"I've made a terrible mistake" - Gob

A wood dowel with 150-220 or finer grit paper in a drill press or a very steady hand can “machine” the fronts of the knobs. It’s a Hail Mary to salvage a knob. Big dowel with paper attached using contact cement with a small dowel attached in the middle as a shank for the chuck to grip. A deft touch is needed given how thin the metal on the knobs are. Exeperiments are called for first to make sure it is what you want/need todo. This would a case of something close is better than nothing
 
Just the type of advice I came here for. I'll give this a shot and report back. Thanks Sandstrom

Ok...an update: I bought some Flitz and polished those knobs something fierce. And it helped. But they are definitely not back to 'normal' condition. They look a bit more 'chrome' now. It's a darker, shinier look. It's ok. It's better. Kind of. Unfortunately the Flitz did not fix the most burned/stained marks on the knobs. So, I'm afraid I'm back in the market for some knew ideas or knobs.

Some progress shots below.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0462.JPG
    IMG_0462.JPG
    72.1 KB · Views: 78
  • IMG_0463.JPG
    IMG_0463.JPG
    52.8 KB · Views: 76
  • IMG_0464.JPG
    IMG_0464.JPG
    51.9 KB · Views: 73
Well, I would really like to bust your chops, but I feel generous today. :rflmao:

Instead, Welcome to AK! :beerchug:

Oh, good sir. By all means, bust away. I doubt you could give me half as hard of a time as I've given myself. You'd think I'd gambled away the title to my house.
 
I've used Simichrome and it works. You might even try some DeoxIT. It removes oxidation.

So, I tried the Deoxit solution here as well. Didn't do anything in this case I'm afraid. But appreciate the idea. I hadn't considered that.
 
Ok...an update: I bought some Flitz and polished those knobs something fierce. And it helped. But they are definitely not back to 'normal' condition. They look a bit more 'chrome' now. It's a darker, shinier look. It's ok. It's better. Kind of. Unfortunately the Flitz did not fix the most burned/stained marks on the knobs. So, I'm afraid I'm back in the market for some knew ideas or knobs.

Some progress shots below.
This;
"I've made a terrible mistake" - Gob
 
If they look like a total loss, I'm intrigued with Mike Sweeny's idea of a wood dowel shaft in a lathe or drill press with some fine sandpaper or emory cloth. It would be interesting to see if it looked anything like the original after the treatment.
 
0000 steel wool and a way to spin the knobs would be my next try.
That's what I'd go for, the steel wool on them in a drill press. What do you have to loose at this point. I did a similar thing on a piece of aluminum with ammonia, but fortunately it wasn't my Marantz knobs, it was something I could just toss. I did learn a lesson there, of not to use ammonia on aluminum.
 
The sandpaper/dowel is one way they make the 'machined" look at firewalls and other sheet metal on hot rods/rat rods and the like. Its a very old school "trick" :) Remember to center the knob on the center of the dowel so you get the "round circles" and don't move it side to side at all.. a machinist vice is advised. With clamps. And luck :) maybe a beer..
 
I think you have damaged the clear coat. Since it looks to be almost a complete loss, you might try a clear coat stripper. I think that would take it back to the bare aluminum. It might work as long as you havn't damaged the aluminum with sandpaper/etc.... I would look at recommendations on how to remove clearcoat from aluminum rims. A couple sites I saw said to use Aircraft remover. I think I saw some on amazon. Its worth a shot trying it on one.
 
I realize this doesn't help fix the problem, but I made the same mistake using diluted dish soap left for a few days. So it's easy to ruin these. I ended up just ordering replacements on ebay.

Expensive mistake.
 
Back
Top Bottom