Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

Wow Chris.

Interesting how complete sets keep turning up. This makes it three I am aware of in the past three years: two in Canada, and now this one in the UK.

It is quite a colour palette, indeed, and you are right, a close look indicates a lot of small pieces are missing, broken or been switched out for none original parts.

What I do wonder about, as you mentioned, are the internals. Notice the four studs on the top central portion of the Carriers No. 4. Was a British Auxilliary Supply Unit fitted to the 52-Set at one time? Not knowing how this conversion was done, and in spite of how hard original Supply Units and Senders are to find these days, the price point seems too high without more knowledge of what has gone on inside the chassis of all three main components.

On the plus side, it looks like it might be a great example of a British Modified Set with regards to the change over from luminous decals to printed markings.

David

[David Dunlop]

Chris.

I did a Serial Number compare earlier this evening and it turns out this particular Receiver was trailing down the Assembly Line in 1944 just 25 units behind mine. Pretty close in the overall scheme of things.

Jordan.

Funny you should mention that paint. I picked up a can of it a couple of years back when I finally had my three receivers all together here. I had noticed some things with the appearance of the receiver panels that jogged my memory of identical things going on 30 years ago with my accumulation of 19-Sets. I better get off my ass now and document it all for posting here.

David

[David Dunlop]

Another long pause in actual work on the 52-Set, while I think things through.

I have tested a couple of polishing options on the sample strip of Gloss Navy Grey paint I had matched to the Sender front panel. Both succeeded in reducing the gloss of the paint, but only by changing the finish look from gloss to semi-gloss, which REALLY makes the new paint stick out like a sore thumb. Polishing the semi-gloss result to shine it up a bit, merely returns it to its original gloss appearance. So, I have decided that since probably 70% of the touched up areas will actually be hidden with hardware or parts being refitted to the Sender front panel, I am going to leave the new paint touch-ups as is when completed.

It should also be OK when the new paint is used to completely refinish the front panel of the Supply Unit. Decals and fittings on that panel will also cover a lot of the panel and the Receiver Supply Section panel will be a slightly different shade of grey in any event, so it should all be good.

In the meantime, I am making arrangements now to get 14 small parcels of parts and tools for the project brought across the Border, hopefully in the next week or so. Need for these bits is rapidly approaching.

David

[David Dunlop]

I received an email early this morning from Jordan Baker regarding a Case Spares for the 52-Set that had just turned up on the UK eBay site. I am not in need of one, having two already, but this one was interesting because of its nicely preserved stencil markings. These are completely gone on one of my boxes and the other has only fragments surviving.

Sadly, the KimPak Lining and interior partition have been removed from this box, but as noted, the ¾-inch high by ½-inch wide, 1/8-inch thick characters of the stencil are very nice to find and patterning a stencil from this photo should be relatively easy, down the road.

The other interesting feature is the C-Broad Arrow marks on this box. They are somewhat larger than I had expected, and in black. Good to know. The funny thing about these stamps on this particular box is the sheer number of them. Somebody must have been having a very boring day in the Acceptance Room when this box arrived. Note there are two partial stamps on the front of the box, outboard of the lower part of the latch. And then on the lid, there is another pair of complete stamps, roughly midway between the handle plates and the outer edge of the lid.


David

[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