'56 Hoffman Color-caster

[sampson159]

looks good.the cabinet can be touched up very nicely with a detail brush and some dark shellac.use an artists brush and do it by hand,painstaking but worth the effort.i have done this many times with very good results.do not strip this.it is good enough to do a simple touch up on.i am glad to see how nice this cleaned up.

[Cruiseomatic]

I did a light vacuum and light oxy-clean and another vacuum. Looks alot better. On the cabinet though,I cleaned as well as I could get,Lots of Old English polish and some TLC detail. Now on the left side is a small hole in it and like can be seen in the pictures,parts of veneer broken off. But I'm slowly getting it. Monday the chassis is getting "New" life. I say new in quotes because It could end up with new but original style wax/paper caps back in it. They are new because they were never used once. Might have good shelf life,Don't know. We'll see. I also heard Sprague, The ones who made Orange Drops went belly up. Is this fact or fiction?
Thanks for the help guys. As ya'll can see it really is being taken to heart and applied. If I could get the screen surround painted then all I'd be waiting on is the chassis. Is that just a normal gray and white or is it a special shade?

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by Cruiseomatic

If I could get the screen surround painted then all I'd be waiting on is the chassis. Is that just a normal gray and white or is it a special shade?

I'm sure the gray is a metallic. Take it to a professional auto paint jobber, they should have lacquer in a can for $5-7 that would be a very close match.

[Cruiseomatic]

After alot of brushing and TLC It went from this:



To this:

[Steve D.]

Chuck,

I haven't posted to this thread for some time. You did as I suggested at the beginning and used a good furniture wax and a little elbow grease. The cabinet and grille cloth cleaned up great. Just needs some slight touch up and then leave it alone. The chassis cleaned up very well. As suggested take the screen surround (mask) with you when you do the paint matching. Careful masking when you spray should make for a nice original look. Use the blue 3M masking tape. I hope you were able to carefully clean up the knobs and glue the broken one together. Then it's on to the technical side of this restoration.

-Steve D.

[Charlie]

You say you might be re-capping this set with NOS paper/wax caps? That might not be a wise move. Even if these caps weren't previously used, they likely won't hold up for very long. Paper/wax caps weren't the greatest even when they were new... and they don't get better with age. If you want to keep the chassis looking original, you should restuff the old caps with new ones.

[Cruiseomatic]

How does one "Re-stuff" old caps and electrolytics?
Steve, On the knobs that one that broke inside went back together really nice and now you can not even tell it happened.

[miniman82]

Definitely get rid of the nasty old caps, even the Micamold ones: trust me on that one!

Restuffing article: http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl...ntage&n=171603

[Sandy G]

Yeah, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE do NOT trust this dream set to wax/paper caps...Even if they're guaranteed new-old-stock.

[Cruiseomatic]

I won't. It was just a thought when he told me he had them, to keep it original as much as possible. After the cabinet,newer type pic tube and electrical restoration and re-painting the mask.....After all this I don't think it will be worth much. What do ya'll think? Looked at where the cabinet is missing veneer and it looks like they glued veneer down and stained it. If thats the case then it could be re-finished. No, I'm not saying I will do it but I do need something to cover up all the "Battle Scars" of 53 years....The front is the worst,next to the left side,then the top.

[Phil Nelson]

If you are curious about recapping, including "restuffing," read this article:

http://antiqueradio.org/recap.htm

Meanwhile, please phone your service guy right now and tell him not to use NOS caps from that period, whether wax paper, plastic coated paper, or whatever. They are all junk because moisture invisibly gets inside them over the years, whether or not they are used. Even if they test OK at the moment, they will not last under normal operating voltage.

The article shows the different types, but since you're not doing the work, that is mainly FYI for your curiosity. Just tell your guy to use new caps. Whether you want to pay him extra to "restuff" the old cap shells with new ones is up to you. I wouldn't pay extra for that, personally. Once the chassis is back in the cabinet, you are not going to pull it out every time a visitor stops over. As for future value, I suspect a future owner would pay more for a set that has been restored responsibly, rather than patched together with unreliable NOS parts.

Phil Nelson

[jeyurkon]

Add me to the list of people in favor of not using NOS paper caps. However, if you already have them and want to do some of the work yourself, you could take the NOS caps and restuff them. Have the guy who is doing the work for you order the correct caps to use and restuff the NOS ones with them. That way the caps would be ready for your tech to swap when he recaps the set.

They will be hidden though so unless you have your own reasons for wanting it to look more original underneath, you don't really need to go to the extra work of restuffing them.

John

[Cruiseomatic]

I told him to go with new caps. There are some that test very good to good that he said should just be left alone. Some are completely dead and some are just goners. I took it to him tonight and we'll find out in about a week to a week and a half and see how it went.

[Charlie]

Cruise-O,

He really should change out ALL of those paper caps... even if the originals test good. If he leaves them in there, they will indeed fail.... especially once all the rest of the caps and lytics have been changed... those old originals left in there will not last long at all. They will be the weakest link.

If you buy a Comet with a set of tires that are 40 years old, you're gonna change all four or they will start blowing with use. If you change 3, and leave the 4th because it still looks okay, it too will still fail soon with use simply because it's old and the rubber isn't strong like it used to be. Same thing applies to these paper/wax caps.

Leave them in there, and you'll have to pull that chassis out again later. Change them now and be done with it while you already have it apart.

[zenithfan1]

Ditto on what Charlie says.....