The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Any tips on repainting a horn with a lot of rust pits? Is it possible to have a smooth horn again?
Dave D

I have redone a lot of older ice boxes and stoves which originally had painted surfaces. When they are pitted lightly I use the bondo orange colored finish coat filler. It comes in tubes at auto motive departments and you use the plastic spreader that usually comes in a package of three. If you have larger deeper issues then the Bondo for filling deeper holes which is a sort of taupe color and comes in a can with some harding cream is what I use.. After that I use the final finish orange to fill any little imperfection.. You can sand it down with fine sandpaper then go with a very fine 600 black finish paper that you can wet and it will give a very smooth finish.. I will say that you need to use a good primer over it as the color can tend to bleed though if its not primed. I have never had it to come loose once set and painted over.

Larry

Thanks, Larry. This sounds like a lot of work, but I might give it a go when the weather gets better in the spring.
Dave

Is the horn in question going to get opaque paint ( like black ), or is a "morning glory" with a transparent paint ( like a "candy apple" red ) ?


If getting an opaque coating, the automotive fillers should work fine; if a transparent color, that could be challenging, as these were applied over bright tin-plated steel, and any color-variation in the base surface will show through the clear-coat...

Dave,

If your talking small pin holes its not a bit difficult or even very time consuming. It dries to sanding in a matter of 15 minutes or so and you can paint over it within a day or so, but the primer is suggested or you may have bleeding issues. As the previous post mentions, if the paint that your saving is translucent then this probably isn't going to work. If its a solid finish its the way to go. If you have some areas of roughness that need to be covered then it will take sanding it down carefully till its all flat the level of the metal or your going to see it in the finish.. Luckily it does sand easily but sometimes you have to take a number of fills to get rid of any depressions in it.

Larry

The horn in question is an aftermarket Vcitor horn that originally had flowers painted in it. It was rusted badly and about twenty years ago i tried to repaint it. I want to do a wood grain paint job on it, so that is opaque. I can't do this in the basement in the winter, so I will wait for Spring and work outdoors.
Dave

I grained a lot of wood work in oak in a home I had the in city some years ago.. I got pretty good at it.. I had a table top victor here for a while that had a bad horn and I did also grain it. I used one of the Mahogany kits that used to be everywhere in the 60s and 70's furniture antiquing craze.. You need a base coat which is flat normally and a sort of pale tone for red mahogany. I would google what color to use for gaining bases for specific woods your trying to imitate.. Off hand I don't recall the exact tone it was. The oak usually used a very pale sort of golden tone for working over.

Larry

I did a foreign outside horn restoration years ago and did a mahogany grain on the horn. I think it turned out nice. I used to set up at the local Edison museum and people would often come up and tap it to see what it was made of.

Dave's cygnet horn has inspired me.
Dave D

I still have one book on graining. I unfortunately gave a friend my best one when I sold that city home.. Its good to see what the process was in the old days. They can be more complicated than one would think with many layers of stain to create the illusion of real wood. But then some skillful brushing can accomplish pretty close to that effect in shorter order. You might try google books to see if any graining books are in it?

Larry