[ARC5] Wrinkle Paint

[Robert Eleazer]

I already sent this VFR Direct to Jay, so here it is for the rest of y'all.

Wayne

The paint is called "VHT High Temperature Wrinkle Plus."  It is sold in auto parts stores and supposedly is good to 350F.  I believe I found it in Autozone.

I have two other brands of wrinkle finish paint and I have found out that YOU DO NOT WANT TO USE AN OLD CAN OF THE STUFF.  Last year I tried to use an old can for painting a Heathkit SG-6 and ended up with a huge mess.  Fortunately since it was the rear cabinet for an SG-6 it really did not matter since I just wanted it better rather than original.

I found the problem with the VHT is that if you put it on too thick it gives rather courser wrinkles than the original and if you put it on too thin it does not wrinkle at all.  With the BC-348 front panel you do not want to risk putting it on too thick because then you will obscure the raised lettering..  Consequently on both my 1st and 2nd painting attempts I had a few spots, streaks, really where there is little or no wrinkle finish.

The control lettering for the BC-348 is raised above the surface, apparently stamped as part of the production process.  I think the best way to letter it would be to paint it silver before the rest of the case is painted, apply something like Liquid Mask (which can be found in hobby shops) to the lettered area and then cut out the mask around the letters.  Then you could paint the whole thing and then scrape the liquid mask off the letters to reveal the silver lettering.  But I have used a silver Sharpie marker to do the job on another BC-348 I repainted and while it was not perfect it was the best approach I have found.  I was hopeful that the Rub and Buff would work but I was unable to find away to apply it without it getting all over everything else.  I guess you could use the Liquid Mask approach after the panel was painted with wrinkle paint.  Cover the whole area of each marking, up to say, 1/2 in on each side, with Liquid Mask.   Then cut out the mask over the raised markings, then paint (note: they make thin paint markers also, I have one) or use Rub and Buff or Sharpie for the markings - that should work but it would be a job cutting out those markings from the Liquid Mask - I may try it, though. 

By the way, I came up with a way to restore the "faded" markings on BC-348 frequency dials if you are interested.