[ARC5] Antenna Current Meter Needed - wrinkle paint

[J. Forster]

> On 5/5/2014 1:19 PM, J. Forster wrote:
>> On the paint, there are scores of solutions, none of them really work
>> well
>> IMO.
>
> They have gotten worse over the years, John.  When I first started
> painting with it back in the late 1980s, I used a General Cement product
> that produced beautiful results as long as you could maintain the film
> thickness roughly consistent with each coat. Sadly, the remainder of two
> boxes of a dozen cans each eventually stopped wrinkling in a
> satisfactory way.  I've tried all the replacements mentioned here on the
> list since then and have been unsatisfied with the reflective condition
> - under a microscope none of them had the same gloss finish that existed
> with the GC stuff or in the original WWII finishes.

Yup.

>  That tell-tale
> "glisten" only exists for a short time after painting, typically a few
> minutes.  A check with the microscope on samples shows it turning into a
> semigloss finish within an hour of putting the second or third coat on.

My thinking is to mix the flat and gloss model paints to try and get a
match. However, this is complicated because the original paint is 70-odd
years old. I'm thinking of trying to match what it looks like after being
waxed w/ Renaissance Wax.

> Okay, I'm extremely picky, but I'd like to get what I got with the GC
> paint.  I know that the formulation has changed over the last twenty
> years, probably due to EPA regulations, but I have an aversion to having
> to run over a newly painted surface a month later with a terrycloth
> towel and glass black to get that glisten.

Per above, try Renaissance Wax. It's also called Museum Curator's Wax.

> Recently, though, I tried a
> new black wrinkle from Rustoleum (251576).  I had learned not to be too
> optimistic in each of these tests, and so when it wrinkled nicely, I
> just waited for the inevitable loss of glisten.  To my surprise, it
> didn't happen.  I used the paint on a new FT-154 tray that I made for a
> friend who found a top without a bottom tray, and after six months here
> is how it still looked: http://aafradio.org/garajmahal/FT-154_base.JPG
> (I also had to make new snap slide posts due to corrosion of the
> originals).  Under the microscope it retains that gloss surface that is
> so essential to creating "the look".

What kin of 'scope aree you using? What power and lighting?

> Unfortunately, I have not had good luck with small areas either, even
> with the old GC product loaded in an air brush...the result was not the
> same as a complete panel spray because of the film thickness problem at
> the edge of the spot being repainted.  However, the latest products
> mentioned in this thread all do wrinkle to a degree with a single coat
> now, so perhaps the air brush approach might be workable with those.
> I'll have to try it when we have some days over 80°F again.

I'm not at all keen on an air brush, except possible for a very light,
color matching overspray as a last step.

Currently, I'm inclined to use a permanent black Sanford Sharpie to darken
exposed aluminum areas, pending a really good resolution.

FWIW,

-John

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>             73,
>   - Mike  KC4TOS
>
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