My new Kellogg 900

[Dan]

Beautiful so far Bill. I was lucky to get one at an antique store closeout in the spring. Mine has the ringer inside. I love the styling too. (second to the AE90 jukebox wall phone)

[Phonesrfun]

Stephen and Dennis:

Thank you both for the support.  Stephen:  I will try as you say.  I am going to set it aside for a couple of days and let it cure.  Here, the temps during the day were in the 70's, but about the time I was doing the last of my painting, it was dropping down to about 60 and I was loosing sunlight.  By the end of the week, we are supposed to be back in the 80's and even the 90's.  We are at that time of the year....

[Phonesrfun]

Dan:

Yes, I love the look.  Mine is sans ringer, since it was apparently set up to be used on a subset.  I have toyed with the idea of buying the parts to make it a stand-alone phone, but for now I will use it with a subset.

[Jester]

Greg,
You will know it when you see it.  Blushing on gloss black looks like a grayish-white fog has rolled in over that 30 foot deep look when the paint is wet.  One  common cause is by moisture getting trapped inside the wet paint as it's drying.  Keeping the drying paint relatively warm until the paint cures enough to provide a barrier against moisture will ensure a high gloss finish coat when fully dry.  It is best, but not always possible or convenient, to paint on a dry, sunny day that is between 80 & 95 degrees to avoid this.  Heating the paint & the parts is a way I found to get around the problem.

[Greg G.]

Greg,
You will know it when you see it.  Blushing on gloss black looks like a grayish-white fog has rolled in over that 30 foot deep look when the paint is wet.  One  common cause is by moisture getting trapped inside the wet paint as it's drying.  Keeping the drying paint relatively warm until the paint cures enough to provide a barrier against moisture will ensure a high gloss finish coat when fully dry.  It is best, but not always possible or convenient, to paint on a dry, sunny day that is between 80 & 95 degrees to avoid this.  Heating the paint & the parts is a way I found to get around the problem.

He's referring to a post that I deleted for reasons I don't remember now.  Senior moment?  I need a senior coffee...

I'll try to recreate my post he's replying to:

I had to look up "blushing" in this context since I wasn't sure what it was exactly.  The definition I found doesn't help much, I would have to see it to really know.  

Blush
A coating defect consisting of the whitening of a cured film which results in a translucent or opaque appearance with accompanying loss of gloss.

Now that I've read that definition when I'm alert and had my senior coffee, I don't think it's talking about painting, but film processing.  No wonder I was confused.

[Phonesrfun]

Ahhhh, I was wondering what he was replying to.  I looked all up and down for some sort of context.  I thought I was having (another) senior moment, so I shrugged it off to that.

[HobieSport]

I thought the phone might be blushing because it's starting to look so good that it's receiving wolf whistles from telephone construction workers...

Jesters' method of using a 40 or 60 watt bulb to bring up the temperature to cure the paint without blushing makes a lot of sense. I'm also wondering about using a red heat lamp to cure paint in general, at a suitable distance of course so it doesn't overcook the phone. I'm not painting any bakelite phones, (yet?) but I do have a few metal 302s and Strombergs that all need to be painted, and I don't have an oven to cure the paint. Not without receiving death-by-girlfriend anyway...

Generally I'm quite impressed and inspired by the results you're getting with the Krylon, Bill. I know how it is though to be tempted to spray a little too much too soon in one coat, resulting in drips and runs. Nothing that can't be fixed though.

And as for the use of the term "art deco", though debatable, for a 1933 phone in the style of the K 900, I think you could get away with it. And yes, I can just see these phones at the reception desk in the Empire State or Chrysler building. Just the right era, too!

[Phonesrfun]

Update on my paint job:

Today was in the 90's so I wet sanded out the runs with 1500 and 2000 grit wet sandpaper which got rid of the runs and left the phone nice and smooth but quite dull as in kind of a matte finish,  I applied another two coats of paint, and I'll be darned if it didn't run in one other place.  So, I am wondering if this next go-around if I should wet sand out that run and then use polishing compound on the paint job to get the gloss back.  Also, in painting, the spray makes some areas kind of rough and not glossy, just from the effect of the spray.  Anyone have any suggestions?  Otherwise this could be the never-ending story of sanding and repainting.  Reminds me of the movie Groundhog Day.

If I do sand out the run and use polishing compound, how long should I wait for the paint to cure.  This last time, it was one week.

Anyone?

[McHeath]

I've had the same problem with some areas being flat and rough when spraying, especially edges.  It's tricky, and I've compensated some by spray techniques.  (adjusting spraying distance, overlap, and angle)

[bingster]

I've never been able to get a decent paint job with spray paint.  I always wind up letting the paint cure as-is, and then going over the paint with 0000 steel wool to smooth it, followed by brasso to shine it.

[Phonesrfun]

Yet another update:

I guess this is what I do late at nights.  Can't go to the bars any more, so it's phones for me.

Saturday I put coats numbers three and four on the bakelite K900  Tonight, after 48 hours of curing, I hit it with 1500 wet to smooth out the rough spots, then wet 2000 grit to give it a very smooth but still dull finish.

I then hit it with the polishing compound, then was I ever amazed at how well the paint responded to Novus #2!

The attached picture is in a state of about 80% completion, since I still need to do some detail work around the nooks and cranny's, but still, I hit it with some Novus #3 also and a final rub down with a chamois cloth.  It's starting to show some promise!  Am I ever excited.

[Phonesrfun]

Next steps are to repair the cracked handset, and get the "Masterphone" logo put in the number card recess.

[bingster]

I looked at the first photo in the post above and thought, "ooooh, that's a nasty crack in the base."  But when I enlarged it, I could see that you've put such a great shine on it, that the phone is reflecting a crack in the table!  Brilliant results!

[HobieSport]

Lookin' good, Bill! You're inspiring me to paint some of my metal 302s and Strombergs.

[Dennis Markham]

Nice job Bill.  Persistence pays off.  As soon as you have it perfected, clear off your front porch because we're all going to send you our stuff to be painted!  That is very nice looking phone.  I want one now.  Thanks loads (he says sarcastically).

Have you seen the Masterphone logos available anywhere??