Refinished my 634A subset

[Bill]

Several months ago, I bought a 634A in a Junque Shoppe. Since I am getting ready to connect it to my B1 base, and since it looked pretty ratty, I decided to refinish the case. And since I was in the process, I decided to experiment a bit, and try black Appliance Epoxy instead of standard gloss or semigloss black enamel paint. I have very little experience refinishing anything, so I didn't expect it to look showroom new, and it doesn't. But it was interesting.

The first pic shows the unit as I bought it. At some point in the distance past, an uneven layer of gloppy black paint had been put on. Later the unit took a lot of wear, which abraded it through the paint, through the copper, and down to the underlying steel. Some miscellaneous beige paint splats accentuated the look.

My first task was to remove most of the gloppy paint with several sessions of old-fashioned methylene chloride stripper. Yuck, what a mess! When most of it was gone, I dry-sanded with some 150 grit, then wet-sanded with 400. The second pic shows the result. The beige paint splats are gone, and the metal is smooth to the touch, though not to the eye, which was a mistake. Inevitably, more of the copper has been exposed.

Then a couple coats of gray automotive primer, as shown in the third pic. Why automotive? I happened to have a can of it on hand. I did not sand after the primer - probably should have - but this is a subset, right?

Finally about four thin coats of the Appliance Epoxy. It went on reasonably well, although some surface imperfections (due to not-quite-complete glop removal and insufficient sanding) telegraphed through.

It looks reasonably good. Subsets were never this glossy, of course, but it was an experiment. What I really wanted to know was whether Appliance Epoxy might be good on the B-1. My guess is that to get a good surface, I might have to polish it so well that a finish coat might not be needed.  Any thoughts?

Bill

[Russ Kirk]

Hi Bill,

I 'm far from an expert at refinishing and painting,  but your job looks GREAT!  Your detailed description gives me an incentive to try painting some of my phone items this spring/summer.

Great job!

Russ....

[Phonesrfun]

From here it looks real nice.  I, too am not an expert on painting. My paint jobs are usually pitiful.

[Dennis Markham]

Bill, they took the words right out of my mouth.  It looks great from this angle.  Nice job.  I'm with Russ, it makes me want to paint a couple that I have sitting in a box.  Maybe in 3 months when it gets warm and before five months when it gets cold again.

Nice job.

[Sargeguy]

Wow, the "before" picture looks nicer than most of my subsets.

[bingster]

Bill, I ran into the same thing painting a D-mount.  I didn't sand the primer very well, and the paint looked sloppy as a result.  But once I put it in the oven and baked it for a while, the paint smoothed out beautifully.

[Bill]

Bingster -

Did you give it the oven treatment before or after the paint dried?

Bill

[bingster]

The paint had dried to the touch, but It probably hadn't completely cured.

[RDP]

Looks real good Bill but, as you said, you should always sand the primer. Not only to get out minor imperfections in it but so the base coat or single stage paint that you used adheres to it uniformly and well. Because later on as the paint finally cures it can start to peel especially around the edges and chip easily.