I found another gem here in Canada!! I was searching "Kerosene lantern" on Kijiji and after about 400 post of nothing, i found this that was up fro 3 weeks, it was super clean in the photos and had the reflector so i had to buy. lol Luckily the lantern was on the other side of my province, (Saskatchewan) So it didn't cost a whole to ship. I added the globe from my OH574, but plan to buy another original so both can be complete. This thing was a bit rusted, but citric acid ate it all away. Very happy with this piece and plan to use it once it gets a bit warmer here.
A lucky find! The knob on the control cock may be made from brass and the gland nut on the control cock may be made from steel and the link below shows relevant information about Tilley control cocks. 8 Tilley control cocks
Thanks a lot Martin & Phil! I was super happy to see this beauty just waiting to be bought. I think it was a fair price also! I really dig Tilley's even tho i don't find many, but i have found quality tho!
I really appreciate all the info you have Jeff! Mine is as you state is all brass, except the threaded section where the knob comes out of. Thanks again!
What I meant to type was that the thread that the gland nut screws onto may be made from steel and you have confirmed that it is.
Well... like my OH574 I was going f o light on this PL53 since i never did when I got it. I preheated it with but still was flaring up. So I went to add more methyl hydrate and it over flowed and thought it just stained in the marks.. but I see the paint boiling so I quickly grabbed and shook yo get excess off.... I just ruined an amazing piece of history, with a stupid mistake... if only I knew spilling would cause that... FML FML FML!!!!!!!!! I'm never lighting a Tilley again... Just ruined one of my nicest pieces!
... how would that not have been an original finish??? your saying someone other than Tilley painted it like this? Nobody said this before, if that's the case i got cheated twice.
The vaporiser has grey paint on it, that's how you know it's been resprayed, the colour is correct, just re painted
Plus spilling some meths on it shouldn't have done that, try pouring meths on your OH tank, it won't affect that paint at all...
Yeah i can see it almost looks like paint, but it's just pitted metal that i soaked in a citric acid bath when i first got it. The generator was rusty and the inside had lots of chucks. Check image 1 & 6. You can see it had nice original marks and such, but yeah. It sucks as it was probably one of the nicer examples of this era of the 53's.. :/
Exactly, that is why i was surprised... But it there not a chance different paint was used during war times?.. some were that darker gren/grey and i have seen some posts here with this metallic looking finish. I may be wrong, but i believe ti to be original. But t literally boiled the paint.
No, it was like battleship grey, i have one here and it looks tired as you would expect for a lamp over 70 years old...not metallic....
You don’t need to go that far, but get yourself a proper Tilley preheating torch, if you need a second preheat then you just blow out the flame another dip in the meths and relight.
Okay. Well from what I read there was the color you talk about and one like I have. If you search PL53's you will see there are ones out there the same color as mine. But usually rusty everywhere. Mine only had a bit near the sticker. Anyways I am just going off what I read and seen.
classicpressurelamps.com/threads/tilley-pl53-steelie-colour.4540/ This look the same. Yeah I know. I was just angry about the whole thing. Honestly I have one. But the 237 cup worked great on the 574 and this until the last preheat.
I should state it's not really a metallic, i should of said it's more glossy. More of a silver color, then that battleship grey.
As I read your post and looked at the amazing images I was in awe of the quality, but something was tickling my brain the whole time. I paused over some of the images and squinted because something didn't look right although I couldn't place what. Then I saw the image where the meths had spilt over the tank and ruined the paint job... that just didn't look right. Paint that old has been drying and curing for a very long time and it gets impervious to almost anything... OK, not quite but you know what I mean. I've stripped an old X286 Guardsman that was possibly not even as old as your model and the first coat of stripper did very little indeed and I left it overnight! If meths did that to the standard Tilley paint there would be no original paint left! Everyone who's ever owned a Tilley has spilt meths some time or another, quite often in fact, so if you ask me your PL53 had a recent paint job. That's OK, I have just finished fettling a sorry wreck of a Bialaddin 320 and it looks nice. I would clean up the fount, re-spray it and it'll be back to the same state in no time. BTW, I am very very very sure the vaporiser has been painted. I spotted that straight away!
Well either way it's ruined & no plans to repaint it as i wanted it as found... I don't see how it wouldn't be original with all the marks and dings it had... If it was re-painted it had to of been years and years ago as it has enough aging marks.. To truly tell if it was repainted we would need to get someone with a similar to test the same thing... NOT the ones painted battleship grey, but the ones with a more silver tone. I just don't see how it could be a recent job the pump has natural wear, the side of the fount has wear from the handle hitting it. To me it appears original, or else it has to be of been repaint 5-10 years ago. Anyways i already said the generator isn't painted. lol.... not sure if i need to go to court to prove it? xD
How on earth is it ruined ? The re spray it had was a bad one...they painted a load of parts that never should have been inc the vaporiser for some odd reason. On the other hand you had probably one of the first unintentional colour coded Tilleys .
you keep insisting the generator is painted... do you not read what i typed?? Just nvm. I'm sorry for for even posting. Have a good day.
And when i say it's ruined, i mean it RUINED. I liked it the way i found ti, and now it's damaged. I am sorry if it's not original, but i believed it was so either way it is ruined. Sorry i shared the damage with you guy's!
You can see the generator here rusted.... not painted.. it's now bare metal after i soaked in citric acid.
Here's a few others that are very similar to mine that has similar colored paint.. Surely this can't be just a random user painted color if i can show multiple ones from different locations. I'm only trying to figure this out since you guy's say it's not original i want to know for sure as before i bought i searched and found enough similar ones to think it would be original, but if it's not i would like to know why there are a bunch with this color combo and not the battleship grey? Mine has been polish by hand so it is more glossy then ones shown. EX-100 with steel tank and similar paint: EX100 Latest Purchase PL53 Sold on eBay with similar paint. 1940s, Tilley PL53 With Steel Tank, Good Used Condition, 182 Globe Perfect. | eBay Not sure if eBay links are allowed, but it is a sold listing..
Ahh, you found my Ex100, I was looking for that post earlier but couldn’t find it, I had a feeling mine was the same colour. I’m with you on this Tom, I think your paintwork was original. I know what the others are saying, the first pics of the vapouriser did make it look as if it was painted with a metallic silver paint and this put doubt in minds. It is hard sometimes to tell mint from restored, but I don’t think yours was restored. Was the meths lit when it spilt over the tank? I wasn’t sure if it just reacted with the paint or if it was all on fire and that is what melted the paint.
