I'm restoring my 1970s end caps finally :-)

[thesignlady]

Alright... I have responded to a few other peoples threads about their frustration in the ugly yellowing that happens to the plastics on the bathrooms, end caps and refrigerator vent covers today and well...that darn well got me motivated to get working on finally painting my front end cap.

I will do a step by step tutorial for others that may want to do this as well I will as add the body of my previous thread about my bathroom to

Here is the bathroom thread...One thing to check before painting yours in to ensure it has not been painted before with an unknown product. In my Argosys bathroom I used the krylon fusion spray paint for plastic. The krylon molecularly bonds with plastic. The fixtures were very yellowed and hideous before now the are a nice glossy ivory, you cannot tell it was sprayed on it is a smooth clean finish. To prep the surface use the 000 steel wool to give it all a good scrub and scuff and that will supply a bit of texture for the product to adhere properly. Clean thoughly with a Mr Clean Magic eraser and pine sol and allow to dry. Tape of any areas you don't want to hit with the over spray (tape far and wide spray paint travel well in a trailer) Spray on your first thin coat holding the can eight inches from the surface go in a wide sweeping back and forth pattern never shifting direction on the surface you are painting or you WILL get runs, allow to dry one hour and give it a once over with 000 steel wool again wash clean and let dry again. On the can it says additional coats can reapplied between 1 and 24 hours or it must cure for 7 days before applying the next coat.

I did my bathroom 5 years ago it still look great. We fill our tub and sink full of all sorts of stuff while traveling the logging roads boondocking and the paint has never scraped off, so it is very durable. I have attached a pic of the sink area as it is now 5 years on, used regularly and roughly by a family of 5 and one of the fridge hood scoop that I have not gotten around to doing yet. The entire bathroom was the color of the hood scoop before using the Krylon. I plan to do my end caps soon using the same product. It is in every hardware store up here on Vancouver Island so I would expect it is readily available somewhere near you. Good luck.

[thesignlady]

Ok I do have to admit that my painting the end caps today actually started out as trying to repair my stuck tambour doors ;-) After reading up on repair tips I found that lubricating with silicone spray along the tracks will get them moving again so after spraying in the few spots I could reach I wiggled them back and forth until they started moving it was a slow process with grasping the tambour in the center of the panel with my fingernails to push forward and back while cupping the tambour into the rounded shape at the same time was necessary. Eventually they budged and well moving it back and forth to work the silicone in I made it go too far and it came of the track inside. This track is funny, it looks like it was cut into a third. The other side is a full spiral. I don't know if it was a PO modification or not...

[thesignlady]

Here is the funny cut one

[thesignlady]

But hey at least with the funny cut one it gave me the ability to roll up the tambour and angle it out, then I slid the opposite one across to this opening and angled it out to.

[thesignlady]

During the process of un jamming the doors they of course got some silicone spray on to them so I had to get that off to be able to use the Krylon Fusion on them. I threw them in a sink full of hot soapy, bleachy, Oxi cleaned water and gave them a massive scrubbing. Took 'em outside scrubbed them down with 000 steel wool ( which by the way, almost that alone brought them up to their previous glory days coloring) then hosed them down and applied a degreaser with a Mr Clean magic sponge and hosed them again....I really, really wanted to make sure there was no silicone left in them

[thesignlady]

Taped of a table outside to give the tambours a coat of Krylon. I am using the metallic silver for the tambour doors to tie together the front of the of the Argosy together with the brushed aluminum vinyl that I applied to my faux wood cabinetry. Just put the second coat on at 10:30 at night so I'll see how it looks it the daylight. 😄

[thesignlady]

Back to those end caps, a whole lotta taping off later after my usual scrub with pine sol to de grease, 000 steel wool, Scotch Brite pads to scuff some more then a thorough clean with Mr Clean Magic erasers routine I was ready to go. Like I said before tape off far and wide, this stuff travels. If you have access to a box fan put it in the door way to clear it out. I did not use the ceiling get fan as I do not want to have to strip it down from the over spray later. It was hazy in here so I did not take my camera in for action shots but my recommendation is to focus of the underside horizontal surface first then move on to start at the very top go all the way back and forth making sure not to change direction in the content of your work or it will run. If you want a really smooth finish do not go back for missed spots get them in the next coat. You will have far superior results with many thin coats than with a few thick ones. Here it is with a before and after of the first coat and the second late night coat 😯

[Piggy Bank]

Wow..that looks just fantastic. Good tips on avoiding the drips and such. So you use Pine Sol instead of TSP. Never heard that one before either. Do you rinse again with water after the Magic Eraser step?

