Rusty Chrome and Chrome Effect paint.

[jonathan dollimore]

I thought it might be worth raising this issue again. There's new legislation pending in Europe which is going to make re-chroming even more difficult to achieve, although for those like myself the biggest challenge is stripping a chassis in preparation for re-chroming - a power/output chassis might just be possible, but not a tuner chassis! 

However I have read references to a new generation of chrome effect paint being used in the US by the custom car brigade. Now, over here,  most of what is sold as chrome effect paint isn't - it's bright aluminium coloured at best. But I hear reports that this new generation of paint is much superior and I wondered if any of you US based Scott restorers have experimented with it on radio chassis, or indeed cars.

[Norman S Braithwaite]

The problem with paint is that it insulates.  The IF amplifier in the Scott Full Range High Fidelity Receiver and Philharmonic have the maximum gain possible relying on the high degree of shielding present in these receivers to avoid going into oscillation.  In addition to hardware through the chassis (a ground path relying on rivets and machine hardware through dissimilar metals) these Scott receivers rely on contact between the shield bases and the the chrome chassis for adequate shielding.  Case in point, I had electronically restored a Full Range High Fidelity receiver for a customer after which I encountered the IF oscillation problem.  The set must have been owned by a person in or retired from the military because the top of the chassis had been sprayed with MFP.  The MFP compromised the contact between shield bases and the chrome chassis leading to the oscillation even with hardware clean and tight.  The problem was solved by removing the MFP from the chassis under the shield bases after looking into several other potential causes.

Norman

[Scott Seickel]

I don't see having a tuner chassis re-chromed as too big of a deal.  All in a days work...

As for paint, I have not seen a paint that looks chrome-like enough to fool me.  There is still no replacement for the real thing as far as I am concerned. 

I think painting is an ok idea as long as you take care to make sure your ground points have a good connection to the chassis. Guys who have painted have had luck using star lock washers to cut thru the paint and make a good connection to the chassis.  If it were mine, I would go a step further and scrape the paint in the area where the machine screw and lock washer will be looking to make a connection to the chassis.