I imagine most here would be critical of those paint jobs, but I'm wondering how that swirl pattern is achieved. It seems like if you've got a case that needs to be painted anyway and you're going for a "custom" look, it's not all that bad when done well.

Are there any articles or videos on how this is done? Have any of you painted one like this?

Believe it or not, its done with an acetylene torch.
its an old hot rodders paint trick from way back

you take a good color of base and spray it on. While its wet you fire up the torch with only the acetylene going (no oxygen) and it shoots out a very low flame with a lot of sooty black smoke coming from it. Then you turn the item (in this case a radio) and let the sooty black smoke lay its pattern onto the paint. Wait for it to dry and clear coat it.

It takes a lot of practice to make it look correct but if a guy masters it, its a great effect.
I had a 67 Camaro once with two strips down the hood. The strips were a light blue with the "smoke effect" put on by my friend who co-owed a paint shop with me. I did murals and flames, he did the base coats, strips and assorted "custom" stuff. They looked great and it really sets a paint job apart from the rest. Its kind of a lost art that apparently this fellow is reviving on his radios. I don't know who is doing the work but it looks pretty good.

~jeff~

A local guy, Dan Sperry, has been painting these radios. He works at an auto body shop.

Though, what I have seen, he typically picks broken and badly damaged cabinets to do his paint jobs on (after gluing and probably bondo-ing them back together)

The effect is quite striking!

What else would you do with busted up radios? At least they are resurrected

-Steve

His Meck is an Eeck! I might have been interested in a Meck with original finish. Now I would not give you 5 bucks for something that looks like dog vomit to me. Mecks are kinda scarce, sadly, because they were lower end products in most cases. Well "cheapish" from what I have seen. Certainly not Zenith, or even GE or Emerson grade.

Those paint jobs actually look very nice, I'd prefer different colors but regardless, they are nicely done, shiny and no Orange Peel.

Some people are willing to pay for something they can't do themselves and I doubt many people could do this very well.

Far nicer than that Philco monstrosity in another thread.

homemade catalin sets, sort of........

remove

Don't subvert the thread to a description of politicians, lol!

Blow torched Like this one ? : (the color sorta matches my Avatar)



http://www.ebay.com/itm/230819169767