[thesignlady]

I use pine sol to de grease my kitchen so it seems like a solid idea to degrease the 40 years of grime on my end caps. If you have never used Magic Erasers before boy you are missing out they are awesome. It is essentially a micro sanding they are great on textured ( or smooth surfaces) When using the sponges they must be wet or they don't work, as you go your sponge will essentially sand itself away, when you get it wet squish the water out between 6th two hands rather than scrunching with one...they crack when you do that, still usable just now you have two small ones. So to answer your question after I used the sponge I did give it a wipe down to remove the micro bits of sponge that may have still been sticking to the wall. I dry wiped the end caps with a microfiber glass cloth after wiping it down with a damp dish cloth. The spray paint is put on in multiple thin coats and I never change direction within the end cap, that is how to avoid drips :-)

[drboyd]

Subscribing!

[thesignlady]

Second day and I have just put a third thin coat on. Some of my tape had separated from the ceiling edges over night so I peeled yesterday's tape off and applied new along that section. I gave it another once over with a fine scotch Brite pad to smooth it out. I found it is very important to not go back over areas and to work quickly. Working from the top down is best as you seal in most of the paint over spray mist that way. Going the other direction made it feel slightly more textured. Live and learn baby. After going it a smooth out I again washed it and then buffed it dry with my glass cloth. Don't get me wrong it comes out smooth enough for most people's standards, it's just I work in a sign shop with paints all the time and I abhor the orange peel texture that happens when you don't go though all these steps.

[thesignlady]

Okay back to the tambour doors while the end cap dries. Today I gave the tambours a heavy scrub with the a course sanding block then a fine scotch Brite pad. After I went over each fold looking for any dust bunnies or sanding grit that I may have missed while painting in the dark last night. Any that I found I scraped out with my exacto knife. I realized that the factory cut was quite square and rough so I spend some time with my course sanding block rounding off the top and bottom edges. In a few spots it was quite flared so I cut those with my knife. And sanded some more, it's hard to tell in the bottom picture, but those white edges you see are how far I rounded them and not the sheen on the metallic. The theory of my rounding them off is the less contact with the spiral riders the easier they will move. I will keep you posted on if it works.

Why did I wait till this stage to do all this you ask instead of from the beginning? I was concerned about surface tension of the paint causing a sort of blistering at the ends. Turned out it was not an issue any way

[thesignlady]

My next issue was how to un-warp the one tambour, it was quite cupped inwards and from the lack of discoloration likely it was jammed the longest so it took the form of its uncomfortable postion. Tried heating it up with a blow dryer and then weighing it down while hot, minor difference.... it is now outside in the sun with a cloth for a spacer and a glass bowl for the heat source and I am going for the magnifying effect. We'll leave it there a while and see if it will fix itself in the heat 😶

[thesignlady]

Earlier I flipped over the tambours and worked on tidying up the fabric that hold it all together, I am positive that all the loose threads from the fiber matt were what caused the jams in the first place. Took my handy dandy exacto blade and got to work trimming the entire edge beveling it inword as I went, again to reduce surface tension in the tracks. I will have a little bit of contact cement work to do in areas where the mat is not bonded to the tambour anymore, I'll do that later...back to the end cap ☺

[thesignlady]

Spraying the end caps: http://youtu.be/YZLO72FJbY8
A short clip of the spaying pattern...but off to the hardware store now, as you can see I ran out of paint.
Now I know, 2.5 cans needed per end cap ;-)

[Airline]

what color krylon are you using ?

[thesignlady]

I am using Dover white, honestly it is a little lighter than what I would like, it is probably two shades lighter than whatever colour I used in the bathroom 5 years ago. The next shade I can find on the shelves here is almond which is to dark for the white vinyl walls. I searched far and wide for an in between color to no avail so it will do :-) Once I get the newly painted tambours and the speakers back in I am sure it will be less bright

[thesignlady]

Time to fill the previous owners hole collection. I waited to the last coat to ensure that if the filler reacted with the paint it would still look okay underneath. It would suck to go to wash it in a few months and have the edges of the fill possibly roll up showing the old banana yellow. I used Dap and filled only the hole. I washed the perimeter to it would blend in better.. soap and water clean up. Finally the last coat is sprayed on, after the usual prep work of course.

[J. Morgan]

Looks great !

[Piggy Bank]

Thanks for the pointers on the pine sol and the magic erasers. I appreciate it.