[Boatanchors] Re: [National] Wrinkled Paint Finishes

[Garey Barrell]

I once painted a Teletype M-28 with Illinois Bronze brand wrinkle paint. 
  Obviously the base cabinet was too large to fit in any oven I had 
available!

I used "brooder lamps" (infrared heat lamps) in clamp-on reflectors to 
wrinkle the paint.  The entire cabinet was painted in one session, then 
the lamps were moved around at 1 - 2 foot distance as the paint 
wrinkled/dried.  You could aim the lamps at an area and watch the paint 
wrinkle, then move the lamp to the next area.  Once the paint was 
wrinkled evenly, three lamps were clamped on chairs to hold them in 
place for 30 minutes or so to finish the drying cycle.

The paint job looked great, evenly wrinkled, and 40 years later was 
still in excellent condition.

73, Garey - K4OAH
Atlanta


WA1KBQ at aol.com wrote:
> In the case of later NC-300's having a wrinkle finish National originally 
> painted the whole cabinet in a darker gray wrinkle and oversprayed the top 
> portion with a lighter gray to achieve the two-tone color scheme. likewise with the 
> NC-303 and NC-400, those cabinets were originally painted completely in black 
> wrinkle and over sprayed afterwards at the beltline and above with light gray 
> to achieve two tone. It would be adviseable to repaint your cabinet first in 
> any suitable wrinkle paint to get a good wrinkled base coat and overspray with 
> the desired color coat. Preparation is the key to achieving good results; a 
> clean properly sanded well prepared surface is a critical for good results. Try 
> to get down to base metal entirely and do not prime the surface, for some 
> reason wrinkle paint wrinkles better without primer. Poor inadequate preparation 
> will always show through in the finished work. One good thick even coat and 
> proper application of heat is an absolute requirement to achieving the desired 
> effect. You could get a big cardboard moving box from U-Haul, etc., to make a 
> small paint booth/ bake oven out of it by positioning heat lamps inside. It goes 
> without saying that you would not leave this thing unattended afterwards with 
> the heat lamps turned on.
> 
> Regards, 
> Greg Gore; WA1KBQ