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I just picked up a decent Victor 8-9 Orthophonic today. It's complete and running, just in need of the usual cleaning and maintenance. As you probably know, the 8-9 is unique in that it has some antiqued, turquoise painted areas in a sort of "Southwest" theme. I'm sure I can use Goop/GoJo on the regular wood without any issues to speak of, but I'm concerned about the painted areas.

Is Goop/GoJo safe to use on the turquoise paint and the other painted areas? How about the decorations and pulls? Is there something else I should use instead like Fantastik or a Mr. Clean sponge?

I'll post pics eventually.

Thanks in advance.

GoJo is just fine to use for cleaning, BUT.... It has to be the NON-PUMICE type. DO NOT USE THE PUMICE TYPE OF GoJo.

Also DO NOT USE THE MR CLEAN SPONGE OR MAGIC ERASER Type Sponge cleaners!!!!!!! They can ruin/stain the wood!

Use MURPHYS OIL in a Bottle. It is Safe to use on Woods...for preservation.

)

Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer

NEFaurora wrote:GoJo is just fine to use, BUT.... It has to be the NON-PUMICE type. DO NOT USE THE PUMICE TYPE OF GoJo.

)

Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer

That's a given for me, but a good reminder for the newbies.

Be very careful with the turquoise areas. There is a sort of hazy shading over the turquoise that many people mistake for dirt and scrub off, exposing a very bright, but very wrong, turquoise hue. While the turquoise may not be effected by the GoJo, the shading might be.

JerryVan wrote:Be very careful with the turquoise areas. There is a sort of hazy shading over the turquoise that many people mistake for dirt and scrub off, exposing a very bright, but very wrong, turquoise hue. While the turquoise may not be effected by the GoJo, the shading might be.

Thanks, that was my concern. I tried a small patch test and I think Goop may be removing more than just dirt. I think for now I'll leave the painted areas alone until someone with experience chimes in.

Well, here's a chime-in. I cleaned mine with non-pumice GoJo. My machine had obviously spent decades in a smoker's house and everything was covered in nicotine. I went over the painted areas just once, lightly. No scrubbing, just light finger pressure to rub it in and then almost immediately wiped off with a paper towel. What came off seemed to be to just be brown nicotine. The painted areas still retained their weathered look and varied degrees of shading. If any paint did come off, it was miniscule. I've seen other 8-9s where the paint was completely washed out and uniform looking, that was definitely not how it should look. I would just be careful and do what I did. Of course, Victor could've even changed the paint. I'd just be very careful or perhaps not touch it at all with anything but a very mild soap and water solution first and see if that does anything.

Sean

Thank you to all who posted their two-cents worth. I recently bought a VV 8-9 and will soon be starting the clean-up process, including replacement and installation of new grill cloth. I will be cleaning the turquoise and gold paint and may even repaint those areas. I'll be using Murphy's and GoJo (non-pumice). I want to finish it off with Old English. Any comments on doing this? This information is invaluable to my project.

I used only Howard's Feed 'N' Wax on mine and that was great. Old English (the light shade) seems to basically be just lemon oil, which is fine but I've never found it to last very long. Howard's lasts longer as would any good quality paste wax like Johnson's.

Good luck!

Sean

Sheffield Antique Gold. Search the forum for a link.

That bright turquoise paint is what we Rembrandts call an underpainting. All the old masters used underpainting in their oil paintings. The idea was to under paint, say a tree's foliage with a pale yellow, and then paint over it with a dark green glaze to create a luminous effect. Same effect on the 8-9. I've seen 8-9s where a restorer doesn't know this and just paints the whole stripe in a solid blue green with no depth to it. It looks awful and inauthentic. If the glaze has worn off over the 90 years, you can even use a wood stain over it to get back the depth and then maybe put some shellac or lacquer over it.