I have just started to work on a Sea King panel (well an SH-3H actually) and I am finding it fairly straightforward so far. I have removed all the instrumrents and am starting to clean them up ready for going back into the panel…….BUT I know I am going to have a problem when I get to start work on the various nav and radio panels. These have numerous ingraved legends for switch positions etc that are all very grubby having been in what amounts to open storage for 30 years. Now cleaning up these panels is relatively easy but my problem is going to be how do I get the ingraved letters painted without ruining the panels?
I have tried various schemes but none look very professional, having spent a great deal of time getting everything else looking good I do not want to spoil it with rough looking lettering. Hence my question, others on this forum must have come up against this before and I bet there are some nifty ways to do it…..its just that I have not thought of them.
So any offers of help, suggestions etc greatfully received.
In anticipation
QP
By: pagen01 - 10th July 2011 at 10:12
Would it not clean with some Isopropyl alochol and cotton buds in the letters?
Forgot about that and I have used it for cleaning up smaller items with indented white lettering and it does work a charm, however it won’t reinstate damaged lettering.
By: pagen01 - 10th July 2011 at 10:12
Would it not clean with some Isopropyl alochol and cotton buds in the letters?
Forgot about that and I have used it for cleaning up smaller items with indented white lettering and it does work a charm, however it won’t reinstate damaged lettering.
By: QuePee - 9th July 2011 at 18:42
Tony,
I have tried something similar with marginal results. Of course there has to be some paint left in the letters for it to work. Sadly some of my panels have just the bare engraved letters with little or no paint left.
QP
By: QuePee - 9th July 2011 at 18:42
Tony,
I have tried something similar with marginal results. Of course there has to be some paint left in the letters for it to work. Sadly some of my panels have just the bare engraved letters with little or no paint left.
QP
By: TonyT - 9th July 2011 at 17:42
Would it not clean with some Isopropyl alochol and cotton buds in the letters?
By: QuePee - 9th July 2011 at 14:59
Many thanks for your comments Pagen and for the link. You are right, that guy is amazing, I am hoping my panel will look really good when it’s finished, mind you a Sea King panel is a bit bigger than that for G91.
I am going to try some of the suggestions over this weekend and am hopeful that I will be able to make a reasonable job of it. Many thanks for the tips.
QP
By: TonyT - 9th July 2011 at 08:41
Beware, when he said he has a nice suprise when stripping in finding that some of the panel was Magnesium………. most strippers will disolve magnesium in front of your eyes…… literally.
By: hunterxf382 - 9th July 2011 at 00:35
Wow – you’re not wrong about that guy’s panel restoration 😮
Handy link that – have just registered myself as I will find it very useful and informative – thanks….
By: pagen01 - 8th July 2011 at 18:51
From my own personal way of doing things,
I clean the panels and lettering areas up with soapy water, but you have to judge how sound the lettering paint is, I use everything from cloth through tooth brushes and scrubbing hard with nylon nail brushes.
I then do as I do with models, using a fine brush and apply enamal satin white paint but diluted a bit with white spirits, if the paint goes over the edges it is fairly easy to wipe with a cloth lightly dowsed in spirits to re establish clean edges.
I’m just about to do a panel plaque that way over the weekend.
However having said that some radio boxes etc have the lettering backlit from within the box itself, I only clean the letters up in this case without painting over them.
This guy on the Cockpitfest forum is brilliant, http://cockpitfest.21.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=276 http://cockpitfest.21.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=461
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July 8, 2011 at 6:35 pm