Has anyone refinished the control "buttons" of a 4002/4004 TT.? The control push-panel is finished in a matte-silver kind of finish.

The control surfaces of mine have areas it's worn off of. Phil

I have repainted one of mine using a matt paint - I have not used it yet but plan to put some clear coat over it to protect the finish. I used spray paint and a lot of masking! I obviously took it all apart first!

good thread on this topic

The button-panel is brushed stainless steel; the areas where the clear-coat is worn off are quite silvery/shiny despite the brushed finish; the "clear-coat" seems to have a fair amount of taupe/gold/brown hue to it. Carburetor cleaner (laquer thinner) doesn't dissolve it. It would be difficult to spray paint it and maintain the proper look without removing the stainless sheet (not for me!) in that paint would cover the substructure in the "crotches" between the keys; also there are webs 1/4" below the crotches which would get painted as well instead of registering as dark shawows.

I have tried amny thing to get the correct finish. The keys are brushed stainless steel with a matt frosted lacquer/paint over the top. I have tried many things but the best I have come up with is a glass/porcelain etch paint applied with an air brush which is then baked to make it durable. Infact it should be dishwasher proof!!!! The finish I got was very very close but a bit rough to the touch. I'll put a photo up if your interested. I'd still rather have an original finish with a few marks than a restored immaculate finish!!!

 

Cheers 

I would like to see a picture. The factory finish isn't laquer as laquer thinner doesn't affect it. It seems to be some kind of clear-coat that has a honey/taupe tint to it. It would be nice to get a spare keypad to experiment on.

hey phil,

i may be able to help if you are interested.
i have several 4002/4's and i am going to be liquidating a huge chunk of vintage b&o stuff.
they range from partsers to mint.

any interest in one (or two or three)?

I'm coming around to your point of view-why the hell worry about some worn keypads, there's more important things in life! like getting another 8002 running. Got any 8002 parts, like the main circuitboard complete OR the the processor can OR the 40 pin processor inside? (if you had an un-worn 4002/4 keypad, I'd be interested in it). If you're not interested in my 4002, I kinda understand. It's really quaint compared to the 8002, and now that I've had it working, I'm not impressed. phil

well phil, it sounds like you are a 6000/8000 kind of guy.

and yes, i do happen to have an 8002 that will be available in my "grand purge."
you tend to talk most about beograms, might you have an interest in the rest of the "bent flat series?"

I can't work out how to upload photos but here are some on Flickr

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/31676530@N04/

 Most of the photos are of the refinished one. In the photos with 2 machines the original is on the left and refin on the right. I got the coating off with cellulose thinners so it is cellulose based!!!
 

plastic,

great job!
looks like about as close as one can possibly come.

great job!
looks like about as close as one can possibly come.

I agree! Very nice. Maybe I should refinish these-otherwise the TTs pretty mint. So what's the secret formula?

The trick is to find some kind of paint which gives a frosted appearance. This makes it a matt finish and also gives it that greyish kind of look. Maybe a matt varnish would work ok but I had real troubles getting any in liquid form as I wanted to use an airbrush to get a fine but flat coat of paint. I tried glass etch in an aerosol and although this gave a very pleasant appearance, it was too white and the particles in the paint that made it look frosted were big enough to be just visible so I didn't like that too much. I used matt enamel out of an aerosol but that was hard to get a good finish with but might be ok if you could spay it with an airbrush, but it may not be quite frosted enough. As a last chance I used something called frosted medium by a company called pebeo from their vitrea 160 range. It is a waterbased paint that is meant for glass and porcelain, and once baked is even dishwasherproof apparently. However even this wasn't plain sailing. I had to thin it a little with water, and then add a little alchohol to reduce the surface tension so that it didn't form droplets in the end of the airbrush. I then had to spay it really really thin in many coats. the last coat could be a little thicker to make the surface more flat and less rough. I can confirm that once it is baked it is very tough. Oh yes and make sure the panels are as clean as can be. Wipe them with meths or panel wipe or similar. these are my experiences, there may well be a better way, I would imagine that a cellulose paint that gives the same frosted finish would be better still!!!!

 Also I have to say that I spayed the panels off the aluminium surround, but they are not as hard to get off as you might think. It is possible to pop off the black plastic pads under the keys and then push the panel off the aluminium from underneath working from one end. The panels are quite springy and the original glue gives in quite easily. if you do this make sure you glue the panels back with something strong. I used super glue for the plastic pads and spray impact adhesive for the metal to metal.

Gosh sorry for such a long post. Does anyone have any idea how to fix the radio section of a beomaster 6000 quad???