The PHILCO Phorum

I have a nicely restored 37-116.  The only problem is the decals are in   various shape.
I posted a pic of what looks like someone may have replaced the treble decal at one time next to the volume decal which looks original
like the others.
I tried spraying a small amount of lacquer over the old ones and sanded/polished to shine them up but to no avail.  There really is a bigger difference in lower light than you can see in the pics.  I'd like to get them all looking the same.

I bought a 37-116 decal set from radiodaze thinking i could put the new decals over the old ones.  But they are not the same (second pic -- you can see i stopped sanding it).  The font is slightly different and you can clearly see the arrow size is different so putting new over old isnt going to  work.  Now maybe someone did replace these decals a long time ago with non original ones   but the bottom lines is they dont match.  So.....

1. Is there another source of decals i can try?  Im hoping i can just put new over old. and a clear coat on top.

2.  The cabinet is in otherwise really nice shape so i dont not want to respray the whole thing.  I could just sand the decals out.  Are they only in the upper clear layers?  If i dont need to sand too far. a bit of precise lacquer to build up where i sanded can work and then replace the decals so they all match,  but as you all know is a pain and hard to get right.

All ideas are appreciated.

Thanks,

Bill

Just my personal opinion...if it were me and my skill level, I would not attempt to fix the decals. The chances of making things worse would be far greater than making them better...but that's just me. There are guys on here with the skills to do it I'm sure.

At my skill level, I would not attempt to fix them either on a reward VS work level. 

Careful application and sanding might work - once - twice - but it only takes one error to make it look much worse and then you are in for a much bigger job.

Russ

RD is really the only place to get the decals. Not that they are hard to make IF you have the right printer (one that will print white and gold). (White not necessary here but normal printers rely on white paper and since there is no white paper in the transfer, white takes a special printer)

Well, if you don't recommend doing it Russ, then I for sure would not!

Hi, Bill. I noticed your thread, and it reminded me of the last radio I restored, an RCA 56X5.  https://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=22501  I bought a new dial glass for it and a set of decals. In the end, I used the new dial glass but opted to just leave the original decals alone, otherwise I would have just had to completely strip and re-do the cabinet, including the faux finish on parts of the front. Your decals look a whole lot better than mine do. I agree with others. Sometimes it is just best to leave well enough alone.