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Old 31st Oct 2018, 3:50 am   #1
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Default Ekco AD65 cabinet repair.

I have an original AD65. I have been slowly repairing the electronics, fitting new capacitors in old shells.

The brown bakelite has has one large piece that is glued in but with obvious crack lines. There are a few other cracks and also some missing bits.

For the past few months I have been racking my brains as to how I should repair these pieces and, more importantly, make the cracks invisible. I thought of grinding a small piece of the bakelite to powder and filling the cracks with a paste made out of it but so far my experiments fall short of perfection. In any case nothing I will be happy with.

Then a new thought occurred to me. I do not like the brown anyways. Why do I not repair it with epoxy (for plastic) then spray paint it either jet black or off-white?

Would this be complete sacrilege or an acceptable compromise?
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Old 31st Oct 2018, 9:09 am   #2
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Default Re: EKCO AD65 repair

I would not do that but of course it is personal choice.
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Old 31st Oct 2018, 11:20 am   #3
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Default Re: EKCO AD65 repair

I would say go for it, use a colour that matches your décor. I had a brown AD65 that may have been dropped, actually looked like a fist had punched through the curved part on the front left. The hole had a big lump of car body filler in it. The rest of the case was like a 20 piece Jigsaw that had been poorly assembled. I used a lot of Milliput two part filler to level the surfaces. Car body filler was used for the big hole with a final thin coat of Cellulose before a coat of Hi build primer.

It's a lot of work you need a lot of time and patience, nice weather helps for paint spraying outside. I still have to finish the dial and find some chrome finished knobs.

Good luck with whatever you do.

John.
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Old 31st Oct 2018, 11:33 am   #4
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Default Re: EKCO AD65 repair

If it recovers a set that otherwise would be broken up, go for it. After all, coloured round Ekcos are not unheard of!
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Old 31st Oct 2018, 11:33 am   #5
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Default Re: EKCO AD65 repair

Yours looks superb John I have to say.
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Old 31st Oct 2018, 11:56 am   #6
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Default Re: EKCO AD65 repair

Thank you HB. Black ones had the chrome bars, which I had to make. Might have been easier to spray a different colour all over including the bars.


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Old 31st Oct 2018, 4:32 pm   #7
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Default Re: EKCO AD65 repair

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I would say go for it, use a colour that matches your décor.
I am thinking of putting it in this Deco dining room I am furnishing. Cream is probably a better match.
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Old 31st Oct 2018, 4:37 pm   #8
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Default Re: EKCO AD65 repair

That looks very nice indeed.
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Old 31st Oct 2018, 4:40 pm   #9
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Default Re: EKCO AD65 repair

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Originally Posted by HamishBoxer View Post
I would not do that but of course it is personal choice.
What would you suggest? Is there a way to properly repair crack lines like this in marbled bakelite in an invisible manner?
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Old 31st Oct 2018, 6:27 pm   #10
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Default Re: EKCO AD65 repair

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Quote:
Originally Posted by HamishBoxer View Post
I would not do that but of course it is personal choice.
What would you suggest? Is there a way to properly repair crack lines like this in marbled bakelite in an invisible manner?
Attachment 171894
There are those who would say you can fill it and disguise the repair using modelling paints to blend in, and indeed there have been impressive examples of sets where such cosmetic repairs have been completed. However, to my mind anything you try to do would look a bit of an eysesore, apart from the fact that the brown colour wouldn't sit well with your deco dining room furniture. Personally, I wouldn't hesitate to spray it cream if that's your colour preference. You might actually find that 'cream' is rather too yellow - some colours that we'd call 'light cream' are called names such as 'antique white'.

If the cracks need filling and levelling you can do that with car body filler such as 'Isopon'. I've repaired and sprayed several Bakelite sets, notably KB 'Toasters' in some instances, with chunks missing which I've built up with filler using paper clip wire drilled into the edges of the Bakelite as 'armatures' on which to support the filler. I use 'acid etch primer' which bonds well to Bakelite and plastic (as well as galvanised steel and aluminium). It's high build too, so you can flat it down to see any imperfections and apply further coats.

