The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

What Clay said. You've a nice machine there, one which should sound great with a no. 2 in prime condition. Your 90 is described as the successor to the XI, Victor's all-time most popular model, and I can tell you that my XI (w/Exhibition) is a fine performer on a wide variety of 78s from all periods.

UPDATE

The good news: A lot of Kotton Klenser products later, and the inside of my Victrola is looking like a million bucks. The wood has color again and the metal is sparkling. Well, except the poor crank, which is just too tarnished to come back I fear. The one thing left on the inside that I'd like to clean up is the speed regulator display, but I'm not sure how to proceed. If I remove the screws to open it up, what happens with the adjuster knob?

The bad news: The paint didn't clean up as well. Or maybe it did, but the black definitely looks thinned out in a few spots and looks very shaky everywhere else. See bad photos below. Thought I should "poll the audience" before I put on the finishing wax and see what everyone thinks. Will the finishing wax help that at all, or should I be shopping for paint? Or clean it again in an attempt to get some consistency, even though that consistency might be closer to gray than black?

Thank you again, all! Photos below:

I kind of like it the way it is, especially since it is a family machine. Did you ever get the brake parts? If you remove the cover the adjustor knob will come with it. It's not attached to anything so this shouldn't be a problem if you are careful not to bend it. Just be careful when you loosen the screws as the cover may spring up a little when you remove them and the screws may get launched somewhere difficult to reach.

The interior is indeed now beautiful, and it gives you a clear picture of what the entire machine once looked like. Whether to bring the outside back to that level is really your tough call. On the one hand, bringing it back would show what attracted your family to it in the first place, but on the other a bit of its history might be lost. Only you can decide what is more important to you.

It does look like the layer of paint is not very thick. If it were mine, I think I might experiment somewhere, perhaps on the back, that would not show and try applying the KK with 0000 steel wool, rubbing with the grain, to see if it might be possible to take off the paint without destroying the original finish underneath.

Clay

rizbone: I did get the yoke for the automatic brake, and now have it assembled and in place. Working like a dream! (I had a different thread going for that subject, though I haven't posted finished pics yet: http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... =7&t=17816)

And I took off the adjuster knob cover, etc. per your advice and cleaned it as best as I could. It hadn't occurred to me that the speed markings were literally on a small piece of paper! Obviously I didn't get it wet, just wiped it clean with a soft cloth. A part of me is tempted to scan it, clean up the spots in Photoshop, and print a replacement, but since I didn't think to do it while I had it taken apart that'll be a project for later on.

FloridaClay (and everyone else!): I tried your suggestion and cleaned a small spot on the back with 0000 steel wool. Photo below. It didn't remove 100% of the paint, but it removed quite a bit. Since I don't want to keep the current splotchy black surface, and it doesn't appear there's a good solution for restoring it, it seems like my options are (1) try to clean off as much paint as possible and see how it looks, or (2) a fresh coat of black paint.

The important part: If I choose to repaint wouldn't I want to first remove as much of the old paint as possible anyway? Thus no harm in trying option 1? And if I do paint should I use primer in this scenario? Does it matter if the paint is oil or latex? I suppose the other upside of painting is that I can try to fix some of the dings in the legs with a wax filler stick.

Continued thanks, everyone--honestly this old machine would still be wrapped in plastic in my storage unit without your help!

If the paint is latex, you should be able to remove it with Goof Off - I've used it to take dried paint off of a floor.