GE 800 restoration

[bandersen]

I picked up this GE 800 last week along with the Predicta Siesta.

It's in fairly good condition - all the knobs are present and the CRT is strong. However, there are a couple bits of bakelite broken out on the grill and theses a crack along the bottom.

Here it is next to a GE 806


Front


Backside


Top - note damaged grill


Side - the bakelite has a cool "grain" to it. I bet it will polish up real nice.


Next up - what's inside ?

[bandersen]

The front came off easily with two screws.


Here's the crack in the bottom of that case. Maybe some superglue


This appears to be version "A"


The speaker is pretty trashed I bet someone stuck a screwdriver through the speaker grill


Looks to be all original.




I slowly powered it up with a dim bulb, variac and isolation transformer. The tubes do all lite up, no smoke, no pops but only a hum from the speaker and no HV. Oh well, I'll get it up on the workbench someday.

[peverett]

The underneath of the chassis looks very similar to a 1950 GE console chassis I restored. GE ran a large isolated ground bus and used series string tubes instead of using a power transformer. It seems to me that with all the labor required to wire the ground bus, the transformer would have been cheaper. My console set also had an AM/FM radio where GE used one tube for both the RF and IF amp when FM is chosen. GE seems to have always used cheaper designs. (I have seen an ad for the console and it was $500 new-not a cheap price in 1950).

Anyway, the restored TV and radio work fairly well.

[bandersen]

I decided to clean & polish the cabinet while watching the Blackhawk games over the weekend.

First up I remove the faceplate, backplate and vent screen. All were held on by clips that came out fairly easily.




I thought it was rusty at first, but it's actually some sort of red flocking.


Here's a "before" shot of the cabinet.


First, I used Brasso. That got it clean.


Then I used Novus #2, but the surface is just too rough to get a nice uniform shine.



I'd heard that wet sanding with progressively finer grits can produce really nice results. I just happen to have some up to 3000 so I gave it a try.


Great way to work out frustration during the games


It's still pretty dull after sanding, but very, very smooth. Ever finer grits I'm sure would work great, but I don't have any on hand. Instead, I went back to the Novus #2. Remove it with short, sharp jabs and a clean cloth. Just like waxing a car.


Finally I used Simichrome metal polish until I got a nice shine. I still have work to do on the nooks and crannies and the grill. While I had all the supplies out, I went over a Motorola 9T1 too.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Very nice work on the cabinets.

[bandersen]

Thanks. My arms are still tired from all that work. It'll be nice to pick up a soldering iron again

[Dan Starnes]

That really shined up. As always, I enjoy your threads.

[Phil Nelson]

A flocked TV grille -- you learn something new every day!

Buried somewhere in this thread about Hallicrafters S-20R radios is a link to an outfit that sells re-flocking stuff.

http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/...er=asc&start=0

Much to the surprise of me and some other S-20R owners, those speaker grilles were originally flocked, too, although many of them are now so bare that you'd never guess it from casual viewing.

Phil

[M3-SRT8]

I just completed a complete resto on a GE-805 Locomotive. It looks and runs great now. I did a cosmetic resto, and it looks like it came out of the box.

To "reflock" the top screen I ran down to the Hobby store and bought some Railroad Modeling artificial "dirt", which had a similar color and consistency as the origional flock.

After cleaning the screen with a vaccuum, I sprayed it with spraymount, and added the "dirt". Presto. Instant Flocking.

But, if this stuff is available in a spraycan, go for it, as it's probably much easier.

Best of Luck;

LJB

[M3-SRT8]

Two other items:

When you reglue your Bakelite Cabinet, use a good Epoxy Resin, the kind that takes overnight to set. Superglue will crack when flexed.

The CRT Screen seems to be made of natural rubber. Mine is that light sea green color, and had a light coat of oxidized dirt, from all those years of being cooked by the CRT. Careful cleaning with Lacquer Thinner (outdoors, of course) removed it all, leaving a flexible, "virginal" condition. I then soaked the entire rubber bezel in Vinylex, available from good auto parts stores, and placed it in a large sandwich bag, and stored it for a week. When it came out of the bag, it was per-fect.

LJB

[M3-SRT8]

Oooops. One more thing:

The Silver Faceplate (mine is Gold) can be refinished, after surface preparation (i.e. wet sanding) by finding an appropriate silver spray paint, and lightly dusting it on, followed by a semi-gloss clearcoat. Get a good level of clearcoat built up, and use a heat gun to "bake" the finish, in anticipation of the next step.

I then used a water-based Red Hobby Paint, to wipe into the lettering areas, restoring all the control labeling. Use Tamiya Color Acrylic Paint, Flat Red XF-7. It is a good match for that slightly faded red that was origionally used.

If your clearcoat is not built up enough, the Red will collect on it, and not in the lettering areas. I wiped off the excess Red with a diluted iso-propol alcohol solution. The 70 or 91% alcohol will mar the clearcoat, so dilute it.

Am I fussy? You bet. The GE-805 looks brand-new.

LJB

[pugs5061]

Love to see pictures of that GE-805 of M-3's. Is there a thread or gallery? Sounds as though your attention to detail is impeccable. This is my weakness and I have stayed away from really interesting sets so far because of it. I'm going to learn and force myself to overcome this weakness though. The two things I need most are more patience and more research in to how to do things the correct way.

[bandersen]

Yeah, me too. Lee is pretty hardcore when it comes to restorations

Thanks for all the tips. I was just going to replace that top screen with some modern material, but I guess that just won't do

What do you suggest for the clearcoat ? Lacquer, acrylic, enamel ?

I've had some disasters when using the wrong type clearcoat over paint

[M3-SRT8]

I use toluene or MEK based spray paints, which leaves you a lot of choices. The Gold I used was an automotive emanel. Engine or body paint or wheel paint may give you a close match. Bring the faceplate into the store to get a good match.

Just make sure the base finish (silver or gold, in this case) and the clearcoat are from the same company.

Make sure you put on the final clearcoat wet, so it appears glossy before drying. Otherwise it will matt.

Heating the top clearcoat with a heat gun (carefully) will bake on the finish, meld it with the basecoat, and make it rock hard. Heat it up, and cool it down, in cycles. It will then stand up to use.

LJB

[leadlike]

I got one of these a couple weeks ago. Mine is the variant with the gold faceplate. I only just recapped it this evening, and gave it an initial powerup. I got a nasty buzzing from the HV cage, and saw the 1B3 was giving off a purple glow-you could almost watch the electron flow, like when a fluorescent bulb is going bad. I suspected the doorknob cap may have been bad, but I swapped 1B3 tubes and HV came up to about 10KV, which is pretty good for the 10BP4. I still could not get a raster, and found the audio was weak. After some quick checks, I found some of the B+ was low-about 100v in areas that should be receiving 300. This set still has the original selenium rectifiers, so I'll be digging into the power supply next.