Hacker RP37 VHF Herald

[canonman75]

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

Very nice work indeed, Dave, an inspiration to us all.

Thanks very much!

If it inspires others to have a go then that's even better

[Al (astral highway)]

Dave,

Just to say thanks for sharing your work; it's an incredible standard of workmanship you've got going there, pretty much factory gate condition it looks as if you're aiming for !!!

Max kudos to you !!

[Radiocruncher]

Dave

I have heard back from Jon. He is not able to paint it for you but was happy for me to pass on the info so here's the text from a email we exchanged a while ago:

"The paint I used is Hycote double acrylic in Ford Burgundy Red and then Antigue Gold. Couldn't spot the repairs behind the plastic. It's a scary process to scrape off the blackened paint where the felt used to be but I've done several now and they look great so don't be alarmed. The trick is to let the burgundy dry and use a straight edge to score along the border close to the masking tape. Then apply the gold.

A couple of times I removed the tape and it pulled off the paint so scoring that edge would be my advice. Not deep into the back of the faceplate but a sharp blade will save you from headaches when it comes to removing the tape. Then, after the tape is gone you can apply the gold and it doesn't matter if it goes over the top of the burgundy. That repair can be seen from the underside, obviously, but on top it will look like it was never touched."

Hopefully this will sort it for you and thanks to Jon (Ti Pwun) for the text.

Here's a couple links to the paint

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...d=261633918764
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...d=261633897030

Regards

Graham

[canonman75]

Originally Posted by astral highway

Just to say thanks for sharing your work; it's an incredible standard of workmanship you've got going there, pretty much factory gate condition it looks as if you're aiming for !!!

Thanks for that, Al

I'm just aiming to get them as good as I can with what's available in terms of parts and my skills. I'm still fairly new to Hackers, I've only got three so far and no basket-cases to pinch spare parts from. I'm still treating it as a learning process and it's great that we have a lot of very skilled restorers on here who are willing to share their skills with us. It certainly makes learning easier

I suppose I am a bit of a perfectionist, so even on the radios that have been restored I know where all the imperfect bits are. The rest of my family probably wouldn't spot them unless I point them out, but I still know where they are

[canonman75]

Originally Posted by Radiocruncher

I have heard back from Jon. He is not able to paint it for you but was happy for me to pass on the info

Graham, you are a star!

Many thanks to you and Jon for the info. I'll definitely be having a go at this, although I may just wait until you've done one first and filmed it for YouTube

In the meantime, I've got plenty to keep me busy with the back door and doing the handle a second time, because I cocked it up the first time round!

Cheers,

Dave

[Radiocruncher]

Many thanks to you and Jon for the info. I'll definitely be having a go at this, although I may just wait until you've done one first and filmed it for YouTube

I have ordered the paint Dave so I will have a go when I get chance.

Regards

Graham

[canonman75]

Good luck, and there's no rush for it.

I haven't been near the workshop for days... I've either been run ragged by work, out at comedy shows or it's just been too hot to bother doing much

[canonman75]

Right, time for another update, and unfortunately it's all gone very pear-shaped with the back door...

First of all, I needed to repair all five of the pegs on the plastic grille as they were broken and the grille was actually glued (just about!) to the rexine

I used Radiocruncher's method with the copper wire and glue. The only wire I'd got was quite thick but I thought it would be okay and would be more sturdy than using thinner wire. I managed to sink the wires into the grille without going straight though it, but unfortunately I used a bit to much superglue on the middle 'peg' and it ran straight through to the outside of the grille and I couldn't wipe the excess off without it leaving a horrible white mess behind! Undeterred, I started to fit the grille back on to the door and realised that some of the new wire pegs must be off centre as the grill just wouldn't go back on striaght. I ended up enlarging the holes in the door a fair bit before I could get the grille back on straight. It was slightly off centre, by a few millimetres, but I thought nobody's going to notice that, they'll see the superglue residue first instead

Next job was to take the rexine off around the edges, pin it back out of the way and fit a new piece of foam. Up to this point I'd been using an ironing board cover as my foam supply and not had any problems. Here though, I didn't leave enough time for the PVA glue to set and it ended up soaking straight through the foam, as I discovered later... I managed to stick the rexine back down and it looked pretty good from the outside. The next day, I set about sticking the gold piping down using Evo Stick. As it takes the best part of a day to set properly, I made up some battens so that I could hold the piping in place, while using some large strips of wood on the foam side so that it wouldn't squash the foam too much while I'd got the clamps on to apply some pressure. I took the clamps and battens off the next day and was horrified to see that the foam had been squashed flat under the rexine and showed no signs of wanting to puff back up again! This was when I figured out that the glue has soaked right through the foam

