used what I thought was a "safe" stripper. (I was really looking for "CitrusStrip" but the HW store didn't have it... so I bought one you wash off with water called "DADS" it has a small spray bottle you put the stuff in to spray on so it seemed nice. Whoa!
:::
:::What crazy powerful deadly crap this is. Holy cow.. it has some deadly chemical in it...(Methylene Chloride)
:::.... and while I sprayed it on it was burning my skin... then as I rinsed it off down the drain...and the drain started percolating! .. seems to make some volcanic reaction with the drain and water.. and the smell is really scary.
:::So I washed it off ( 1/2 the paint still on) and cleaned the sink ( what a mess I had made)
:::
:::Finished the rest in the garage with naphtha, paint thinner, lacquer thinner, and acetone in multiple stages ... and had to open the garage door wide and wear a mask.. lol
:::
:::Finally hours later.. took it back to the sink and rinsed it in warm water and Lestoil and back in the oven to dry.
:::It's back down to bare raw Bakelite again.
:::
:::This time I will NOT use any primer at all. The Fusion can says you don't need it. But I was hoping it would fill minor blems.
:::But I'm not going to chance a fifth strip.
:::
:::But I also don't want to try to spray paint the gold molding first either this time...as I did before and mask then paint the body... because I'm afraid the body paint might be reacting w/the gold trim over-spray.
:::
:::update note: (Turns out that the Fusion does work ok over the gold)
:::
:::So maybe I'll mask the trim as bare Bakelite first... then I'll just paint all the whole rest of the body red Fusion paint.
:::Then when that's dry and hard.. I'll mask the body and then un-tape the bare trim...exposing only the bare un-painted trim.
:::Then if I'm careful.. instead of spraying the trim with gold paint..
:::instead ...I can hand brush it on the bare Bakelite. That way I wont have any risk of the two paints interacting since I'll only be painting over bare Bakelite for the trim now too.
:::( update.. canceled that idea)
:::
:::Hope this final plan works.. I can't take this any more... let alone my garage.. my sink and my hand burns and my lungs getting polluted and killing my half dead brain cells w/ Acetone and whatever that poison is in the paint stripper.
:::.Wish me luck tomorrow.
:::now it's 5:18 am
:::
:::That was several days ago.
:::
:::I painted the Bakelite with Shellac all over first.
:::Then rubbed out whatever runs and stuff as best I could.. but still wasn't perfect.
:::Placed it in 150 degree oven (turned off) for 15 mins and it sort-of melted the Shellac enough to make it all blend and shine sooo beautifully.
:::Neat accidental trick to get any runs out.
:::
:::Then painted gold trim and let dry.
:::Then shellacked over the gold trim too.
:::When dry.. masked it.
:::
:::Ok Repainted Fusion Maroon over everything.. looked great.
:::
:::When dry .. I was very pleased... until I spotted some couple small imperfection that were kinda obvious on the top. So I rubbed them out using just water and cloths then water and finally tissues making it like a spit-shine over the tiny now-gone spots.. yea!
:::BUT.. ouch.. somewhere along the way my finger nail or something must have grazed the front grille.. knocking of a little chip right down to the black Bakelite... OMG
:::
:::Okay I thought.. I'll lightly sand w/400 grit the spray over that spot.
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:::While doing that I saw another tiny chip by the dial... and it all seemed just too brittle.
:::So I sanded where I could and wiped it down then tried re-painting over these couple small areas...
:::The grille looked good but suddenly other spots just began to WRINKLE !.. again!
:::
:::OMG.
:::
:::So for the 6th time I stripped it.
:::But under the paint was Shellac. That was harder to get off.. using alcohol for that part.
:::Then finally naphtha and more alcohol the Lestoil and dish soap the dry in warm oven (turned off) over night.
:::
:::Then starting from scratch for the 6th or 7th time..
:::I painted the gold trim (and everything actually) in gold over raw Bakelite.
:::When dry.. rubbed it down with dry cloths and masked trim.
:::Then painted Fusion "pepper red" again.
:::3 or 4 thin coats and heavier where any small imperfection marks still existed.
:::It goes down as heavy as you want nicely.
:::
:::Let dry over night in warmed off oven.
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:::Finally EVERYTHING came out alright.. or so it seems so far..lol
:::
:::The can says you can re-coat up to 24 hours.. or after 7 days.
:::So now I'll wait 7 days for total curing I guess!
