[Hallicrafters] BLACK WRINKLE PAINT

[Mr. and Mrs. Magoo]

The Plasti-Kote black wrinkle paint does a very nice job on a small piece of 
work, but my attempts at doing the panel of an HRO receiver resulted in an 
uneven wrinkle.  I know that I was not able to apply the same amount of 
paint to the complete surface even though it appeared as though I had.  The 
coats must be HEAVY and it is deceiving how much paint has been applied when 
doing a large surface.

The commercial applicators place the item to be painted on a conveyer belt 
and have a paint nozzle system which is wide enough to apply a constant 
amount of paint to a given area as the belt moves past.

The problem with doing a cabinet using a spray bomb is that there is a 
tendency for the paint to run unless the work is lying flat, so it is 
necessary to paint one surface at a time.

I did find that two coats applied 10 minutes apart and heated in an oven at 
about 150 deg.F produced a nice "fine" wrinkle and that three coats applied 
10 minutes apart and similarly heated produced a heavier and more noticeable 
wrinkle.  The texture of the wrinkle is very similar to what one sees on old 
rack panels from Hammond, Mfg and others, and ,depending on how much paint 
you apply ,you can make the wrinkle appear anywhere from very light to 
moderately heavy.

I finally finished my HRO panel using a product called Stone Creations 
Speckle (Granite) , overspraying with a matte black.  It looks quite 
authentic. Glen, K9STH is the fellow who put me on to this method initially. 
He has finished several large items using this method and I think he has 
been quite satisfied with the results, as have I.  If you wish to eliminate 
the larger "speckles" which this product produces, simply spray your piece 
through window screen.  You will have to use a little more paint but the 
finish will be finer.

 The "purists" might turn their noses up at using this method, but the 
finished product looks quite good, and you can spray a complete cabinet 
instead of doing individual panels.

Bill, VE3NH