51AL restoration re-paint

[BDM]

Gents, I decided to finally paint my 51AL after 30+ years of having the poor thing sit around naked in all it's lustrous brass. This particular 'Stick has an interesting history behind it. I received it from a friend of my father/mother years ago. He had his own little business where he would get contracted to go into a building and clean it out wholesale. Usually a dilapidated building full of long forgotten relics garbage and other stored away junk that needed to be moved out. This phone came from a building that was owned by the city of Detroit. I remember it as one of the school maintenance buildings near the area were I grew up in the N/E side of Detroit. It was probably more than that but anyhow, this phone was buried deep inside this building.

I remember him calling one night and telling my mother he had a candlestick phone for me. Boy was I excited, first one ever. I believe this was around 1980/81. I got the phone, network box and it even had the original well worn dial card on it. All which I still have. Poplar1 and I have talked extensively about this phone. Now the building it was in was in bad shape. It had water leaks galore. The phone had obvious water/humidity damage. The cords were so worn, someone had actually wrapped electrical tape around the receiver cord which by that time had LONG crystallized.

Anyhow, I stripped the phone about 15 years ago with the idea of repainting it, which I never did. It's time. Now a compressor I have. But I really want to do this right. So I plan on using a mini spray gun, but I'm unsure which tip I should use. Here is a photo of the parts (I re-cleaned them again very recently). So what would any of you gents recommend for paint. I have an enamel oil based gloss black, but I'm beginning to second guess this paint.

[Greg G.]

Don't you need to start with a primer paint?  What did you use to strip it and clean it?

Depends on how thorough of a job you want to do and what you have the time, space, equipment, and patience for.  I've only painted one phone and a subset cover in my time.  With the phone I used Rustoleum Primer and Semigloss black rattle-can paint with satisfactory results.  I don't have the patience or space to get too fancy with spray-guns, specialized paints and equipment, numerous baked coats, and dedicated paint rooms, the last of which consists of a large cardboard box because I don't have a shop to use.

[BDM]

Brinybay, I no longer can recall exactly what I used beyond a stripper over 15 years ago. Recently I simply used very fine steel wool to re-clean the brass further. Came out very nice and clean.

As for painting, I'm completely re-thinking my strategy on this. I'm considering a nitrocellulose lacquer thinned out. I would love to replicate the Japanning varnish finish, but more on that later.