I am restoring a Bialaddin 310 and the paintwork on the paraffin tank is faded and scratched but saveable. The paintwork on the chimney has totally had it . I would prefer to keep the lamp as original as possible but up to a good working standard. I am new to restoring pressure lamps and jus wondered how other people felt about these things. Thanks for any response .
Hi Jeff thanks for the reply. Its just that I am into restoring old motorcycles and some things are definitely a no no and will get you laughed out the car park.
What you refer to as the chimney I presume is the top part most of us call the hood which is coated in vitreous enamel and not paint, their is no paint which will stand up to the heat at the top part of the lamp not even high temperature paint, the only option is to get it re enamelled or track down a better hood. Regards Ian
Definitely what Mr Cod said... and you will find a replacement hood on eBay, it all depends on how much you're willing to pay vs the quality. Re-enameling is an option but it can be prohitively expensive.
If you would like to see some odd lamps then check out the link below, I don't recall if one has to be a subscriber to access those pages, but if you can't access them then you will know why. Frankies, Mods & Hybrids
Its a shame reenamelling is so expensive but that goes for most decent finishes nowadays. It used to be cheap to have things rechromed but it is cheaper now to buy new but the quality is awful. The hood i have isn't that bad no holes just lost a lot of the enamelling.
Welcome @Tez As mentioned by Jeff, the choice is always the owner's. No rules. It would be an experience(not necessarily awful) to find out the hard way as many of us did in the past that paints just won't take it on the hood. Those that might, however, aren't the glossy ones. Discoloration, loss of gloss, flaking, blistering, among others. As far I'm aware of, this one still seems to hold. There might be some newer developments out there. Or some new tech might just emerge out of the blue. We just have to go on searching. You can still give the rest of the lantern a fresh coat of paint but the hood might then appear out of place. In many instances, it depends on how far gone is the vitreous enamel on the hood.
Most of the Enamel has gone. Still a few decent patches but rust has got a good hold on it .No matter what I am going to have to treat the rust just to halt its progress. I already new that the heat proof paints don't work from my work on restoring motorcycles but as you say always new things coming to the market.
Good evening tez, I re enamel hoods for a lot of clients, yes it is expensive to a fashion but the process is quite involved but the results are amazing,true its a personal choice but if your restoration is to be finished off I highly recommend re enamelling the hood as previous members stated no form of high temperature paint can resist the heat.
Of course you could obtain a second cheap damaged hood and paint it but not fire it up and use the first hood for light ups.
Hi Tilleyz13 thanks for the reply. How much would it cost to reenamal the hood on a Bialaddin 310 .I have restored old motorcycles over the years so I don't think you will shock me. A lot of the bikes from the 1920s through to the 1950s did the rims etc in stoveing. I did used to have a mate who worked in a stove enamelers but like me he has now retired. Lol
That has occurred to me. I have bought another 310 that looks to have a excellent hood on it but as I expect photos on ebay can be very deceiving.
Hi Tilley z13 Beautiful work. Can you stove other small things such as a set of handlebar clamps (would amount to about the same as a lamp hood) Thanks
