More on refinishing my pushbuttons

[Brooks Harkey <vm.dude@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

You may have seen my previous post about what color to paint the letters 
on the '63 pushbuttons.  I haven't had any responses yet regarding '63, 
so I may make them whatever color I want.

Meantime, I've discovered the Crafts department at Wal-Mart.  Until now, 
I thought this was the same thing as "Ladies' Wear" and I've never been 
near it.  (:-D)  But yesterday, I discovered a package of 16 little tubs 
of acrylic paints in various colors for $3.67.  There were a lot of 
choices, but I picked the one marked for "plaster, resin & bisque!"  And 
so far, I have painted Reverse red and Neutral white, and I must say 
they are BEAUTIFUL, this coming from someone who can't even draw a 
straight line with a ruler and has exactly _ZERO_ artistic ability.

On the back of the package, it says "Protect finished project by 
applying your favorite Ceramcoat Varnish".  Huh?  What's that?  So I 
kept looking and found a 2.5 oz bottle of "Cryla Soluble Gloss Varnish" 
for another $3.xx.  I thought that after I re-paint the letters on the 
ends, I would coat them with the varnish, but I wanted to make sure it 
looked OK. 

So far, I have not coated the ends, but here is what I DID do with 
unexpected results:  I decided to paint a little of the varnish way down 
on the stem, just to make sure it didn't melt the lucite or something.  
Well, all my buttons were kind of "opaque" thru time.... but where I 
painted that little spot, guess what?  It went back to clear transparent 
again!  Looking at the buttons closer, down near where they meet the 
shift mechanism, they are still clear and shiny, but apparently the rest 
of the buttons, whether due to exposure to the electroluminescence over 
time, or just the air, or whatever, are kind of opaque.  I can't imagine 
they were manufactured that way on purpose -- it would be kinda difficult.

So after my successful little "test", I'm now varnishing the entire 
sides of the buttons that face the electroluminescent panel.  Stay tuned 
for brighter buttons.... everybody might enjoy doing this!  And then 
I'll still do the ends.....  This is almost as much fun as taking the 
car apart in the first place.

--Brooks in Dallas
PS:  If you should be interested and go chasing the same items I bought, 
the manufacturer on the back is Delta Technical Coatings Inc of 
Whittier, CA.  The barcode for the particular set of paints I bought is 
17158 02707  and the SKU# is 02 707 0056 0702.  The clear varnish is 
made by Daler-Rowney of Berkshire, England, and the barcode is 011385 
920048.  They probably have the same thing at any hobby store.




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