[Hallicrafters] Paint formulas

[Glen Zook]

My experience has been just the opposite.  The matching that has been done at my local Sherwin-Williams store has been "spot on" every time.  It has been the same thing at their main warehouse which is a major paint supplier to the electronics industry in the Dallas, Texas, area.  By the way, I don't pay anything like $22 to $25 a quart for "custom mixed" paint.  The average price for a quart of custom mixed paint in this area is between $14 and $16.

I do not recommend "touching up" the paint if you really want to do the best job.  Often when "new" paint is put over an existing paint the tendency is for the "old" paint to start to "flake off".  This is usually caused by the fact that the original manufacturer did not "prime" the cabinet before painting.  Unfortunately, virtually every radio manufacturer, including Collins Radio, did not prime most of the cabinets before painting.  Basically, none of the manufacturers expected that the radios would still be in use 30, 40, 50, or more years later.

Mixing your own color can be a "hit and miss" proposition.  My eldest daughter, who is a very successful artist, can look at a particular color and see "tints" that I cannot even imagine.  She can mix paint that comes so close to the original color that it is impossible to tell the difference including the "sheen", texture, etc.  But, mixing the color does take time and it has to be done for each individual item.

Since I do not regularly try to "touch up" the paint and since I routinely paint the same colored items I both completely strip the cabinet and use the same basic color.  Again, the color that I paint the cabinet is NOT what it looks like today (including spotting, etc.) but what the color of the cabinet was when the unit was new.  Therefore, the idea is to end up with an even paint job over the entire cabinet.

I also do not use any type of a brush when painting.  It is way too easy to get "brush strokes", uneven levels of paint, and so forth when using a brush to apply the paint.  I use only a compressor and paint gun for the final application of paint.  Now I do use a spray can for applying a primer but not for the final coat of paint.

I do not like to paint panels that have lettering without redoing the labels.  No matter what you do the job is always going to be a compromise.  Silk-screening is, obviously, the best way of restoring the lettering.  Unfortunately, the cost of things like a screen as well as the proper equipment to silk-screen do not come "cheap".  One has to do a "fair" amount of items to recover the cost of the equipment and materials.

When an individual is not concerned with the absolute cost of the project, and when they have an unlimited length of time to complete the project, then all bets are off.  But, the majority of people who are attempting to restore an item do not have unlimited time nor an unlimited budget.  Also, for a repeatable process one basically has to use commercially matched paint or else have to spend a whole lot of time manually matching colors for every project.

By the way, my experience is with a LOT more cabinets than just 3 or 4!

Glen, K9STH

Website:  http://k9sth.com


--- On Sat, 3/6/10, SX-25 <telegrapher at hotmail.com> wrote:

One thing that I do recommend is getting the paint mixed at a "real" paint store 

I disagree.  My experience has been that trusting "real paint stores" to color match with their spectrometry toys is rarely successful. The last time I did this I spent $25 for a quart of so-called "custom paint" that looked terrible. Still trusting the system I went to a different "real paint store" where I dropped  $22 for a quart of a different color for a different rig. Similarly it was a waste of time and I ended up using both quarts to paint a doghouse. 
 
My advice is to buy a quart of something close in color. Also buy a pint of white, black, blue or red...whatever the color highlights seem to indicate. Darken with black. Lighten with white. Change hue with blue or red. Take an old butter container, plop in a little of the base color, then add in a few drops of whatever shade you are working toward with a Popsicle stick. (Obviously use one Popsicle stick for EACH different color and don't dip one from container to container...sigh. Try a test sample somewhere and let dry. While it dries, place your covered butter container in a sealed plastic bag to keep it from drying out (in case the shade ends up being perfect and you wish to go ahead and use what you've mixed. Yes, it is a tedious and time consuming process. It took me every night for a two weeks to hit the shade right on for a match on a Hallicrafters SX-25. But it ended up perfect. Once done, overspray the whole cabinet with matte, semi-gloss or
 gloss acrylic. The end result will be beautiful. I can't stress enough...patience...and testing the effect of everything you do, including the overspray of the acrylic. If it is at all discernable once dry you haven't hit on the formula yet.
 
Also bear in mind that the shade MAY NOT BE CONSISTENT ON THE ENTIRE CABINET. Aging, sun bleach, nicotine etc does not envelope all areas equally and your color may need to be spot applied. This is why it took me two weeks on the SX-25; it took me a week to realize how spotty the coloration becomes.  Also, I have found the best way to apply the color is by daubing it on with a foam brush, then feathering lightly toward areas of different color or where you have left the original silk-screening. Obviously if you have an airbrush it is easier but not everyone owns an airbrush. 
 
I've used this technique on two SX-25s, a Johnson Viking Valiant and a National NC-303 and the results have been most satisfying.
      
Save your bucks at the paint store. They might do OK matching house paint but for smaller things like radios my experience has been otherwise. Good luck.