Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

The upper half of the DOORS Assembly has now had the discoloured varnish polished back down, and so far, no complaints from my fingers.

I will complete the main door panel in two more sections before tackling the hinge plate.

David

[David Dunlop]

Now at the 3/4-Point for cleaning the main door panel for the Sender.

David

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Now at the 3/4-Point for cleaning the main door panel for the Sender.

David

What are you planning to do when you get to the decals?

[David Dunlop]

The main Doors panel has now been polished free of the discoloured varnish. Next step will be the hinge assembly.

I did find that the accumulated, dried polish brushed out of the hinge sections easily with a soft tooth brush and a quick low pressure shot from the air compressor.

The other interesting find was made when the crud was removed from the lower Cowl fastener. The Parts Lists only refer to these items being sourced from Airloc, the majority (larger) fasteners used on the entire 52-Set, and Shakeproof, where their smaller versions were used on the Receiver Vibrator Supply section of the Supply Unit and the Doors assembly for the Sender. The lower fastener on this door, however, was made by Dot and has the number "230" stamped on one side of the shoulder of the wing head. The other side is stamped "DOT'.

I was not aware the Dot Company ever made cowl fasteners but I am going to have to look into that now as another possible source for the Shank Pins I need.

David

[David Dunlop]

Hi Bruce.

I think my first step will be to tread very carefully and sweat a lot!

The decals are factory original, first series ones that I am hoping to preserve, so I will be polishing very carefully around them all. Before I can start any of that work, however, I have to find all the parts of the original paint that are showing signs of having lifted free of the panel metal due to oxidation of the surface plating. Most of those I should be able to stabilize by carefully wicking 'Crazy Glue' under the paint via capillary action. A few bits of paint have actually cracked and curled up, away from the panel along the crack line. Those are going to be a bit more challenging. My thought is to carefully heat them with a heat gun to soften the paint and then press it back flush with the panel surface again and let it cool. that should bring it back flat enough to wick the glue under it and not simply have the brittle lifted paint break free.

Still a bit of thinking to do about those steps, but that is the general, arm waving plan at the moment.

There are a few decals where the black paint has been chipped away. Hard to spot them all unless you look under black light. I found some similar issues with the two receivers and tracked down a semi-gloss black paint that is a very good match to the black used on the decals. I will use that under black light again to touch up the chips on the decals.

There is one decal that now has a large blob of black crud covering one of the letters almost completely. Sadly, I dare not risk doing anything about it. The clear backing on those decals was very thin to start with and is now 75 years old. They simply cannot handle any kind of pressure applied to them that cleaning would require.

David

[David Dunlop]

Well the Doors assembly is now ready to go in for a colour match.

The most challenging bit of physical restoration of the entire 52-Set Project has yet to be started. The second photo today shows just exactly what I have ahead of me. Still some thinking to do about the approach/process needed and I am sure whatever I come up with will get modified on the fly, as soon as I begin.

David

While I think of it: the PA LOADING decal between the two dial reinforcing plates is the one with the big blob of crud covering most of the letter ’G’ at the end of the decal.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Well the Doors assembly is now ready to go in for a colour match.

The most challenging bit of physical restoration of the entire 52-Set Project has yet to be started. The second photo today shows just exactly what I have ahead of me. Still some thinking to do about the approach/process needed and I am sure whatever I come up with will get modified on the fly, as soon as I begin.

David

I dunno Dave...faced with that yellowing it might be easier to just get a new face panel from stores...