[Geoff]

Now that the lacquer had cured for 30 days I began the rubbing out process. I wet sanded the entire cabinet starting with 500 grit, then on to 1000, and finishing with 1500. Once that was done I polished out the 1500 grit scratches with Menzerna PG1000 compound. Here is a photo of the side as I was progressing with the compound:

[Image: http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/main.ph...alNumber=2]

Here are some photos of the final product:

[Image: http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/main.ph...alNumber=2]

[Image: http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/main.ph...alNumber=2]

[Image: http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/main.ph...alNumber=2]

Final thoughts...

I did not expect the finish to be quite as shiny. I was hoping to avoid the "glazed doughnut" look. I did a lot of research on rubbing out lacquer and most of what I read said to use gloss lacquer for the clear coats (as opposed to semi-gloss) since you can rub it out to any desired sheen you want (satin, semi-gloss, or gloss). For each progressive grit of sandpaper you get finer and finer scratches. The 1500 left a dull hazy look with the fine scratches readily apparent to the naked eye. The Menzerna did a good job of removing that. But I was hoping to get a semi-gloss look and I'm not sure how one would accomplish that through sanding and polishing of gloss lacquer. You need the polish to get rid of the fine scratches from sanding but when you do that you get super shiny affect. If I were to go back and start over again (which I'm not) I think I would use semi-gloss out of the can for the clear coats and not use gloss. I would still go though the progressive sanding and polishing to remove the 1500 grit scratches but the result would still be semi-gloss with a very smooth feel. I was planning on doing a Philco 16B tombstone cabinet next but I think I'll hold off for now since I really want to get that one done right. Instead, my next refinish will be an RCA T9-10 tombstone but this time I will use semi-gloss for the top coats. If I am happy with the way it looks I may come back to the 640, hit it with #0000 steel wool, and then put some coats of semi-gloss over it. I don't know, we'll see. I've been working on this cabinet off and on for quite some time now and I need to move on and get the electronics done. To be honest, although it was probably not originally this shiny, the look is starting to grow on me a bit.