The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Did a quick search but didnt see an answer. What chemical works quick for removing the old yellowed clear varnish on a reproducer. I tried denatured alcohol and didnt really do anything.Neverdull seems to work but too much work and wont get into the crevices.

Denatured alcohol dissolves shellac. Try lacquer thinner and 000-0000 grade steel wool.

Try Ammonia and a soft toothbrush, if stubborn let it soak a while, you'll be amazed at the results. Steel wool and Never Dull are to harsh, and will remove the gold!

Bob S.

Thanx for the tips guys,now off to the store!

I should have been more explicit -- I was referring to cleaning nickel.

Are you going to replace the white gaskets? It's really easy and you get great results. Jerry Blais

Mine is nickle John,and yes Jerry already have the gasket,took it apart and couldnt just put it back together so crusty looking.

Try the ammonia. When I bought my Edison A250 the gold work was almost black. I used ammonia and all the (used to be) clear coating flaked right off with no effort on my part and left it looking beautiful. Like Zwebie I was amazed at how well it worked. I would think it should work equally as well with a coating over nickel. After the coating comes off a little good quality auto wax with a built-in cleaner can help nicely. I've had good results with Meguiar's Cleaner Wax.

Clay

Since when did VTMCo apply "varnish" (shellac?) to nickel Exhibitions? Mine doesn't have any, and I believe it to be in original condition (except for new gaskets).

I doubt VTMC did, however when I bought my Victor II someone had shellacked all of the metal parts, so it may have been a popular method to preserve the shine at some point. I'm kind of glad they did as it made the machine look bad enough to pick it up cheap, and it cleaned up real nice.