Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Hi Chris.

If you mean the heavy, chain link fence type wire, oval split ring clips used to secure the ends of the aerial assembly to the top plates of the masts, I can indeed use a pair of those. That looks like a form of clip which has gone completely obsolete these days.

David

Yes, the insulator to mast plate split rings.

I'm fairly sure I've got spares (fitted to 3-link insulators).

They have been known to be brittle in the past - I had one shatter when I tried to open it up far enough to fit to a mast plate, and the break was crystalline.

I'll drop a couple into the box.

Cheers,

Chris.
(That WS52 panel is looking wonderful, by the way.)

[David Dunlop]

Thank you Chris for the comments and aerial bits. All are very much appreciated!

I was able to get one more section polished back this morning. Timed it well, as the overcast is just now starting to roll in for the day. I think two more good polishing mornings should do it for this piece of the project. Then I can concentrate on touch up paint needed for the panel.

David

[David Dunlop]

Finally, after 18 days of polishing, the Sender panel of this 52-Set, once again has a consistent, close to original, coat of Gloss Navy Grey visible on it.

Only fitting I compare this to a photo of what I started out with on the first day of this task.

It got a little dicy in the last 45 minutes of todays session when the clouds started rolling in and out, but its done now.

Next step will be to pick up a can of grey oxide primer and get ready for the paint touch up work.

David

[David Dunlop]

There has been a bit of a gap here, but things are back on track now.

I was having a very hard time finding my 'go to' KRYLON Flat Grey Primer anywhere in town. All the usual places were either turning up as, out of stock, discontinued, or both. a check of the KRYLON Canada site gave no real clues as to why, but did seem a lot thinner on product choices than its American counterpart now for some reason.

When I switched to my second choice, TREMCLAD Flat Grey Primer, it was just out of stock in all the usual places. I did, however, find four cans still in stock at the RONA in Portage la Prairie, on Sunday, so bought two on line and drove out this morning to pick them up. I now just have to pick up a bottle of alcohol from the corner pharmacy to use to wipe the polish off the bare metal bits on the Sender Front panel, and the slow process of paint touch up can begin.

Hopefully, tomorrow.

David

[David Dunlop]

Well, I have finally started the phase of this project I dislike the most: touch up painting. I have cleaned the polish residue from the bare metal chipped bits with alcohol and applied a coat of flat, grey primer by hand to said areas.

The first photo is right after the alcohol cleaning and frankly looks no different than the last photo I posted. The second photo, however, shows the bits of bare metal now covered in a coat of the required primer. I will let that sit and cure until early next week, before attempting the fun stuff.

Going to be interesting to see how close a colour match I get to the original Gloss Navy Grey, how close a match there is to the original gloss, and how steady my hand it throughout the process. I have never been good at this sort of detail work, so it should be interesting.

David

[David Dunlop]

I have been off this thread for a couple of days nearly, waiting for some paint to dry and my head to clear of things 52 for a while.

I found a small piece of plastic in the shop last week and primed it and painted a strip of the Gloss Navy Grey across one end of it. This was the colour match I had done to the Access Door Assembly off the Sender panel a few weeks ago. It has been a while since I worked with enamel-based pants and I had quite forgotten the drying times required for them. This particular one requires 16 hours between coats. That timed out to 04:00 local time this morning but at Noon today it is still definitely off gassing and feels soft to the touch. I am thinking a good two weeks to cure hard would not be unreasonable at room temperatures.

In the two photos I have attached today, I have placed the test strip on the plastic between the Access Door Assembly and the Sender front panel in the daylight in the back garden. It would be extremely helpful if you could take a look at the photos and provide me feedback on how good a match this paint is to the wartime originals in you opinions.

I will fill you in later on why I am making this request, to reduce any biases in opinions.

Thanks in advance,

David

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Hey David, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad is that paint matching is a mugs game. Change the light and what you thought was a match isn't. Varnish and what was a perfect match reacts and no longer is. Then, even if you match perfectly, the old and new finishes will weather differently anyway.

Oh, right, the good news. Our eyes aren't getting any younger so we won't notice!!

[Chris Suslowicz]

Hi David, I was about to make a complete fool of myself by saying it was much too light and matched the primer more than the finish colour - then I noticed the outline between the top of the door and the main panel...

It looks like a _very_ close match to me.

Best regards,
Chris.