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Cabinet and Chassis Restoration and Refinishing For help with cabinet or chassis restoration (non-electrical), please leave a message here. |
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16th Nov 2015, 2:48 pm | #1 |
Retired Dormant Member
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Halesowen, West Midlands, UK.
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Roberts R500 Restoration
Hi, I have a Roberts R500, which is in black (leather ?). I am looking to restore it for my wife as a present, but I really need to re-colour it.
How would I go about re-colouring one of these? I've thought about wrapping it, but the corners would be hard to get right. I am not sure if I can use any standard, or plastic paints on it, or possibly leather paints/dyes. Any advice you can give me? |
16th Nov 2015, 3:21 pm | #2 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 14,007
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Re: Roberts R500 Restoration
The generally-used product for restoring/recolouring leather in these sorts of cases is "Gliptone".
http://www.liquidleather.com/ I've used it with great success on leather seats and the bellows-thing round the gearlever on classic cars. |
16th Nov 2015, 3:26 pm | #3 |
Retired Dormant Member
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Re: Roberts R500 Restoration
Ok, I'll have a look thanks!
Is the R500 definitely leather? It feels more like plastic actually, now I look at it more? |
16th Nov 2015, 6:10 pm | #4 |
Heptode
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
Posts: 687
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Re: Roberts R500 Restoration
They are covered in a vinyl material rather than leather so possibly something like a coloured shoe cream may improve it. Years ago you could get a paint for plastic that I remember worked very well on some car seats that I had but I don't know if anything like that is still available. The only trouble, of course, is that if its painted and doesn't look good there's no way of getting it off so I would try some sort of polish I think.
I have had a couple of these and one looked as if it was Black in most lights but I think they were originally a very Dark Blue, depends on how they have been stored possibly. Steve. |
18th Nov 2015, 3:07 pm | #5 |
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Re: Roberts R500 Restoration
Ok thanks. It is a bit of a drastic colour change I'm after though. I would like to change it to a "duck egg blue". I have used plastic primer on car parts before, that worked well - would this be the kind of thing to use, which will then allow me to top coat it with almost any paint?
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20th Nov 2015, 12:10 pm | #6 | |
Dekatron
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Re: Roberts R500 Restoration
Quote:
Of course, the old adage "try first on an unobtrusive area" applies here.
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20th Nov 2015, 5:34 pm | #7 |
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Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Roberts R500 Restoration
Most, if not all, 'leathery' materials take acrylic paint well if thoroughly degreased first. I use a small lump of foam to apply a number of successive coats (it only takes a few minutes to dry). As the paint is opaque, there should be no problem with major colour changes.
As Tim says, try it somewhere unobtrusive first, just in case! |
21st Nov 2015, 7:13 pm | #8 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Southport Lancashire, UK.
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Re: Roberts R500 Restoration
I think that restoring it and giving it to your wife is a great idea. I have just restored an R200 and the sound is very good.
However, I would imagine that trying to change black to duck egg blue = disaster. I seem to remember having read a thread on here where somebody re-covered one of these sets which I cannot find now but I bet it isn't easy. Personally I would clean and polish the original cover which I think is vinyl and give it to her in as near to "as new" condition as possible. Paul |
21st Nov 2015, 10:44 pm | #9 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Oxford, UK.
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Re: Roberts R500 Restoration
Quote:
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=101131 Note that David is a very skilled operator though. I too would just smarten up the original finish. N. |
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20th Jan 2016, 2:59 pm | #10 |
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Re: Roberts R500 Restoration
Hi all,
Just wanted to let you all know that the restoration - and even the repainting went well. I stripped off all of the brass parts first, to save masking them up. When it was a shell, I used the rough side of a scourer with some soapy water and gave all of the vinyl a good scrub, which flatted it a bit. I then used some B&Q Valspar paint&primer in one to re-colour it. http://www.diy.com/departments/valsp.../177592_BQ.prd First, put some very very light coats on, then built it up slowly. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/eC...=w1287-h965-no As it's a very matt paint, and it felt like it would scratch easily, I used some standard Halfords Clear spray lacquer: http://www.halfords.com/motoring/pai...er-spray-300ml Didn't spray on too heavily, just enough to give it a bit of a shine, and a good hard-wearing surface. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/gf...=w1287-h965-no |
20th Jan 2016, 9:53 pm | #11 |
Hexode
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Torrington, Devon UK.
Posts: 446
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Re: Roberts R500 Restoration
I have a couple of these that are in need of a make over. Any chance of a couple pics of the finished article?
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21st Jan 2016, 1:52 pm | #12 |
Retired Dormant Member
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Halesowen, West Midlands, UK.
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Re: Roberts R500 Restoration
Sorry, I didn't meant to post that reply - but once I had, it was in the abyss, awaiting approval!
Here is a couple of pics of the finished product: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ym...=w1600-h900-no https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/KU...I=w543-h965-no And this is a pic of the Internals: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/AQ...=w1287-h965-no Speaker box: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/9s...=w1287-h965-no https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/fG...=w1287-h965-no The internals are: - Raspberry Pi B (256Mb) - Powered USB Hub (which also powers the Raspberry Pi) - TP Link USB Wifi dongle - Amp, speaker cones and USB DAC from a set of Logitech V20 speakers, in a home made speaker box. Software on it is RuneAudio. Sound quality is actually very good - obviously not a lot of bass, but the clarity is very good. Streams all music hosted on a file server upstairs, and steams any internet radio station. |
21st Jan 2016, 9:18 pm | #13 |
Administrator
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Cardiff
Posts: 9,073
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Re: Roberts R500 Restoration
Replacing the innards of a vintage radio with modern parts is not restoration as we define it here. In addition the links to the photos don't work - which is probably for the best really.
I'm closing this thread. |