:::
:::I hate this painting stuff!..lol
:WOW NOW IT IS NO LONGER A ANTIQUE..BUT RATHER A NEW-TIQUE
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::WOW NOW IT IS NO LONGER A ANTIQUE..BUT RATHER A NEW-TIQUE
: ...................................................................................................................:I say : WOW it looks great!!! I agree with the way you repaired this radio.Some of these radios just cost to much to return to original condition so a good looking modified is an option.These are actually the really fun ones to do.You have preserved the radio,improved it's appeal and increased it's value from what it was. Way to go!!! Don,t get me wrong,I still like originals with the caps restuffed and carbon comp resistors but a modified is a good way to go when you start with a wreck. I do have a question.What is the secret to getting a perfect line when striping a radio. I always seem to get bleeding under the masking tape. Thanks for any info. bob
:so when you restore a radio and use a reproduction dial scale, replacement cord, caps, resistors, tubes ect isnt that sort of the same?
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::WOW NOW IT IS NO LONGER A ANTIQUE..BUT RATHER A NEW-TIQUE
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::so when you restore a radio and use a reproduction dial scale, replacement cord, caps, resistors, tubes ect isnt that sort of the same?
::
:::WOW NOW IT IS NO LONGER A ANTIQUE..BUT RATHER A NEW-TIQUE
::......................................................................................................................................................................................................................:..Reply: If you look at the radio pictures posted with this topic in a couple of locations you will find that the radio was already cracked and butchered. It has been made to work again and has been preserved. In the future if someone wants to return this radio to the original look they just have to strip it and refinish it. If a radio sells for a $100 on ebay why spend $500 restoring it.And if you truly want it original don't you have to find the exact brand of tubes,capacitors and resistors it was originally built with.How do you research that to the exact serial number of the radio.I have an Emerson 503 that I tried to find the correct knobs for.In my search I found that Emerson built that radio with at least 3 different styles of knobs and at least 4 different dial faces. So I took my cue from modified classic cars that are gaining in price and popularity and decided to just make it look good and useable.I hope this helps alleviate your concern. bob
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:::so when you restore a radio and use a reproduction dial scale, replacement cord, caps, resistors, tubes ect isnt that sort of the same?
:::
::::WOW NOW IT IS NO LONGER A ANTIQUE..BUT RATHER A NEW-TIQUE
:::......................................................................................................................................................................................................................:..Reply: If you look at the radio pictures posted with this topic in a couple of locations you will find that the radio was already cracked and butchered. It has been made to work again and has been preserved. In the future if someone wants to return this radio to the original look they just have to strip it and refinish it. If a radio sells for a $100 on ebay why spend $500 restoring it.And if you truly want it original don't you have to find the exact brand of tubes,capacitors and resistors it was originally built with.How do you research that to the exact serial number of the radio.I have an Emerson 503 that I tried to find the correct knobs for.In my search I found that Emerson built that radio with at least 3 different styles of knobs and at least 4 different dial faces. So I took my cue from modified classic cars that are gaining in price and popularity and decided to just make it look good and useable.I hope this helps alleviate your concern. bob .........................................................................................................P.S. In all the discussion my question got lost. Here it is again. How do you get such a perfect line when striping using masking tape? I always seem to get bleeding under the tape.
Hi Bob:
I use auto painter's plastic tape. Seals well with low tack and can bend around corners and curves.
Scotch type 471
# 06404 or 06405 1/4" or 1/8".jpg)
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:Hi Bob:
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:I use auto painter's plastic tape. Seals well with low tack and can bend around corners and curves.
:Scotch type 471
:# 06404 or 06405 1/4" or 1/8"
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...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................:REPLY: Thanks Peter. I'll give that a try. I believe in the golden rule that too much of anything is bad for you, well almost anything.
Vinny
:so when you restore a radio and use a reproduction dial scale, replacement cord, caps, resistors, tubes ect isnt that sort of the same?
:
::WOW NOW IT IS NO LONGER A ANTIQUE..BUT RATHER A NEW-TIQUE
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:I believe in the golden rule that too much of anything is bad for you, well almost anything.
:Vinny
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::so when you restore a radio and use a reproduction dial scale, replacement cord, caps, resistors, tubes ect isnt that sort of the same?
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:::WOW NOW IT IS NO LONGER A ANTIQUE..BUT RATHER A NEW-TIQUE
Hey:
If Peter could make me look as good as his radios, I would mortgage my house tomorrow!
Lewis
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