Well thanks, you're all too kind. My late father used to muck about with valve HiFi equipment and television in the pre-transistor days and he was quite particular about his looming. (I consequently have a pair of Quad ESL 57s waiting for me in the west of Ireland that need to be refurbished and paired with a suitable amp, a very carefully matched and crossover'd subwoofer, and a long thin listening room)
The stuff I used on the brightwork isn't an automotive clear coat, it's a rattlecan made by Rust-oleum called "Stops Rust Crystal Clear Enamel"
It's cheep, like the budgie; and the Home Despot sells it.
It's also solvent based, and you don't shoot very thin coats like a shellac, and you _definitely_ don't sand between coats. Or perhaps you can, but it'll be a bugger to get a decent finish if you do. The trick seems to be to give it one fairly complete, even, wet coat, let it self-level and flash off for 20-30 minutes. Then a second coat the same way, then a third. Then let it flash off completely over night. That was enough for me to cover the brushed aluminium finish on the Crack such that you can't feel (or see in reflection) the underlying texture at all. Remember, there is a _lot_ of solvent in this stuff when it's wet, it looks like you've put too much on as you've shot it (lots of meniscus around the edges and cutouts, etc), but the dried product is a great deal thinner.
I hit the bell end (fnarr fnarr!) with 150 or 180 grit sanding block, I forget which one I finished with, but coarse enough to give it bright, with a slight brushed finish in one orientation. I suspect 150 is about right. Then straight to the paint booth (back patio on a bit of wood on a couple of saw horses with a bin bag underneath)
Keep in mind that the Rustoleum is _not_ an enamel in the physical sense. It's gets slightly soft when everything gets hot. I don't know if that'll dissipate with time, I suspect not. At any rate, when the transformer is up to temperature, you don't want to lay the whole panel upside down resting on the finished transformer cover, even if it's just a terrycloth towel or three under it, as it'll take an embossment from whatever it's laid upon. Fortunately (in my case) it's also got some memory effect, I set it the right way up, got it hot again, and sort of massaged it smooth again. Or possibly it regained its smooth surface on its own and I massaged it for fun while it was doing it. I'm not sure.
At any rate, yes, useful stuff for that task.
In related news, the Hakko FX888D is a _remarkably_ good little soldering station for $100 shipped from Amazon, based on about 6 months of ownership. I spent a couple of years soldering professionally in my late teens/early 20s (prototyping, lots of SMD stuff) and I'd say it's every bit as good as the ~$300 Wellers I was using back then, and surprisingly close to the much more expensive Metcal gear. It quickly and cheerfully saturated even the highest-mass joints in this project without having to up the temperature from my usual 650 (albeit with a fairly fat chisel tip). Highly recommended.
///d
