York 863 knobs

[Tea_Bot]

Long shot but I have a York 863 CB radio. The control knobs are painted silver but are a bit thin with wear, showing the yellowish plastic underneath. Tempted to carefully rub down and repaint.

Anybody successfully done this? If so could they recommend a paint/product, Plastikote?

Cheers, Tea-Bot.

[SiriusHardware]

I can't help directly with your question, but I do have an 863 myself so I would be interested to know the outcome from this.

Quite a few Cybernet-built radios with brand names other than York used the same knobs, sometimes Silver / Grey like the Yorks, sometimes black. Offhand, Ham International (Black), HyGain (Silver), and some Colt and Major models - this is not a complete list - also used these knobs so if you keep an eye out for a basket case 'spares only' example of one of those, that might get you some spare knobs to play with. Of course you could also look out for another 863 with a terminal fault but in otherwise good condition, same principle.

[Tea_Bot]

Thanks, yes. Sounds like a car boot / radio rally job.
The other option is take one to a paint factors and have them match it up, or compare to the rattle cans at halfords etc. Worth doing as the radio is immaculate otherwise.

Tea_Bot

[SiriusHardware]

If you know any serious modellers (railways, aircraft etc) try asking them if they have an airbrush - I think can aerosols might be a bit too liberal for this type of job.

[Tea_Bot]

Good call, thanks

[crackle]

The York JCB863 looks like a Rotel RVC240 clone.
I commandeered the kitchen turntable for these sorts of jobs. (it used to hold the cruet sets and sauces)
A block of wood with nails inserted in holes with the heads cut off sitting on the turntable and steadily turn it round as you spray from a reasonable distance.
Give the knobs a good clean to remove all the sticky finger marks before spraying.
Mike

[SiriusHardware]

The Rotels are another Cybernet sub-brand with the same knobs, along with the Cybernet 3000. On the Rotels they are gun-metal grey, same colour as the facias - can't remember what colour they are on the Cybernet 3000.

I like the turntable idea.

[ortek_service]

I think Cybernet 3000's were silver, although I think that used the later Cybernet '135' board - Rather than the classic Cybernet '134' board, that appeared in nearly half of original 1981-standard UK CB's in various levels of fitted options.
As well as York JCB-863, and Rotel RVC-240, there was also Binatone 5-star (But black knobs, like Route-66?) and a few others.

There were also some reduced-features versions from many of these 're-badge' brands, that Cynbernet also manufactured in Japan, which probably used the same knobs - like the York JCB-861, Rotel RVC-220/230 etc.

However, I imagine that many silver-painted ones from that age will have worn away in places, so repainting is probably best - probably with a clear protective coat for a more permanent finish.
The black knobs were probably made from dyed-black plastic material, so didn't have these surface-wear issues.

[SiriusHardware]

The Cybernet 3000 was the 'Big' radio in the Cybernet self-badged range and as such had the 134 chassis in it. The Cybernet 1000 and 2000 were the smaller radios which used the 135, essentially a scaled down version of the 134 chassis. I believe I have an original Cybernet 3000 service manual - with the 'Goodmans' logo on the cover, interestingly enough.

The Cybernet 1000 and 2000 were also much less commonly found badged as 'Radiomobile' (200 and 201, I think) and the Radiomobile versions have darker (Black?) facias, red channel digits and silver knobs.

The irony is that the extra knobs on the high end radios - ie, York 863, Rotel 240, as opposed to York 861, 862, Rotel 220, 230, do very little that is useful. Did we really need a dimmer control which dims the channel LEDs but not the meter lamp, for example? or a 'Mic Gain' control whose sole purpose is to make the TX audio quieter? This was just the manufacturers trying to add 'features' to create a high-end version of a FM radio chassis which really only needed a volume and squelch control.

[Tea_Bot]

I have a Radiomobile CB201 '135' based classis, with concentric squelch control and plated controls. It's probably the favourite of my small collection, bought cheap as a non runner .