[NostalgiaRadioTime]

Ah, I should have looked back at the photos...for some reason I thought the actual metal clip itself was broken off but that the phenolic was intact. Now I see the missing part of phenolic.

Yes that RCA clip is altogether different from the familiar Philco one's. I remember now the two phenolic discs on the Philco I did. Riveting wasn't a problem, though, as I recall.

Hopefully you can find a scrap piece of phenolic to use.

I ran in to similar problems with painting. Very frustrating to watch the paint fisheye on you. Once I started to use primer first that rarely happened. From past experience, I'd recommend the light grey colored primer if you're going to paint white over it, as the brown may bleed through.