I recently acquired a Firestone 4A26 - one of these: http://www.radioatticarchives.com/radio.htm?radio=1149

The price was right (free) and it's all there. Besides, I was looking for a nice easy project, and this little AA5 fits the bill perfectly. And I must admit that after removing the chassis and looking it over, it seems well designed and constructed - definitely a cut above a lot of the radios that make it to my bench.

The original is factory-painted bakelite, which was very badly scratched and chipped. I've already stripped it. I have read all the threads here and all the Google results for tips and tricks on painting bakelite, but I saw myself getting ready for a lot of frustration using spray cans. I'm enough of a perfectionist that I just know I'd end up stripping it and starting over God knows how many times.

On a whim, I called my local auto body shop and they said they do this sort of thing all the time, and would only charge about $30. Aside from the fact that I'm going to put $30 plus caps, tubes, and labor into what will end up being a $50 radio, this sounds like the way to go.

Any thoughts? I know that's been the suggestion of a few people here, but do you actually do that on a regular basis? My thought is now about how many painted bakelite radios I've passed on simply because their finish was all scratched up and I didn't want the hassle of repainting them and the results probably wouldn't make me happy. For example, I'd love to have a couple of the Crosley "dashboard" radios and if I can have the cabinets professionally repainted for only $30, that seems like a good way to go.

Just looking for opinions or general thoughts. Of course I'll post photos once I get it back.

Jeff

The beauty of painting bakelite is that it will accept any type of paint, unlike regular plastics which will react badly to lacquer. If you've already stripped and prepped the cabinet then the body shop has 95 percent of their work done for them. For the price it's not such a bad deal and if it's sprayed with modern base/clear automotive paint it'll be the most durable finish you could hope for.

Store bought automotive lacquers like that from Dupli-color are an easy DIY medium to learn with and come in a rainbow of colors. Problems with flaws or major mess ups can be easily repaired in short order due to lacquers quick drying qualities. Far more forgiving than enamels that, in certain cases require total restripping to repair flaws. Final cutting and polishing can produce a glass like surface.

I coincidentally had a Stewart Warner used the same cabinet as your Firestone. Sprayed it myself and sold it a few years back.

Bruce Webster

You can use Duplicolor, but they recommend a final coat of clear on them.

Have you prepped the cabinet already? I'd break the gloss off the cabinet too. 320 grit. Sometimes paint applied to a very slick surface might peel later.

Does your body shop allow you to use any color you want? Or will it be whatever is leftover at the end of the day?
Base/clear is ok, but could go on a little heavier than something from a can. You light lose feature lines, or small details in the cabinet. If it does peel how hard it it to strip off the urethane and re-spray it?

You ought to try spraying it, and might surprise yourself with the results.

I did indeed sand it lightly first. You're right - it was pretty shiny after I stripped the old paint. If it weren't for a very tight hairline crack on the top (fixed now) I would have been tempted to polish the black bakelite.

I took him the knobs and he's going to match the off-white color. He does a lot of non-auto business, small jobs just like this, and he doesn't just use what he has on hand. He orders paint for each custom job. He did seem surprised that I wanted it all one color, like the factory paint. It seemed like if it were his radio he would have probably painted the louvered grill a contrasting color, like you sometimes see.

Anyway, this is just a test on a cheap and common AA5. I hadn't thought about losing detail because of thicker paint. We'll see - I'll post the pictures.

Sounds good Jeff Can't wait to see.

If you aren;t sure of the colors , you can put a photo of the cabinet in your graphics program and use the 'spray tool' to try different color combinations.
I've seen good ones, and some bad ones too. Maybe looking at some genuine color schemed from other sets will help.

Personally, I'd stay with a non metallic paint.
Your cabinet has a few break lines where you could mask off and have a different color.

Oh, and tell your painter to add a little flatting agent to the mix. Just enough to take the high gloss off the paint. Almost like the shine in the photo from Radio Attic. Kind of a semi-glossy finish, dull enough to kill some reflections.

If possible have the painter use lacquer paint. Just in case you change your mind later about the color. Urethane auto paint is just about impossible to strip back off.
Let us see how it turns out.
Take care,