My apologies to the eBay seller, whose name I do not know. These are his/her photos and if I receive a complaint of copyright infringement, I will immediately take the photos down as I am a strong believer in protecting one's intellectual property. I just felt this was important enough to show what a good original jewel looked like.
But you can see from these, that the indicator lamps Bret found are very similar to the original jewel. Perhaps the originals were amber...and perhaps the jewel in these photos faded over time. I do not know. But I think the indicator lamps sold by Amazon are probably as close as we can get to the originals.
wow.. an original that didn't crumble to dust. I wonder if they did fade.
by the way. I finished the messed up escutcheon this weekend. I had a little trouble with the yellow frog tape sticking properly around the edges. but as long as you don't get too close... ;-) I'm happy the brown model paint I used to touch up the missing original paint blended in so well after I sprayed on the clear acrylic. btw, note that the screws holding in the escutcheon are actually Phillips head. I didn't realize anyone used those in 1941.
funny story... when I went to put the screws back in.. I guess I'd forgotten that they were phillips head.. I thought, "oh crap, these aren't the right screws" and spent an hour trying to locate the "right" ones.. lol..
Bret that looks dang good. I have 3 consoles with the wood grained/gold trim and none are anywhere near that shape. All have badly faded gold lettering and trim. What did you do to restore that? The wood graining touch up I can see but to get the lettering and trim back to some reasonable legibility confounds me...
Thanks for the picture Ron....If I was a betting man I would guess they started out red...kind of like the band switch indicator on some of the consoles from this period....Hope you folks had a good Christmas...
I ordered the lettering decals from Radiodaze. they were slightly larger than the originals though.
for the touch ups of the missing paint/ink/whatever they used: I used GI light brown from testors. I thinned it out a little bit to cover up the existing lettering on the tone side. the rest of the lettering was all rubbed off. didn't look like Philco put any kind of top coat over the lettering. It may have been sprayed on with a stencil. It looked like the same brass paint they used around the edging. for the edging, I masked it off with yellow frog paint, however, it did not stick very well and the lines are not very crisp. I didn't want to try the green. that faux finish would flake off if you looked at it wrong. the paint for the edging was model master brass. it matched the gold lettering. the paint was a real pain. you have to dab it on, it didn't want to adhere to the metal very well. took a few very careful coats and touch-ups to even it out.
I removed the felt from the back (just had to get the old glue wet). finished it off and sealed in the decals using 3 light coats of Krylon crystal clear acrylic in satin. I took a bit of a gamble trying that acrylic out. I didn't know whether or not it would ruin the faux wood grain. I figured acrylic would probably not affect it but enamel probably would.
I glued the felt back on using aileens tacky glue.
of course, as a disclaimer.. your results may very!
I have focused on the chassis on these guys but they were beautiful cabinets in there time...but the escutcheons are the weak link for sure...i actually used now of the painted faux brass ones I had in parts in good shape to replace a badly faded one on a 41-295.
That is good info Bret thank you....
The one I would like to do this to with some solid effort is the 42-1015 i have. A high end set with Beam of Light etc
I'd love to have another console with BOL turntable. although I've read they can be a real PIA to deal with.
It's rather sad. I need a new, bigger place now. I just do not have any more room for another radio!
I've already shoved my plastic radios in to my storage unit. To think, I actually pay extra for climate controlled storage for my electronics things..
Perhaps it's time to put forth some items for our next club auction in march. sadly, I hate doing that, if for nothing more than radio collectors/restorers are such penny pinchers! *eg* ;-)
Side question. in all my chassis pulling on the 315.. I've manager to fray the dial cord. I don't have a vernier caliper, so I can only guess at the diameter of the string needed. Anyone have an idea? looks to me like my choices are .025, .030 and .040? I am not worried about mine breaking, really. I think it's cotton over wire cable. Although I would like to replace it so the material doesn't get all caught up in the little pulley's and such.
Picture of the 42-400...with the pilot lamp lit nicely. There must be a pin hole on the bottom of the lens or hole as i get a small red dot below the lamp... Running great...with the exception of the old FM dropped and wired for phono (button on the control head). Using the rebuilt phono jack for internet radio etc etc. Tommorow I'll give a shot at painting the escutcheon. I picked the paints up so ready to do it.....
Ahhh the dial cord...I recently used some .40 on a 40-155 and it worked just great....my opinion. Ron may know what is more authentic and I have not restrung that many. Yes, the bad part of liking the large counsels....we must expand to accommodate our growing ranks!
(This post was last modified: 01-01-2014, 08:21 PM by jeffgniffke.)
Escutcheon nearly done...Now to a job I have not looked forward to. The station tabs. I see Ron had posted the original font...unfortunately does not work with Mac...at least at this point of digging anyway. Thinking I may just download a scanned sheet, laminate and go with it. I have to look on here too what others have done.
Need to put a coat of lacquer on the plate as well.
thanks again Bret...the painting was tedious and the decals do not match for the far left and right thmbwheels but still far better than what was there...the gold paint matches the decals perfectly.
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