Bakelite Repairs

                                            Bakelite Repairs

This Ekco AC85 radio had come in with extensive damage to the top due to impact with cracks to the right hand side and feet. This photo shows me placing the jigsaw puzzle back together to see what it would look like. As you can see there are little fragments missing as well, so it will need quite a lot of work to make this look good again. Often when Bakelite has been given a heavy knock, stress lines could well be present else where , so take a good look before commencing work as otherwise you could end up with chasing more damage. 

The next number of photo's show a shorten sequence that had to be done, but this is typical of a Bakerlite repair.

First was to put all the parts back together , super glue is ideal for this, making sure sure that the pieces are as near as possible perfectly aligned. Next use tape to stick the top so no movement or leakage  will occur when you apply step 1 below


1) Use glass fiber to re-enforce the area's that are either cracked or broken from inside.


2) To ensure that the filling of the cracks will be stable and not visible the cracks need to be drilled into  a V shape, this will help creating a low profile to match the case and have enough filler  body to hold.


3) Using car filler, cover the defective points first. Though generally this will not hide the repair even with good sanding, you will still see the effected damage to some degree unless everything was perfect.


4) This is where you need to built the area up to give it a smooth look, but only slightly and to feather the edges to match the rest of the body.


5) When this is done you need to use some spray paint be it primer or the main colour to see how it will look when finished. With few exceptions you may have to do this a few times until you are happy with the results. I work under strip lights as this will show every defect, look at your car's perfect body work in a garage with this type of lighting  and you will see what i mean.


6) Whe you have sanded the body generally i work with 240 grit for most then finish off with 1000 wet and dry , De-grease it otherwise you could get contamination on the case where you have had your fingers all over it.


7) Do a fine spray first , this is done for two reasons, first if there are any issues with silicon or any other products still on the case, you will in effect seal them in, if you do not do this and there was grease still present you will see pits forming due to to paint being seperated, resulting starting again. Secondly it also helps to bond the surface so the main coat will hold firm with less chance of running. Both these procedures are undertaking in a matter of a a couple of minutes


8) When sprayed allow for the paint to dry, best a few hours or next day.


9) Pending the finish you may need to tidy the odd over spray if its a odd shape then clean it up.


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