As a relative newcomer to the fettling art, I look at some of the lovely lamps and wonder how on earth people made such a great job. I am tackling my next project and wondered what I am getting right and what I'm messing up. So Bought this many years ago I think it was a car boot sale. Been in my attic since then. These lamps seem so well made and designed. Have found this alloy wheel cleaner good for shifting muck on brass, clean with a paint brush but dont leave things in there for long. Then wash them in soapy water and dip in water with bicarbonate added to neutralise. Comes out a strange shade of orange, thinking of running for president. Then cleaned up with a wire brush and a quick buff up. Meanwhile strip the old paint with screwfix stripper I gave it a good brush and then rubbed it with fine emery just to key the surface, I sprayed it with Halfords primer to give a good surface to paint, and baked it in the homemade curing oven. Then after 24 hrs sprayed with Ford pepper red and cured for a while. Now its sitting on the radiator for a couple of days then I will laquer it. So far so good, next I will clean up the brass a bit, I noticed the top part seems to be quite aged and there will be a limit to how bright it will polish.
There'll be complaints! Looks OK to me so far. I think that paint shade is truer to the original than others we've seen - as far as can be told from a monitor screen, anyway...
Quite pleased with the colour and funnily enough it was sitting in my garage, from an escort i used to own. It is a metallic paint however and the proof will come when its laquered and seen in full light
A miserable weekend so I did a bit of polishing, the hood seems to be pretty well used and the brass is pitted, so I have to strike a balance, if I buff it too far it will probably be like newspaper. The filler cap and pump knob were so dirty solvol wouldn't touch it so I resorted to wheel cleaner, wire brush then solvol. Seems this is marked 300 on the hood not a 300x. I am going slightly off pistes with this one, I will leave the lower frame polished brass, not painted as original, and the top of the frame I painted black but I'm not convinced yet. I dont think this is a rare lamp so I am not destroying a national treasure, and it can easily be undone.
Yes Pepper Red, and it is metallic, (it was a Ford Focus I had ) I was bit worried about the metallic but it's not too "bling" when dry, I'm wondering about laquer, I have satin, and gloss, maybe the satin will tame it a bit or should I do the full gloss. I just looked and it has Hexagon air buttons, and what seems to be a bialaddin marked original glass, anyone know what kind of date this would have been made?
Ha- missed that bit . I think that the gloss finish may be a little more paraffin stain resistant ? - not speaking from any great experience..
@rayw i would say 1949, but I’m sure I will be corrected.... If it’s a metallic paint then it’s really designed to have a top coat lacquer, without that I’m not sure how resistant it will be to scratches or to fuel. Generally you would flat down the base coat with wet and dry to give it a dull appearance prior to applying the lacquer topcoat. Whatever topcoat you use just make sure it’s compatible otherwise you can end up undoing all the good work...
I experienced that particular disappointment a couple of days ago when lacquering a Coleman 220 fount I'd finished painting. The green was lovely and smooth, no ripples and looked a treat. 20 seconds later it was a wrinkled, bubbling mess! I just had to walk away, shut the garage door and try to forget about it for a while!
Oh what a sickener !!! I thought it was only me that did stuff like that, So far I've used Halfords car spray and Halfords clear lacquer, on my table lamp, then Plastikote gold spray and satin finish lacquer on the 246 Tilley. On the first Vaparlux I used Halfords enamel spray and then Plastikote satin lacquer On this one I have used Halfords car spray and still pondering on the top cote. I always used Halfords enamel primer and then clean it down with one of those small scotchbrite sponge pads used for pots and pans, using this gently while wet with soapy water, I have wondered about using etch primer to get a better grip. By the way just to avoid a similar problem what did you use on the one in the picture? The lamp in your Avatar is the one which inspired me to do this Bialaddin but I am leaving the bottom of the frame plain brass instead of painting, I cam always paint it later.
