[R-390] My repaint success

[Tim Shoppa]

With great encouragement from this list, I've repainted the front of
my yellow striper.

As it arrived from Fair Radio the front was obviously depot-repainted
already.  The back of the front panel had no legends.  The front had
some extra holes (including diode load jack) and some extra holes for
rack-mounting, some of which had been bondo-ed over.

Paint removal wasn't all that bad.  I bought some stripper at home
depot and with a couple of applications it had removed the paint from
both the front and the back.

I then began sanding down (320, 400, 640, 800 grade) the front and
the back.  I used some bamboo skewers to clean out the engraved lettering.
Bondo filled the extra holes and the diode load hole and text.

First paint job was not a total success.  I started with Rustoleum
industrial enamel primer and followed by their "forest green" industrial
enamel.  There was a fair amount of orange-peel effect and I was not
happy.

Repeated the strip/sand procedure.  Did a little more bondo-ing.

Second paint job went much better.  I skipped the primer and
heated the green paint in hot water before spraying on.  The result
was zero orange peel and a very nice surface.

Baked in a cardboard box with 150 watts of light bulbs for a day or
two.  The panel got too hot to hold for more than a few seconds...
I'm guessing temps of 150 or so.

Filled in the lettering with acrylic "titanium white".  I brushed it
into the lettering and then wiped with a paper towel.  I think a
rubber squeegee would've been better as sometimes the towel would
remove white paint from inside the engraving, but a second application
fixed it up when this happened.

The result is stunning even if not "original" appearance.  The green
is glossy and deep/dark.  The lettering is vibrantly white.

Maybe for my next R-390A refurb I'll go with smoke gray.  Or maybe
candy-apple red :-).

I will also probably put a little more effort into sanding the bondo
down next time.  Where I filled in holes I can see a very slightly
different texture to the paint.  It is not at all noticeable, I only
see it if I look for it.  A light sanding and a second coat of paint
probably would've taken care of it but I didn't want to get too much
of the base coat into the engravings.

Tim.