Piano plate refinishing

[Joel Rappaport]

Ted Simmons wrote:
>   I took Jon's advice and lightly wiped off the residue, then took
> Eugenia's advice and clear coated it with high gloss.  It really looks good
> after only 1 application of clear coat; better than with no clear coat at
> all.  It's in the drying cycle now.  Will put on another clear coat
> tomorrow.

Ted and List,

I like the look of a high gloss clear coat, too.  Also, before you put
that last clear coat on, if you want to do a _really_ professional
looking job and put some rub-on numbers and a model letter, this is the
time to do it.  All previous coats must be dry.  Place a piece of
masking tape across the "delta" of the the plate (triangular area
between bass and tenor for those who do not speak Joelese) and you can
rub the serial numbers on in a nice, straight line, then remove the
masking tape.  Add the model letter and you are ready for a "dry" coat
of clear.  If you shoot too much lacquer at this point, you could lift
previous lacquer and/or lift the rub-on numbers.  We also use smaller
rub-on numbers for the wire sizes.  I have a question for the List about
the 1/2 sizes which I will save for another post.  We use gloss black
lacquer and a small brush to highlight the raised lettering on the
plate.  The gloss of the black fits in well with the gloss of the clear
coat.

Best of luck on this project.

Joel Rappaport
Round Rock, Texas