The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I just found this today.
A oak vv-xvi that has been completely refinished and all the gold hardware painted with gold paint.
The refinish is not bad.
I guess many people told the owner it was worthless because of everything so he gave it to me for next to nothing.
Is there anyway to take the spray paint off without damaging the gold plating(if there is any plating left under there)?

Not to start a flame war here, but why bother? Looks good to me. Especially since the whole cabinet has been refinished anyway, and there's no way to undo that. Besides, I suspect the paint was used for a good reason, e.g., the gold plating looked like sh*t and it would have cost mucho denarii to replate. Just my .$02 worth....

Lacquer-thinner will probably remove the paint w/o harming the plating... if it looks ratty, then you can always re-spray with gold-tone paint.

In my humble opinion, a XVI in oak would not be "worthless" unless the veneer was falling-off it and the cabinet was falling apart...

These days, I'm usually turning my nose up at alligatored red mahogany, in favor of white oak...

Hi bingchen1.

I'd guess that the reason for painting was that the original plating was worn off in some areas. (Unless the tone arm was a nickle replacement or something.) If it really bugs you, go ahead and strip it to see what's what, but be aware that you may need to re-plate (very costly) or repaint. While not optimal, it doesn't look too awful. Since the rest of the machine has been refinished, perhaps you should enjoy it as-is for awhile. If it all still bugs you, maybe then try your hand at doing a super accurate refinish of the whole machine. I'll be interested in seeing your progress.

Regards,
Martin

Thank you for all the response.
The machines actually looks very nice with the paint and I know under the paint its probably very worn out plating.
But I want to know what is going on under the paint, maybe the off chance it being in perfect condition! I can always repaint it. I'm going to soak it in thinner and try to get the paint off as gently as I can.

I have to say, they did a good job.

I spray painted (hold the pitchforks!) the crank escutcheon and winding key on my VV-IX, and it looks great in the den. I'm sure under fluorescent lighting it would look repainted if you looked close at it, but in the den, it looks great.

I usually prefer to glue uncooked macaroni to things prior to spray painting it gold. Ever since preschool days.

PeterF wrote:I usually prefer to glue uncooked macaroni to things prior to spray painting it gold. Ever since preschool days.

I just spilled my coffee, I was laughing so hard.

PeterF wrote:I usually prefer to glue uncooked macaroni to things prior to spray painting it gold. Ever since preschool days.

AWESOME