The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Thought you all might enjoy some pics of me restoring a Nipper bank I got a few weeks ago. It was in bad shape. The one side casting had shifted and nothing would line up. Part of his head was not filled in fully. Someone else had done a very poor job working on him. They tried to fill in the gaps with some gritty black stuff, and put so much paint on him there were runs and paint puddles on the bottom of his feet.

This is how it looked when I brought it home. Media blasted back down to the casting. You can see here how bad the casting is. The alignment nubs needed a lot of work to get the two halves to line up. After about an hour of sanding and filing on the casting to get things to line up, blend in the casting lines, and blend in the head this is how he turned out. I think he turned out great. Time to get some paint and put the fur back on him!!

After looking at him for some time, I am unhappy with the holes in the casting. So I took some body filler and am smoothing out the holes.

Body filler sanded and two coats of primer.

Nice work so far. I look forward to seeing the final result. For a more "period correct" appearance, I suggest replacing the Philips screws with slot screws, since Philips screws were not introduced until the 1930s.

Thank you!

I have been thinking of changing the screws. I'll have to see if I can find ones that'll work.

Took a bit to find flat tip screws that would work. Still had to reshape the angle on the head to match the old angle and cut the length down.

Three coats of white. I'll let him dry for several days and start hand painting the black.

All done!!

Pretty darned nice! Good job!

Your dog has a nice shiny coat.

James.

Nice job. A labor of love.