Restored a Gracia from junk to gem(ish)

[Johan de Jong]

From junk...


... to not quite a gem but at least a lot better



This "Gracia" looked like it was used for years at a building site. It was full of dirt, paint, scratches and had badly discoloured.
The dirt and paint I removed with just water and soap. Then I sanded and polished the case to remove most of the scratches. I hoped this would also restore the colour. It did improve a bit, but not as much as I hoped for. I could not go to wild on the sanding as I wanted to keep the labels on the sides. At least it now shines like a gem

Apart from the cosmetic restoration it needed new "tines" , a new neon bulb and some minor other tweaks. The tines I made from the end of tie wraps that I glued to the back of the metal bar. This worked well, but it is a bit noisy. Maybe something a bit less stiff would soften the "clack" it now makes each minute.

[flipoclock]

Nice work Johan! I like the basic shape of these clocks! Looking at the 1st pic, I thought it was white clock, painted red... Luckily for you not so :-)

I use paper for the tines, not regular paper, but the thicker one used for business cards. It is not completely silent, but better than plastic. How does it hold up? I have sold quite a few of these over the years and have not had a complaint yet (which does not mean there are none, I know, but none have come back to me).
I cut it up in the shape of a capital letter T. I cut it too long (on purpose) and then by eye and forwarding the clock, I cut them shorter (this is a bit tricky, I have cut them too short at times, leaving you back @ square one...). Anyway, that is how I do it.

[Johan de Jong]

Thanks Robert! Paper or cardboard could work well indeed. But as I looked around today in my stuff for a suitable material I found a sheet of rubber, about 1 mm thick, and I thought I'll give that a try. I cut a T-shaped and a U-shaped piece to size and glued that to the back of the metal bar. It is a lot quieter now and gentler on the tiles. Incidentaly it is now more in line with the original that was also made of rubber, but that is not a big concern to me.