The only course of action was to carefully take the rexine back off, replace all the foam and stick it back down again. This time round, instead of just zig-zagging the glue on the wood, I used a new paintbrush to spread it evenly, and used some brand new (and slightly thinner) scrim foam so it would hopefully be easier to stretch the rexine back over it. I left it a good eight hours for the glue to set and it was indeed bone dry when I went back to stick the rexine back down. This is where things really start to go t*ts up though, as the rexine just couldn't cope with being stretched over the wood for a third time. Three of the four corner pieces ripped straight off, and it ripped in a few places where the piping had been glued down over it. I just couldn't get the corners looking tidy because it was just impossible to put enough tension in the rexine without ripping it to bits. The fact that it's red made it a damn site worse as well. Then finally, just to add insult to injury, two of the home-made wire pegs on the rear grille let go because they couldn't take the tension either!

I hate to say it, but at this point I raised the white flag and gave up on the door. To get it right again I'm going to have to cover it in a new piece of red rexine and find another grille for it. I'm tempted to put out a request on the 'items wanted' page for a complete red door with a good (or repairable) grille but to be honest I think my chances of being offered one will be slim, even if I offer to pay good money for it!

Even when the door is completed, I still need to touch up the paint on the tuning dial and find some countersunk hinge screws and a new aerial tip to replace the missing one.

At the moment I'm undecided as to whether I should just put this one to one side until I can get another door, get the parts to rebuild this door, or just use the radio as a parts donor

Sorry, but there's no photos with this update. I'm too embarrassed about the shambles I've made to be sharing any photos of it...

[paulsherwin]

No need for embarrassment. This sort of cabinet restoration work is tricky to get right and it's very easy to cock things up. Been there, done that...

Put it to one side for a bit. You'll return to it with fresh enthusiasm and lots of ideas.

[mhennessy]

Oh dear! The red ones aren't easy, and certainly I haven't got around to finishing one yet. All mine are different colours, implying that they fade a bit, which makes swapping a bit tricky, but hopefully something suitable will turn up.

For what it's worth:

I haven't tried the copper wire trick. In the past, I've used M2.5 screws, and carefully and neatly drilled/countersunk the plastic grille. If I'd found some black ones, that method would be 100% fine in my book, but the silver-coloured screws used do stand out somewhat. An alternative to that is to glue the screws to the rear of the grille, and a restorer I know locally does that to great effect. IIRC, he uses Araldite. I plan to try it myself next time...

For the foam, I've never glued it to anything. There's simply no need, and it seems to me that it's yet another thing that could attack the foam in years to come.

For glueing the piping back on, I've just used Loctite All-Purpose adhesive. Very simple, and works well. However, the stuff used on the red sets is a different type of plastic, so I can't guarantee it'll work. No problem for the white stuff though. It sets up quickly enough to not need clamping or anything, but gives you a chance to align it all before it goes off.

I'm sure the next one will go much more smoothly

[canonman75]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

Put it to one side for a bit. You'll return to it with fresh enthusiasm and lots of ideas.

Thanks. Hopefully so!

Dave

[canonman75]

Originally Posted by mhennessy

Oh dear! The red ones aren't easy, and certainly I haven't got around to finishing one yet. All mine are different colours, implying that they fade a bit, which makes swapping a bit tricky, but hopefully something suitable will turn up.

For what it's worth:

I haven't tried the copper wire trick. In the past, I've used M2.5 screws, and carefully and neatly drilled/countersunk the plastic grille. If I'd found some black ones, that method would be 100% fine in my book, but the silver-coloured screws used do stand out somewhat. An alternative to that is to glue the screws to the rear of the grille, and a restorer I know locally does that to great effect. IIRC, he uses Araldite. I plan to try it myself next time...

For the foam, I've never glued it to anything. There's simply no need, and it seems to me that it's yet another thing that could attack the foam in years to come.

For glueing the piping back on, I've just used Loctite All-Purpose adhesive. Very simple, and works well. However, the stuff used on the red sets is a different type of plastic, so I can't guarantee it'll work. No problem for the white stuff though. It sets up quickly enough to not need clamping or anything, but gives you a chance to align it all before it goes off.

I'm sure the next one will go much more smoothly

Thanks. I hope so!

Nope, the red ones definitely aren't easy. The annoying thing is that the front was pretty simple to re-foam, no bother at all in fact!

