Grundigs of the 70's
 

Those that have silver effect speaker grilles are particularly vulnerable to damage - I think of Ocean, Yacht, Melody boy's etc.

Once they've got dents getting them back to original is not impossible but very difficult.

My question though is about those that whilst as flat as boards have surface marks created by stains from grease to various household cleaners etc.

Cleaning them (if it hasn't already happened) creates darker surface patches - still silver of the exposed metal underneath creating a blotchy appearance.

My uneducated interpretation of this is that a surface protection has been removed and if only I could remove the remainder - clean it thoroughly then say spray lacquer the surface it would come back to an approximation of it's original appearance.

I'm going to attempt this with a scrap set but it would be interesting to know if anyone has already done it and what techniques/products were employed.

Re: Grundigs of the 70's
 

If the grill is removable I think it might be worth putting it in the dishwasher?
I tried this with a gold anodised aluminium grill from a Bush radio, came up lovely and clean but took all the colour from the anodising!
Had to spray it to get the appearance correct.

Alan

Re: Grundigs of the 70's
 

Thanks Alan, good way of getting the muck off !

Has anyone re-lacquered a Grundig grill - technique - success rate ?

Regards,

David.

Re: Grundigs of the 70's
 

I have never found a solution to a dirty speaker grille on an early 70s Grundig. Cleaning them wrecks the finish. I found this out the hard way.

Cleaning down to the bare metal looks completely wrong, but it seems to be all you can do to make the best of a bad job.

Re: Grundigs of the 70's
 

I wonder if the original finish was electroplating, but maybe vacuum deposition like for the silvering on a telescope mirror or the metallisation on a CD or balloon mylar film might work, if it could be arranged at an economic price. Not easy! and re-chroming now is fabulously expensive.... add in the ROHS fears of chromium VI.

David

Re: Grundigs of the 70's
 

I think the original finish is some sort of transparent patterned lacquer. It's very thin, and anything aggressive enough to deal with grease stains wrecks it. It doesn't help that radios like Party Boys tend to have spent part of their lives as kitchen sets so are often filthy.

Re: Grundigs of the 70's
 

Apologies not been back for some while - - thank you for the comments and suggestions.

I've still to attack a "Sunburst" grill by taking off the old lacquer (if that's what it is) then respraying with new.

Part of my problem is keeping it clean of bits before, whilst spraying and then drying so the end result is free of surface marks.

Will be doing it in a domestic situation so finished result may be a bit of a lottery.

Thanks again will report back when done.

Re: Grundigs of the 70's
 

Good luck, but I bet it doesn't look right :(

This doesn't mean the radios become unusable of course, or even look particularly damaged, but the original finish is lost. I've considered spraying the grilles matt black in the past but never actually done it.