Gutting ! I feel for you - once upon a time all one had to look out for was "cellulose" or "enamel" (mixed at your peril) - now we have a plethora of different acrylic/water based stuff to look out for too
The acrylic paints appear to be quite paraffin proof and I have used them on all my restorations bar one so far. The Halford etch primer is excellent and is of course compatible with their other acrylic paints. The one exception was Rustoleum used for my Vapalux 300X which tended to fall off at the sight of a paraffin can or meths bottle, but that was solved by a few top coats of acrylic lacquer on top. I was lucky in this case as the two paints were fully compatible. I feel for you Colin, it must have been a great disappointment after the care you took for the colour coat. I am currently restoring a Tilley FL6. Heaven knows what paint they used originally but I can tell you that I have not found a paint stripper that will remove the stuff other than abrasive paper and hard work. I have ordered some heat resistant paint for this project which I hope, just hope, will be friendly towards the etch primer I have already applied to the fount.
I have found Starchem synstrip paint stripper to be the most effective. Good for victorian fireplaces. you might have to confirm you are a "professional user"
That’s looking good so far. I always polish the whole frame like you when I’m doing these. I know it’s not original but personally I think it looks nicer
Moving forward, I stopped dithering and went for the clear laquer, jury is still out if it's a bit bright, but it actually looks brighter in the picture than in real life. Pop yer hat on, When I stripped it down I thought the screws were steel and intended to replace them with stainless, but a dunk in the wheel cleaner and a quick brush brought them up a treat. The top is dark grey and not in bad condition considering, I also decided to add a slight modification by ordering some small mica washers to fit between the brass and the steel top to try and reduce any hot spot where the screws force closest contact. Gave the burner a good strip clean to get the inside muck out By the way the Frey Bentos tin is handy when you are painting, stand the lamp on it and it stops the bottom edge sticking to the bench while drying the paint.
Looks good from here Ray Btw if that's the original top then it's done well too! p.s. Do they do a veggie Fray Bentos at all?
p.s. Do they do a veggie Fray Bentos at all? I hope not, I'm only just getting over Greg's making veggi sausage rolls. Just going for a lay down.
Nice example of the first version of the Bialaddin 300x, aka "Black top", made between mid 1946 and sometime in 1947- dark grey cap with in rolled edge, and marks stamped on the hood not the collar. Most have a "tit" pressure indicator on the tank, those that don't (like yours) are probably the last ones produced before the introduction of the "Red top" version(1947 -1950). Good to see the top in such good nick, they're nigh impossible to replace as all the repro ones I've seen are the later shape and black rather than grey. Can't see the logo on the glass, but everything else looks original and "correct" for this version, so the glass may be too. Looking good, if it's anything like mine it'll be a good runner. Last thought, is there a patent number stamped on the vaporizer? If so, that's original too.
Thank you for information it's invaluable to know the history of something like this, I intend to light it but probably not very often . Glass is marked but fading slightly And as you said patent No 337892 is stamped just above the screw fitting of the vaporiser, I had not noticed that before
MMM Pie err, Nice lamp ! it does look very nice - red and brass go so well. off topic but FBentos do veggy and vegan too. But you don't have to buy them
I must be starting to open my eyes a bit more now, looking at my glass Bialadin has one d, I have seen it spelled with 2 ds including the hood of this lamp and a picture of an original box on here. I'm just curious does anyone know why, or am I digging up a well discussed subject.
Yes, that's the right logo for a '40s Bialaddin glass: the stem of the first 'd' has chipped off which is why it seems to read "Bialaadin" I've not seen a vaporizer with coarse diamond knurling on the base before, wartime ones have fine diamond knurling and the patent stamped up the length of the vaporizer whereas post-war ones have the stamp round the vaporizer and straight knurling. I suspect someone came back from the pub on Friday afternoon and forgot to change the tooling...
Like you I love the combination of deep red and brass - it's almost sensual!!!! The deep red you chose looks pretty awesome to me, just need the money shot now!
I certainly intend to fire this one up, but I want to give the paint a few days to cure fully so it shouldn't get spoiled by a slight knock. I hope to see it all together in the next couple of days, then maybe next week give it ago.
Getting a bit impatient so I put it together so I could check it out. Need to clean the retaining nuts on the bail, and little bits of tidying up but quite pleased so far. The red is brighter in the picture than in real life, I compared it to the picture above where the paint stripper has taken the dirt off the old paint and it looks OK.
