TMC Paint Info

Most of this section was provided by Bruce Berman, one of the most knowledgeable and careful TMC restorers anywhere!

TMC Gray

This color is actually not all that well defined, as TMC's formula varied a bit over the years.  Your best bet is to have "wet" paint formulated for you by a professional paint company, then have them clean, paint, and oven-bake your panel. 

Quoting Bruce:

I had this custom mixed by

Spectrum Coatings of Providence, RI. Phone 401-781-4847, www.spectrumcoatings.us 

I submitted an original factory-painted TMC-gray front panel to them, and they electro-optically matched the paint for me in an oven-bake enamel finish. The color match and gloss is literally exact, and being oven-bake, it is the same material TMC used 55 years ago, but without the VOCs now banned by OSHA.

The Spectrum ID information for this color and paint is:

Spectrum color code no. 31529,  S.G. Gray Bake Enamel, Ref. No. TMC GPT-750, 75 to 80% Gloss, I.A.W Specification TT-E-529D, Class B/Type II Oven Bake Enamel. 

A gallon of this paint was around $110.00 delivered, in 2009.

My own experience with painting TMC gray panels is very similar.  I machined some front panels for the GPR-90RXD myself a few years back and had them painted at Triangle Coatings (Morrisville, NC, near the RDU airport).  I brought them a decent original TMC panel and they produced a gallon of oven-baked paint for me (I still have most of it) and then painted my panels.  The panels were so closes to the original GPR-90 panel color that I could not tell the difference.  I then had them screened (unlike most other TMC rigs, the GPR-90 and friends have silk-screened panels), and they looked absolutely beautiful.

TMC Blue

This is the color applied to the GPR-90 cabinet, for example.  Here are Bruce's notes on this color:

I also had this custom-mixed by

Spectrum Coatings of Providence, RI. Phone 401-781-4847, www.spectrumcoatings.us 

I submitted to them an original factory-painted TMC-blue removable access/cover plate from my GPT-750, and they also electro-optically matched the paint for me in an oven-bake enamel finish. The match is literally exact, and being oven-bake, it is the same material TMC used 55 years ago, but without the VOCs now banned by OSHA.

The Spectrum ID information for this color and paint is:

Spectrum color code no. 31597, Cabinet Blue Baking Enamel, I.A.W Specification TT-E-529D, Class B/Type II Oven Bake Enamel. 

A gallon of this paint was around $120.00 delivered in 2012.

 
The paint shop is the one who creates the textured finish that TMC utilized on the GPT-750 cabinet, by controlling the application pressure, etc., and this is a critical skill of the painter to get it right. The crackle or wrinkle finish as used on the GPR-90 is of course completely different, being closer to that used by Collins on their A-line series of equipment. For that finish, the paint application is completely different, and the paint itself may be of a different composition as well; I am not sure of this, as I have never duplicated that finish. Fortunately for me, my GPR-90, GPS-1 Speaker, and GSB SSB Adaptor cabinets are in mint condition. And for my RTC reproduction, the cabinet is the same as used for the GPR-90, and I had a nice empty cabinet that also did not require refinishing.

If there is interest out there, it's possible that I could get some paint of this color packaged in spray cans, much like the St. James Gray for Collins A-line available from Surplus Sales, and make it available to the community.  For cabinets that have only minor damage, one could then use the "light overspray" method to partially restore the finish. 

Let me know if you're intested: