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Old 2nd Oct 2006, 2:00 pm   #1
johnfin
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Default Restoring non-original painted veneer.

Can a wood cabinet radio be restored to an original finish that has been painted over?
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Old 2nd Oct 2006, 3:26 pm   #2
paulsherwin
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Default Re: Wood cabinet restoration

This is stating the obvious, but it depends of the craftsmanship of the restorer. I couldn't do it - I could make a nice presentable job of it, but it wouldn't look the same as it did when it came out of the factory. It could be done with sufficient skill, facilities and materials though.

So it depends how good you are, and/or how much you want to spend.

Paul
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Old 2nd Oct 2006, 5:20 pm   #3
Ghostuser
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Default Re: Wood cabinet restoration

I am not sure whether you have a radio that was originally painted or a radio that was originally wood finish but has subsequently been painted. All I can say, from my amateur re-finishing of cars to radio cabinets over some 50 years, is that it is never easy and I am still learning. However, I always strip and re-finish any cabinet which has badly lifted finish, such as the usual 'flower pot' damage to the top where 'Aunt Sarah' used to leave wet flower arrangements. However, if a cabinet has only one bad surface, I try to re-finish just that surface and blend the finish with the old finish elsewhere. If it is your first shot, choose a really bad radio cabinet for your first attempt and you may well end up happy.
Nigel
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Old 2nd Oct 2006, 5:24 pm   #4
kalee99
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Default Re: Wood cabinet restoration

Hi,
Best can be hoped for, I think if the thing has been painted is to strip off all the finish back too the bare wood with a chemical. then apply a water based stain as the wood is usually far too light.
Then it is a choice of a wax polish finish or high gloss?
For high gloss I use a car clear laquer which seems to be the nearest to the cellulose finish they used to use on some wireless cabinets. It takes days to get a good finish, rubbing back successive layers & respraying untill it's mirror finish!
Wax polish is far simpler & a huge choice of wax polish is to be had at the local "Handy mans".
Good luck,
Paul.
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Old 2nd Oct 2006, 6:16 pm   #5
Paul_RK
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Default Re: Wood cabinet restoration

One possibility that can stop you getting anywhere near the original appearance of a set, is if the original finish involved an imitation woodgrain effect rather than a veneer. I'm mentioning it particularly as you're writing from America, since one of the very few American sets I've attempted to refinish - coincidentally, about the only subsequently painted set I've owned - was a little Radiola from about 1946, and as the rough cream paint came off an obviously very detailed imitation veneer appeared and itself dissolved A 1931 Ferranti A1 also had a "too good to be true" veneer, in its case a printed paper which stayed in place after stripping of the original finish and did prove salvageable, though a little crinkled and never fully what it had been before.

Usually there's little more than guesswork to go on as regards how a set originally looked anyway - the wood itself and what remains of the original finish may have darkened or may have been bleached by sunlight. I like french polish: it takes a while, to be sure, but produces a very controllable finish - you decide when you've reproduced the initial depth, which varies from model to model and sometimes in different places on the same model, as with the Philips 274A which had a highly polished front and relatively matt sides. Wax finishes, to me, never or hardly ever result in a set that can blend in with well preserved original examples: french polish generally does. Here are a table Ultra model and a console Pilot both from the 1930s, with an old Cossor beside them: I don't think it's painfully obvious which, if any, have been refinished, except perhaps that the Cossor hasn't

Paul
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Old 2nd Oct 2006, 6:30 pm   #6
Radio_Dave
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Default Re: Wood cabinet restoration

Hi johnfin,

I'm not sure if I, properly, understand your question .

Are you hoping to remove, just, the paint from the original finish or do you want to strip the lot and re-finish it?

David
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Old 2nd Oct 2006, 9:35 pm   #7
johnfin
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Default Re: Wood cabinet restoration

The original set was a wood veneer. Someone over the years painted it with oil paint. I would like to take it back to original condition.
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Old 2nd Oct 2006, 9:57 pm   #8
paulsherwin
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Default Re: Wood cabinet restoration

If the veneer is in good condition under the paint, it's just a question of stripping it down to the veneer and refinishing. There are lots of finishes you can use - liquid wax, Danish oil, French polish etc.

If the set has an awful paint job there isn't much to lose and anything you do is likely to be an improvement. You have to ask yourself why somebody painted it though

Paul
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Old 3rd Oct 2006, 8:05 am   #9
Mike Phelan
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Default Re: Wood cabinet restoration

For cabinets finished in a high gloss, there is the two-pack Rustin's Plastic Coating.
This leaves a good thickness and can be burnished to give a glass-like finish, beloved of some of the German radios from the fifties.
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Old 3rd Oct 2006, 9:01 am   #10
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Default Re: Wood cabinet restoration

Iwould agree that French Polish is a good option and it is worth learning the technique, even if most of the sets we work on had a cellulose finish originally. When repairing a scratched cellulose finish, I have used French Polish dribbled into deep scratches with a small artists brush, dried and dribbled again until the crack was filled and the polish was hard. It takes about a week. Then a rub down wet with 600 grade wet and dry paper using a hard block to make the surface flat. Then a polish all over with French Polish. French Polish seems to stick well to a cellulose finish that has been rubbed down.
Nigel
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