Howey, from the paint cans in the photo I take it you restored the radios. Nice work! How did you do such a nice job on the white lettering?
Barry
I removed all of the switches, knobs and any hardware that could be removed and the rest was carefully masked off.
Sanded all of the radio top and bottom and removed all of the original lettering down to bare metal by using a precision hobby knife.
A light coat of primer all over (too much and you will fill the lettering) wait a few hours light sand with wet and dry paper, allow radio to dry completely(use hair dryer if really impatient) and apply first light top coat. Once dry apply last coat and leave for 24hrs, this process was done for the switches and knobs too.
The lettering was achieved by using an artists acrylic paint(light lemon) and fine modellers brush.
Carefully fill the lettering with the paint just so its a little proud of the surface and while still wet wipe off the excess with a soft cotton cloth lightly dampened with warm water.
Its a job that requires a bit of patience but the finished result is worth the effort.
The r442 in the pic above was my first one and is done in that dark green of the vietnam era and has a white lettering, my second r442 is carc coloured and ive matched the original lettering to a light lemon colour, the only thing is the letters dont glow in the dark, but their tactical days are over so no big loss.
Will post pic of second radio tomorrow.
Back to my reason for starting this thread,.............. any leads for this drivers side shelf troops?????
