[David Dunlop]

Hi Bruce.

That option is actually quite high on my Think About List at the moment. I have never had a problem building a paint chip back up; my downfall has always been the feathering thing. I always admire watching someone with that gift apply it! Fortunately, or otherwise, I still have lots of time to think about that option. The worst damage to the paint will be the last I get to.

The cleaning of the Sender front panel officially started just over two hours ago, only five minutes of which was used to take the two attached photos.

One small section was cleaned, top left corner above the door cutout. On the good side, not one small chip of paint was lost. On the bad side…that was a lot of work! Here’s why.

Take a close look at the second photo, at the junction of the now re-exposed original Gloss Navy Grey paint and the varnish topcoat. At the leading edge of the varnish, notice the thin band of lighter varnish? That is the original wartime varnish topcoat. It is a thin and consistently even application of varnish. The darker stuff is the varnish coat that was applied in the 1960’s and it is one horribly, sloppy job! If you take this panel out into the sunlight and move it around, you can actually see various shapes and sizes of spray gun patterns where the varnish was applied. Some are thicker than others. Some are almost at the point of going ‘orange peel’, and all of them were applied over everything on the panel! Dirt…dust… missing paint…everything! If you look again at the second photo, you will see a light coloured line in the varnish wandering roughly left to right from the midpoint of the transition line between the Gloss Navy Grey and the varnish. THAT, is a run in the 1960’s coat of varnish. There was not proper spray paint technique used at all. It was a simple ‘aim and spray’ at various points over the panel.

What makes this varnish work even sadder is that only two new decals were applied to this panel in the 1960’s overhaul: the two white “LUMINOUS COMPOUND RADIO ACTIVE” decals seen between the red and blue Flick Indicator Decals. And these decals are incorrect. None of the paint is radio-luminous. It is all phosphor-luminous.

A good three quarters of the time spent on that small section was simply cutting through the top layer of varnish. Once it is out of the way, the wartime layer polished back very quickly.

The nice thing about the polish I am using it that it leaves a thin coat on any bare metal surfaces, which helps keep rust at bay until the entire panel is done and touch up painting can begin. A cloth with warm, soapy water takes the polish of easily and then all those bits of metal can get a coat of primer, ready for the paint build-up process to begin.

David