U-Pol 'Acid 8' seems to be widely regarded, but isn't cheap, albeit its a 450mL can, and given that the AD65 is an expensive set, there's some headroom for expenditure:

https://www.zoro.co.uk/shop/automoti...c0f80c935e5b39

Another alternative, which is what I use, is 'Autotek' which is widely used in the motor trade:

Autotek:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-X-AUTOT...oc2t:rk:9:pf:0

The KB toaster set in the pics below had chunks out of it which I repaired. I bought it as a scrap set and my son fancied one in red, so red it was. Admittedly it was just a heap of scrap and isn't in the same league as an AD65. I guess much depends on whether you can live with a set which has large repaired cracks which - whatever you do short of filling and spraying, will be visible close up, or whether a sprayed set would look more cosmentcally pleasing.

Some will say that if you spray the set you'll devalue it. I disagree. Done properly a sprayed cabinet would - in my view - be worth every bit as much as it is in its present state. Apart from which, your prime consideration isn't the value of the set, but how it fits in with your eco dining room. I saw the AD65 that John ('60 oldjohn') has restored both before and after, and the end result is very pleasing.

Hope that helps a bit.
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Old 31st Oct 2018, 6:50 pm   #11
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Default Re: EKCO AD65 repair

Every one have there own ideas. If possible I would get some Araldite Original glue "Its a two part epoxy resin" onto the broken ends. Once that is dry I would grind a shallow groove into the external surface and fill with Milliput Superfine white, This is another two part epoxy that sets as hard as the Bakelite and can be sanded and painted.
When the Milliput is sanded just below the surface it can be painted with primer. I have never tried painting strips but think a modeller air brush should work well with a few shades of brown and blacks. Do not try masking around the area to be painted, it is nearly impossible to get the line sanded out. You will always know where the repair is but should not be to noticeable being down the side rather than the front.


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Looks like David has beaten me to it.
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Old 31st Oct 2018, 6:51 pm   #12
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Default Re: EKCO AD65 repair

I say - go for it !! If it means an otherwise-damaged radio can be reworked to usability it's surely a good thing?

[I'd spray the repaired Bakelite with black 'Crackle' paint and replace the speaker-cloth with some matt-black-sprayed expanded-aluminium mesh, but that's because my preferred style-aesthetic is very much military/industrial]
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Old 31st Oct 2018, 7:01 pm   #13
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Default Re: EKCO AD65 repair

Quote:
Originally Posted by David G4EBT View Post
Some will say that if you spray the set you'll devalue it. I disagree. Done properly a sprayed cabinet would - in my view - be worth every bit as much as it is in its present state. Apart from which, your prime consideration isn't the value of the set, but how it fits in with your eco dining room. I saw the AD65 that John ('60 oldjohn') has restored both before and after, and the end result is very pleasing.
I have in the past sprayed (unbroken) Bakelite with car "clear coat", see attached Admiral TV (earlier picture when I was using it as a case for my projector). It came out almost flawless. But these are not particularly expensive units, despite being the largest Bakelite case ever cast (or so I am told).

Your toaster is very beautiful. I have one a bit beyond repair.

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Old 31st Oct 2018, 7:47 pm   #14
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Default Re: EKCO AD65 repair

Wow! that is one big piece of Bakelite ! The larger you go the more chances of stress fractures. The AD65 often have stress fractures front to back level with the chassis. In my experience the bottom half is wider than the top half, and take some gluing and filling to make a perfect repair.


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Old 2nd Nov 2018, 6:49 am   #15
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Default Re: EKCO AD65 repair

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I'd spray the repaired Bakelite with black 'Crackle' paint
I tried crackle or wrinkle paint from a can in the past (to refinish a Braun TG1000 reel to reel which was originally so). It looked awful, spotted with parts that did not crackle. Then I read it wrinkles more uniformly if baked in an oven. So I tried that and results were even worse. I am not exactly sure what / if I did wrong, like not using a primer, leaving the old piant on, or whether it just does not work out of a can.
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Old 2nd Nov 2018, 12:09 pm   #16
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Default Re: Ekco AD65 cabinet repair.

Three posts moved to a new thread here:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=151020
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