[ARC5] Question

[David Stinson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Floyd Petri" <fpetri at eastex.net>
Subject: [ARC5] Question


> Does anyone know what will clean the aluminum Command Receivers? I have
seen
> pictures of the before cleaning and the after cleaning and there was a
real
> difference. The cleaned ones looked new and bright....

There was a time, when I was young and foolish,
 I used a spray-type household cleaner, against the advice of
others.  Those sets now, ten years later, have green corrosion around
the screw heads that comes back a few years after washing it away
with water and a tooth brush.  Live and learn.

Now that I'm old and foolish, I use only mild soap- no fragrances
or other junk, water, a toothbrush and fine scotchbrite pads,
along with a lot of elbow grease and a bucket of patience.
Rinse until you're absolutely sure it's clean.  Then rinse it again.
Clean water will not hurt your command set radio, assuming
you let it dry for several days before you try to power it.
But a caution or two: washing dirty water into your tuning condensers
or IF cans most certainly will hurt them, so take care in your cleaning.
Also, excess elbow grease around any markings or stampings
will obliterate them.  Be gentle.
If you want it to shine, you'll need some fine-grade rubbing compound
that works on aluminium, a small buffing wheel and another
trip to the Well of Patience to dip-up another bucket-full.
You'll have to remove all the dials, knobs and screws if
you want to do it right.
Make sure you get all the rubbing compound back off.
You're dealing with soft aluminium,
so it's not going to keep a bright shine without
some kind of sealing to keep the metal from oxidizing again.
Don't use a silicon-based shine-em-up like Armorall.
It's impossible to remove should you need to do so.

I've "shined-up" only one transmitter and did not attempt to
seal it afterwards.  It stayed "shiny-er" even without the sealing,
but did become less lustrous over time.
In my opinion, it was a big pain in the neck
and made the set look unnatural.
These days, I just clean them and touch-up any paint problems.
Each to his own, of course, and best wishes on the task.

D>S>

P.S. If you're going to do all this, get some paste silver polish
and clean up the roller coil assembly as I've written about in the past.
You'll be glad you did.