Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

I was finally able to sit down and get the Gloss Navy Grey touch up paint work done on the Sender panel yesterday morning. The 16-hour drying time was up at 5:00am this morning, though a good week will be needed for the paint to cure and harden.

As I expected, the colour match is excellent. But the difference in gloss between original and new paints does make the touched up sections sparkle somewhat in the light when you move the panel around a bit. Considering the amount of hardware and all the fittings to be reattached to the panel, however, I think the touched up paint will be lost in the other details of the panel when fully reassembled.

The two photos today compare the touched up panel to the last stage where the primer had been applied.

Next step will be to touch up the larger paint damage to the black sections of the decals. The right hand edge of the large METER Decal – which should be flush with the right edge of the panel – is a good example of what I mean, in the lower right corner. Once that is done, I can haul out the UV Lamp and detail any other chips that show up in the black sections of the decals.

In the meantime, the collection of parts and tools sitting at the Border are now on their way to Winnipeg and should be delivered sometime this coming week. Happy Dance for that!

David

[David Dunlop]

If anyone is interested, here is the data for the paint I had colour matched to the 52-Set Sender panel once the discoloured varnish had been polished back.

The Paint Base:

RONA Anti-Rust Enamel, Exterior, Gloss Finish, Medium Base R25-512, 3.78 litres.

Tint Code:

Daylight Oz 48 96*

Q 2 31 1
V 15
X 1 16 1
Y 3 34


David


* The format should be three columns headed 'Oz', '48' and '96'. V is under 48. Y is under Oz and 48.

[David Dunlop]

Another sunny day this morning so I decided to take advantage of the Sender panel still sitting in the dining room to mask off the damaged side of the METER decal and touch it up. Naturally, that led to touching up a number of the decals where large chips in the black paint had happened, but did not involve any lettering.

The first three photos show the application of Postit Notes to mask the edges of the METER decal. I no longer trust any commercial painting tapes on the market for application to 75-year-old wireless panel equipment, having experienced catastrophic lifting of paint decades ago.

The paint I use for touching up the black decals is TESTORS Semi-Gloss Black.

The last photo shows the end result.

There are still a couple of small, rectangular decals on the panel that need to be masked and re-edged, but I will do those later. Then a couple of curved edges need to be sorted out, along with a few chips that have taken pieces of lettering with them. I have to think about these latter ones a bit, I would like to get a layer of luminous paint down first before attempting touch up of the surrounding black. That may prove an interesting challenge.

In the meantime, I like the direction this work is headed in.


David

[David Dunlop]

Turns out the nice sunny day today might be the last one for a few days, so I took advantage of it this morning and finished touching up the last of the fiddly bits on the black sections of the decals.

This leaves just two small chips on the MODE OF OPERATION and METER decals to deal with, where the damage involves the luminous lettering.

There is also a small blob of something black that has fallen on the lower right edge of the PA LOADING decal, overlapping a letter. I have decided to leave that spot as is since I am not sure what it is, or what sort of changes it may have effected to the actual decal. I simply don’t want to may an annoying thing much worse, trying to make it better.

I will check the panel out under UV light this coming weekend to see if anything else needs addressing with the decals.

David

[James D Teel II]

I love it.

[David Dunlop]

It has taken about a year and a half of research and searching to find this particular piece of the 52-Set Tool Kit. It was one of the 14 packages I got home this past week.

This particular soldering iron was made by Drake in the USA. It's origin was the Drake Model 325-100, 110 Volt AC soldering iron which came out sometime in the 1930's. It would have had a black lacquer wooden handle and an asbestos black power cord with a tracer woven into it.The cord was 5-1/2 feet long.

The 12 Volt DC model had a 7-1/2 foot long cord with a pair of Mueller 24A Battery Clips at the end of a 6 inch open section of the cord. The soldering iron I finally found was an early 120 Volt AC model with a natural lacquered wooden handle with the same turnings. I can source the correct cable and Mueller Clips to bring this one in line with what it's DC counterpart would have looked like. The odds of finding a limited issue 12 Volt DC soldering iron are pretty remote these days.

David

[David Dunlop]

I was surprised at how small these keys are in real life. I am glad they fit in a small envelope as they would be very hard to find at the bottom of the Tool Box rattling around loose in an emergency.

The No. 6 is a four spline key while the two larger ones are 6-spline.

David