Having found the lamp, a good green hood and a good condition correct type glass some time ago I finally got round to restoring this lamp. As bought, no glass and the wrong type of hood fitted, the black one piece hood is in very good condition and will eventually go on a 320 project. All stripped down ready for restoration with a very good green enamelled hoof and a very good glass with the correct curved bottom profile. The tank was given a good clean internally, stripped of old paint, prepared and primed. Then given 2 coats of BS381c Grass Green paint followed by a coat of fuel resistant laquer. Blue flame test following re assembly using a viton seal kit. Mantle fitted ready for a propper test. A couple of pics of the finished lamp running.
@DP2 Nice fettling job, your paint work is excellent, well done. It looks to be running very well. Cheers Pete
I am really pleased with this one, I find using good quality rattle cans to paint the lamps helps to achieve a good finish. But you do get the odd lamp that puts up a struggle like the early Vapalux 300 I am restoring which is heading for its 2nd dunk in paint stripper as it refuses to cooperate with my efforts to paint it nicely!
The Bialaddin 310 is my favorite Bialaddin lantern. I just like the overall appearance. You have done an outstanding job with your 310! It looks terrific!
Whatever the burgundy paint they used I've had serious trouble getting it off. I used a water based (alkaline) paint stripper to shift as much as possible and then used wire wool dipped in acetone to get rid of the stubborn areas. After to that I washed it in soapy water and then repeated the acetone scrub. I also used a fine copper wire brush on some parts that helped a bit, but that stuff is stubborn as hell!
In Dutch we have a saying: "you want to look pretty, you suffer". As for paint removal, I decided to strip a green 300X that was 70% brass already; merely by pointing at it, the green paint would come off so to speak. Yet with stripper, the chemical approach, it became a struggle. Indeed some scrubbing with acetone sort of finished the project I do not want to do again. Ever.
For the more stubborn tanks I have left them covered in paint stripper for a couple of days, paint stripper these days is weak compared to what you could once buy.
Cover the tank liberally with paint stripper and then seal it in a polythene bag for however long it says on the tin. This keeps in the vapours from the stripper and stops the stuff from drying out, This works well even with the modern-day paint strippers - the last lot I bought came from Screwfix and I was highly impressed, despite initially being a bit suspicious of how well it would work, being the water-soluble variety...
Yes it does work eventually I will try your plastic bag trick next time. However it's not the same as good old fashioned paint stripper where you could see the paint curl up and whither in front of your eyes!