I wouldn't have been quite so embarrassed if it had been a black one, but it's a red one and we all know they're a bit more rare and cost more

I like the sound of gluing screws to the back of the grille, so I may give that a try on the next one. To be fair, I still like the copper wire trick but I think the only reason I struggled with it this first time, was because the wire was a bit too thick and I was a bit cack-handed with the superglue!

I was going to make up a jig to help with gluing the piping back on, so I could hold everything in place without risk of squashing the new foam flat. If the glue you suggested doesn't need clamping then I might not need the jig, so thanks for that

I still think there's a need to glue the foam down in a few places, just to stop it moving around while I fold the rexine back over it to stick back down. The glue may react with the foam eventually, as you say, but as I'm using foam with a cloth backing I'm hoping it won't. Time will tell, I guess.

Anyway... I'll put the red one to one side until I can find another. Then hopefully I should be able to build one really great radio out of a couple of duffers.

I'm not letting this disaster put me off, I've got another Hunter on the way and they're fairly simple compared to this. I hope I haven't cursed myself by saying that....

[nebogipfel]

I have not actually done one so am not speaking with any authority but I think if I was going to tackle this job (and I have a couple to do) I would avoid excessive use of strong clamps which will have a tendency to bruise or flatten the foam. When it comes to glue the obvious choice would seem to be an impact adhesive such as Thixofix or similar. Most allow a short window for repositioning but need minimal clamping once firmly pushed together.

I would also be inclined to glue the foam in just a few spots and allow the rexine to actually hold it in place.

This is of course with the caveat that it would be a much more permanent fix. I know Graham (Radiocruncher) uses PVA so that the glue is fairly easy to soak off in the future but it does have more limitations IMO.

[canonman75]

I agree with you on the use of clamps, and I do try and avoid using them if I can help it. I only got caught out here because the Evo Stik that I was using to stick the piping down looked like it needed a bit of pressure to make it stick firmly. Maybe if I hadn't clamped it and just left it overnight, it would still have worked. Who knows? I do tend to use PVA for almost everything else though, as it's cheap as chips, it works, and it can be soaked off again if needs be.

Now might be a good time for me to explain the idea I had for the jig. It's basically a piece of wood the same size as the back of the radio, with inch-wide pieces of foam along all four sides, and four small batons than are just big enough to hold the piping in place. The idea of having foam on the big piece of wood is that it would be less damaging to the foam on the back of door, when the door is clamped inbetween it and the batons. That's the theory anyway. Whether it would work or not, and how thick the inch-wide strips of foam need to be, I'm not sure. I have both 5mm scrim foam and one inch thick foam from an old headboard so I could try both. I was just going to build it and see how well it works!

If anyone can spot a flaw in my plan or has any suggestions at all, I'm all ears

[mhennessy]

I think if I was to make such a clamp, I'd build it so that the contact point on the outer side of the door is where the rear grill is. The door is quite stiff, so wouldn't mind the pressure being applied to the middle. Probably

The more I think about it, the more I can see it working. You'd need two sheets of ply or similar that are larger than the panel, a means to join them together (which could be dead simple or really quite elaborate), plus the batons to contact the rear of the piping. You could consider making a dual-sized version, as the Sovereign sets have slightly different dimensions to the Heralds.

To save damaging the rear grille, it's probably best left off until the piping has been glued. But depending on the force required, it might not actually matter.

Bear in mind there are 2 types of wood used by these sets - earlier ones were good old birch ply; later ones were something akin to stirling board. So there might be 2 different maximum clamping forces to consider...

[canonman75]

Good point about using the plastic grille as the main contact point, Mark!

With that in mind, I've just drawn a quick sketch of something that looks like it might be a winner. It's basically a plywood or MDF base (depending on what offcuts I can find in the workshop!) with a raised platform of the same material in the middle to support the grille. The raised platform will have a piece of scrim foam stuck on top to protect the grille and the perimeter of the base will have some inch-wide strips of thicker foam to protect the door. I have some low density foam, 40mm thick but compresses down to about 5mm, which would be ideal for that job. The clamps that I use are only small, so unless I get really heavy-handed while tightening them up, they shouldn't exert too much force on the door. With the centre platform being raised and covered in foam, it shouldn't really make any difference whether the grille is still attached to the door or not.

I had an idea that the Sovereign II's back door was the same size as the VHF Herald's because they share the same chassis. I didn't know the original Sovereign was different though...

If you happen to have the dimensions of a Sovereign back door handy, then I can try and come up with something that works for both. I haven't got a Sovereign yet..... it's only a matter of time though