My husband inherited a PHILCO 41-300X (Thank you Terry). He recently had it restored to working condition and it now is in our living room. In May I had surgery on my back and received some flowers in a rectangle ceramic vase. It wasn't until the flowers died and I was cleaning it all up that I noticed a hairline crack in the bottom of the vase which left a water mark on the top of the radio. I googled how to remove water stains and went with the baking soda/water paste. It was working...or so I thought so I really scrubbed hard. That was a mistake and my heart sank when I saw what I had done. After a few restoration searches, I kept seeing this forum show up with some extremely skilled and knowledgeable people and joined hoping I could get some help and guidance on how to repair it. I have been hiding the top with my daughter's high school diploma waiting for husband to go on a fire assignment as I knew it would take some time to get this repaired. He just left a couple of days ago to IC a fire in Montana. The damage is 4"x9". I am interested in steps, products, and color(s) needed for the repairs. Thank you to all ahead of time. [
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First things first ....
That radio top is sprayed with a lacquer. The lacquer is toned (coloured) to what you see. The wood itself is NOT stained. The way to match it exactly is to spray the affected area with a toned lacquer using an airbrush or similar small sprayer. You'll have to blend the edges by slightly over-spraying and sanding to a finish.
Some people are able to mix the toned lacquer and wipe it on, so that may be another choice. Whatever you do, do NOT attempt to color the bare wood.
The old lacquer has yellowed, a lot. That is not a bad thing unless you try to fix it with new "clear" gloss lacquer.
Any coating including oils is going to bring out the color of the natural wood and that will not match the rest. A talented painter with a lot of time could match and blend a repair (think car body repair). Almost every other talented painter would strip and match that piece/panel. The rest of the talented painters would Strip and try to match the entire top. Everyone else would want to strip and finish the entire cabinet without having to match anything.
Just purchasing minimal tools and materials would probably pay for a good portion of a professional repair. And then there is the time required to learn how to use them. I am assuming that you are not a refinisher, prof, or otherwise?
Here is a similar cabinet with a new finish on it, before and after:
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I'm showing you that to give you an idea of what it might look like. Some people really like that and some really don't. Most people would have no opinion.
I suppose it really comes down to how much you like the old radio and personal taste.
This is not a solicitation in any form. I'm retired.
Russ
Thank you John for that valuable information! I have been contemplating how I will get the color matched. Is toned lacquer something that can typically be found locally? or something I will need to order online? I live in a fairly rural area, but I do have a home improvement store and a hobby/art store that I could look into. Hopefully I can find a way to do the wiping technique unless I can find aerosol versions of the lacquer.
We were chatting about this water mark in a pm and I ask she could send me a pic of it slight moisten. The stain turn very dark and reminded me of the stain that Nathan had on the top of his 201X. He ended up bleach it to remove it. Seem like a good idea? Looks like it's migrated from the door to the top panel a little.
https://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=20142
I advised her to contact Fred Taylor.
"Very dark" is the natural color of the wood. As I mentioned. I would not attempt to do anything to it until you talk to a refinisher.
As people here have said it already - go to a pro, or to a known good refinisher from the hobbyist community.
The part seems to be the door, it should be detachable and shippable.
I'm looking into that, thank you. I do want it done right, but I do have some time constraints, I spoke with someone tonight that said they may be a couple of months out. I just want to say, I appreciate everyone's thoughts. It has been so nice to have people even respond to someone new like me. I appreciate the step by step information that I have received and feel I just need to share my gratitude. My 18 year old who thought no one in this world would care that I had made a mistake and want some help to remedy it, has been overwhelmed with the responses I have received. Even if I have to claim defeat of not being able to fix my mistake, I have shown my 18 year old that I am nudging out of the nest that there are good people everywhere.
The good news is that most of the damage appears to be on the door/lid that goes over the dial and control panel, so it should be possible to remove it, strip it, remove the water mark, seal it. and hit it with a toner to make it match the rest fairly closely.
Regards
Arran