The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

My vote's for black leatherette...and if you find some maroon brown leatherette let me know who sells it, my VV 2-65 looks pretty well roached.

Orchorsol wrote:This 102 wasn't rare (unlike your early 101, Alex) and every exposed part was in poor-ish condition, so I decided to have a bit of fun with it a few years ago.

Not really my taste but good work!

...and for the Kids:

Here is an idea that would provide the look of leatherette, but can be sprayed on... truck bed liner spray. I used some of this to touch up some missing pieces of leatherette on a Columbia portable and it blended in well... It's certainly easier than cutting and gluing sheets of material, which is a difficult process to make it look good. There are probably auto supply stores in the UK that carry something like this...
https://www.autozone.com/paint-and-body ... ed-coating

Come on now--nobody'd do this to an Idealia or an Amberola 1-A. Let's give the "Cheap" machines a little respect. Truck bed liner? I'd be wanting to stick empty 12-bore cartridges and dove feathers to it, or maybe scale some fish on the lid. Nursery wallpaper? I thought Mr Kirtley was past that stage years ago... The wood idea is at least -bore historical, inspired by the Vic 50, but I mean--he's in England, with access to the best leatherette in the world. And his phonograph, rescued from the brink of destruction, needs a second chance at its "Original Glory" which is the point of restoration.

I would never buy a machine painted in bed liner, and would probably part it out and burn the case for firewood. That stuff doesn't come off decently. I just bought a urethaned machine--even at $25, full of 1920s records, it was nearly a deal breaker.

It is the same mentality as powdercoating a 1920s typewriter pink.

Thus endeth my latenight screed. No hard feelings intended--just a few thoughts from a teenager perspective...for what it's worth.

VanEpsFan1914 wrote:Come on now--nobody'd do this to an Idealia or an Amberola 1-A. Let's give the "Cheap" machines a little respect. Truck bed liner? I'd be wanting to stick empty 12-bore cartridges and dove feathers to it, or maybe scale some fish on the lid. Nursery wallpaper? I thought Mr Kirtley was past that stage years ago... The wood idea is at least -bore historical, inspired by the Vic 50, but I mean--he's in England, with access to the best leatherette in the world. And his phonograph, rescued from the brink of destruction, needs a second chance at its "Original Glory" which is the point of restoration.

I would never buy a machine painted in bed liner, and would probably part it out and burn the case for firewood. That stuff doesn't come off decently. I just bought a urethaned machine--even at $25, full of 1920s records, it was nearly a deal breaker.

It is the same mentality as powdercoating a 1920s typewriter pink.

Thus endeth my latenight screed. No hard feelings intended--just a few thoughts from a teenager perspective...for what it's worth.

Should this be the 11th commandment

This is not a suggestion, but some wicked people have been known to strip a portable case back to bare wood, then varnish it and try to pass it off as a tropical teak model.

VanEpsFan1914 wrote:My vote's for black leatherette...and if you find some maroon brown leatherette let me know who sells it, my VV 2-65 looks pretty well roached.

A friend of mine uses book binding cloth to recover portables and swears by it , and I have to say his results are stunning even relining the grooves with a hard ground down chisel , and it is available in maroon and is very low cost

http://store.bookbinding.co.uk/store/pr ... am-Maroon/

epigramophone wrote:This is not a suggestion, but some wicked people have been known to strip a portable case back to bare wood, then varnish it and try to pass it off as a tropical teak model.

you would have difficulty doing this on most HM portables as they often have cardboard tops and bottoms not wood and you would also lose the HMV transfer

kirtley2012 wrote:Got the machine down to bare wood, the top and bottom are made of some kind of fiber board and haven't coped too well with the moisture, the bottom fell off because the glue let go but it is savagable if I were to re-cover it, the original covering it too far gone to re-apply with any success but I see 2 options now, If I were to restore it, I'd to it to close to origina spec, black leatherette covering, though maybe without the detail in the lid as that's not very prominent in the lid any more, or I could remove the top of the lid, I think it's letting go anyway, make a solid pine top then stain and french polish the case to have something a bit different

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I guess my idea wasn't so popular, but I never mentioned pink powder coating... I read the above description before making my suggestion as it is obvious that the case is so far gone that bedliner wouldn't hurt it... The real alternative that has not been suggested is to completely remake the entire case, using the old one for a pattern and then re-covering it with black leatherette. The main problem with that is it is time intensive and the end result wouldn't be "original" anyway, but neither would a french polished pine top...

I'm very glad VanEpsFan1914 voiced his opinion so I don't have to voice mine. It would be redundant.

I bought a large roll of dark blue rexine from Ratchford's about a year ago. I don't remember what it cost, but it was in the general category of, "a lot." It was absolutely worth it. I covered a 102 which had some major water damage and what was obviously a bad fix--it was faux painted. I just couldn't figure out what the paint job was supposed to be mimicking. Anyway, I'm very happy with the results, and even though I didn't do a perfect job, it looks good. I really recommend shelling out for some nice covering material.

I got all the info for recovering on Graham's site graham-ophones.co.uk . He has some fantastic photos and ideas on there. Helped me a lot.

I've always wanted a classic black 101 and the idea of painting one or--wallpapering one--it gives me the chills. But then I'm sure they're much more plentiful in the UK than California.