[David Dunlop]

A couple of days ago, I was able to get my wide, steel putty knife under the green felt pad on my parts Coil case and carefully remove the felt. Since water based animal glues would have been used to install it back in 1944, I first thought of just soaking the felt in water for an hour or two to dissolve the glue, but the thought of some of that water getting into any seams in the pine board made me a bit hesitant. I bounced the idea off my wife and she looked at me like I had three heads.

Debbie explained the odds this 1944 piece of felt was composed of pure wool were extremely high and a water soak and dry-out could very likely result in a badly shrunk, or distorted, piece of totally useless felt. Point taken wisely. Out came the putty knives.

The process went quite well. The blade of the knife moved under the felt at a shallow angle nicely and where resistance was felt, I carefully raised the angle of the blade to avoid the chance of it cutting into the felt. In a few places, the factory Flat Olive drab paint simply popped off the wood, and where it did not, you can see the patterns of where the glue had been applied, either by small brush or a squeeze bottle. See the first two photos.

Measuring felt with callipers is tricky as it wants to squish a bit, however, by eyeballing the edges against a steel ruler, and attempting the callipers several times, I think the felt is 1/16-inch thick. The basic rectangle measures six inches wide and 11.25 inches long. At the front edge, centred at the 5-5/8 inch mark, is a notch one inch wide and 1-5/8 inches deep. This has been cut out to clear the bottom centre front panel mounting bracket when it is installed, and the small hole directly behind it where the front mounting screw for securing the coil chassis assembly to the case is located. two half inch diameter holes are punched along the centreline of the length of the felt. On the left side, this hole is centred 1-5/8 inch in from the end of the felt. On the right side, the hole is centred 2-5/8 inches in from the end. These holes allow the rear pair of mounting screws for the coil chassis to clear the felt.

This morning, I removed the felt pad from my working Coil case. Note the extent to which it was painted around. The edges of it were badly overpainted with the NATO Green paint and it needed to come out to more easily sand down the inside surfaces of the case for repainting back to the original factory Flat Olive Drab. The felt pad from my parts coil case will be the one going back into the finished Coil, Aerial Tuning No. 2 A. The last two photos are of the now empty coil case and the two green felt pads. The bottom one is the one to be used.


David