[Drake] Drake copper chassis restoral

[Ron Wagner]

Hello all,
I think the most often question I hear ask is about chassis restoral.  
Well I too have ask, and finally I think I have something to offer our 
Drake family on the subject.

I think that I have found a reasonable way to restore a copper chassis on 
a Drake radio.  There are several ideas that I do not take credit for, I 
cannot remember who told me about them.  I only took various ideas and 
combined them into a process that seems to work for me.  If anyone can 
find a way to restore the lettering on the chassis, please advise.

Ever since I video taped the Dayton  Drake forum "The Drake Engineers 
Reunion" I have been watching the tape and finding new little tid-bits of 
information.  One major item that I picked up on was that the copper 
chassises were lacquered.  That makes a lot of sense then with what we see 
on the deterioration.  Obviously those rigs which were well cared for and 
reasonably handled are still generally nice and shiny. If the lacquer did 
not get damaged, the chassis more or less stayed "mint".  Over time, the 
lacquer can wear away, or develop minor pinholes and the copper goes bad.

Give that information, here is some information on experiments that I have 
done.  Basically I clean the chassis and then recoat.  The process is as 
follows.

Equipment:
Dremel type motor tool with flexible shaft
Dremel type nylon brush tool
Flitz polish (other brands may work) got mine at ACE hardware
Model airplane "dope"  (A type of paint finish which I think is lacquer 
based)
Q-tips or artist paint brush

Process:
1. Take the Dremel brush and mount via the flexible shaft. If you need 
more information on this step, kindly see your Dremel tool manual.  And if 
that doesn't get you there, maybe you should not be touching your Drake's 
internals  :-) 
2. Open the Flitz and squeeze just a bit up to the top of the tube.
3. Dip your nylon Dremel brush into the Flitz
4. Start the Dermal at a slow to medium rpm (definitely not full rpm as 
that will throw the Flitz off the brush).
5. Use the brush to slowly "scrub" an area that is spotted or corroded.
6. Watch so that you don't get too big of an area going
7. Watch so that when the Flitz starts to dry slightly that you stop.
8. Wipe away the remaining Flitz with a paper towel.
9. You should have a nice shiny area where you just cleaned.
10. Within a few hours, take a Q-tip and dip into the airplane dope. The 
idea is not to let the copper get dirty or worse yet your skin oils on 
before you coat it.
11. Use the Q-tip to roll over the area you have cleaned.
12. Roll the Q-tip right/left, then up/down.  You want to get a nice 
coating.
13.  Make sure you have the cleaned area covered and sealed with airplane 
dope.
14. You have just repaired your spotted chassis. 
15. Let the airplane dope dry and inspect, a second coating may be in 
order.

Obviously, for an entire chassis you will need several sessions.  Keep in 
mind that you are trying to clean and coat. Don't get skin oils on  the 
chassis!!!  Don't let the chassis sit too long, or it will tarnish.  
How long is too long, well I really do not know.  Also keep in mind that 
Flitz is a mild abrasive, it will take the copper off of the steal if you 
let it dry out, or  polish too much.

I have owned a set of B twins that went through a house fire for over 20 
years.  They were and to some extent are still "a mess".   I have tried 
various methods of cleaning and sealing, including alcohol and automotive 
wax, and it did pretty well.  But about a year and a half ago I tried 
this, and it really seems to work.  Please keep in mind that your mileage 
may vary.

I do not have a lot of time to spend over the next several month, but I 
hope to get some pictures of this process and have Ron wb4hfn.com or Tom 
zerobeat.net put up a bit on their web site for all of us to benefit from.  

73,
Ron Wagner WD8SBB