Painting a Blue Harmony Front Mount Horn

[columbia1spring]

I want to paint my original Blue Harmony horn. Does anyone know the color code or where to buy the
paint in aerosol form?
I know car restorers can have any color made, in spray can form and I need to get the color correct.
Thank You

[Jerry B.]

If you have a space where the paint is not too bad, they may be able to color match the paint. Are you determined to repaint your horn? If not, how about posting a photo? It is so difficult to repaint a horn and not make it look like a repainted horn. Once you go down that path, there is no returning and I speak from experience. I've had good results painting the black portion of a black & brass horn but to completely repaint a horn is much more difficult. Good luck with your project. Jerry Blais

[columbia1spring]

If you have a space where the paint is not too bad, they may be able to color match the paint. Are you determined to repaint your horn? If not, how about posting a photo? It is so difficult to repaint a horn and not make it look like a repainted horn. Once you go down that path, there is no returning and I speak from experience. I've had good results painting the black portion of a black & brass horn but to completely repaint a horn is much more difficult. Good luck with your project. Jerry Blais

I tried bringing it to a body and paint supply house where they use the computer to match it. There is 99.9 percent of the blue paint gone, it's virtually now a silver horn. I am a huge supporter of not painting horns, but in this case there is just nothing left.

[De Soto Frank]

Does this help ? ( Looks like original paint, fairly dark...)

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/m ... phonograph

Here's another, slightly later Harmony:

http://www.intertique.com/HarmonyID.html

[columbia1spring]

Does this help ? ( Looks like original paint, fairly dark...)

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/m ... phonograph

Here's another, slightly later Harmony:

http://www.intertique.com/HarmonyID.html

I steer towards Columbia Client machines in my enjoyment of the hobby and when you get into these nice colorful horns even original horns look different (color shade) from machine to machine, depending on how they are displayed and stored.

Pictures helped... thank you!

[De Soto Frank]

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a fair amount of variety in shades of color as the factories went through various batches of paint.

[Henry]

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a fair amount of variety in shades of color as the factories went through various batches of paint.

You mean, kinda like the elusive "Cornell red" on the old Lehigh Valley, eh Frank?

[De Soto Frank]

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a fair amount of variety in shades of color as the factories went through various batches of paint.

You mean, kinda like the elusive "Cornell red" on the old Lehigh Valley, eh Frank?

LOL...

[columbia1spring]

Ok...
I agree shades vary and I found one I am comfortable with.
Can I shift this now into how to actually paint the horn? As mentioned, All the blue is gone, just the silver remains. I found online some transparent paints and other types. I was planning to use Testors paint.
Is that the best choice? The colors I was going between was Gloss dark blue # 1211 and transparent blue # 1257.
They are 3 oz each can and I was guessing 4 cans for a front mount horn. I was going to wet sand the horn smooth, careful to leave as much original silver as possible then paint..
Any tips would be great!!!

[De Soto Frank]

Not sure about any sanding on the horn itself; the "silver" is probably a layer of tin-plating, and it is very thin.

You can scrub through it in no time.


My approach would be to wipe the surfaces down with lacquer thinner and good paper towels, until no more stuff ( paint, oxidation ) comes-off on the toweling, let dry thoroughly, then begin painting, building-up thin coats.

Once you've got a few layers built-up, let dry for a couple days, then carefully wet-sand to smooth-out.

As for type of paint, if I remember correctly, the Testor's hobby paints are enamels, and will lay-on thick.


I would think that the original paints were lacquer-based, which allows you to build-up thin coats, sanding / buffing in between to smooth-out any imperfections.

The couple of horns that I posted photos of appear to have been painted with opaque paints; you might also experiment with the traslucent / "Candy-color" paints...

If you don't like the way it's looking, wipe it off with solvent, and try something else.


Hopefully someone will more experience will chime-in.

Eric Reiss's "The Compleat Talking Machine" has some good pointers on painting.