Restoring ‘green’ Strand fixtures

[IRW]

Hi all,

I’ve got some Pattern 123’s and 743’s that I’d like to restore back to their original textured green look. They’re currently looking a little worse for wear with their original green looking rather patchy, but are electrically sound and come out of the garage every now and then for ‘proper’ theatre service when the situation requires/suits.

 

Does anyone have any advice/suggestions on how best to repaint them? I don’t want to go black, as oddly the greeny colour tends to blend in much better in the situations where they come out to play.

 

Thanks,

 

Ian

 

Ps, I’m not interested in chroming them up and replacing them, so please let’s avoid that route!

[Tom_M]

I believe that they were stove enamelled in various colours and some in a "hammer finish".

 

My old 23s / 123s were in a silver grey and the 23Ns were a dark green. But I have seen some 23s in a much lighter green with a hammered finish.

 

Regards

 

Tom

[revbobuk]

Powder coating would seem to be a straightforward route? Good range of colours available, and a lot tougher than most paints.

[Brian]

...original textured green look...

 

Powder coating would seem to be a straightforward route? Good range of colours available, and a lot tougher than most paints.

 

Although, unless you can find someone with a box of the right powder, it's not going to be cheap matching the original finish.

 

I suspect the best powder coat finish is going to be 'wrinkle' or 'crinkle' finish, which rather happily is usually heat-resisting.

[alistermorton]

We have a couple of crackle finish 23's in green. We have some 743s (which I think are actually converted 223's) in silvery hammer finish.

 

Wonder how heat resistant hammerite is? They do hammer and crackle finish.

[kgallen]

Wonder how heat resistant hammerite is? They do hammer and crackle finish.

 

I saved a couple of P23's back in the late 90s/early 2000s - they were pale blue - at the time I got the impression it was emulsion! I used Hammerite hammer finish - stripped them back to metal, a coat of silver hammer finish - beautiful! Still going strong today.

[alistermorton]

It appears Hammerite no longer do crackle paints, which is a shame, but they do a green hammer finish which might fit. Looks a little lighter than the green on our lanterns, though.

[paulears]

Hammered silver grey, then Rank dark green. Never saw a blue one, and emulsion isn't much use as the plastic in it reacts badly to heat.

 

Hammered silver grey, then Rank dark green. Never saw a blue one, and emulsion isn't much use as the plastic in it reacts badly to heat.

[sunray]

Hammered silver grey, then Rank dark green. Never saw a blue one, and emulsion isn't much use as the plastic in it reacts badly to heat.

 

When I became involved with school stage lighting around 1967/8 most of our 'old' Strand lights were a sort of smooth dirty dull blue/grey or sand/khaki colours, the 'borrowed' lights were the same dirty dull blue/grey or green then the new P45's and P137's? [purchased around 1969/70] were mid to dark grey hammerite type finish. The new Junior 8 was a light silver hammerite finish which replaced the earlier style in a very dark grey crackle finish.

A hall built C1975 had brand new lighting in a combination of black and lighter silver hammerite.

The second hand P23's we purchased around 1976 which we assumed were about 7 years old were green and black, apparently they purchased and installed 2 then added the second pair within a few months and in the mean time the colour had changed.

 

I'd always assumed the standard sequence was therefore:

brown, dirty blue/grey, green, grey hammerite, black, silver hammerite all possibly with significant overlaps. I had little to do with stage lighting between mid 70's to late 90's, accordingly I'm not a font of information in this subject.

 

Any comments that indicate my memory has missed something are happily accepted but I do strongly remember the early and elderly smooth silver/blue fittings.

[IRW]

I saved a couple of P23's back in the late 90s/early 2000s - they were pale blue - at the time I got the impression it was emulsion! I used Hammerite hammer finish - stripped them back to metal, a coat of silver hammer finish - beautiful! Still going strong today.

 

Any comments that indicate my memory has missed something are happily accepted but I do strongly remember the early and elderly smooth silver/blue fittings.

 

Are you sure you guys aren't thinking of 'Furse' fixtures?

[revbobuk]

I love this. Could be a script for 'Last of the Summer Wine' - I can just imagine Compo and Cleggy sitting on a bench having a good-natured row about whether the sand-coloured ones were before or after the sludge green ones.

[kgallen]

Are you sure you guys aren't thinking of 'Furse' fixtures?

 

Oh, no, those Furse units are a "nice" shiny blue! They were definitely P23s, they had the Strand circular badge on the back (part of the casting if I remember). They didn't have the framing shutters - I think that made them Mk1 P23s. I'm pretty sure the pale blue (matt, just like emulsion!) wasn't the original clothing, more a DIY repaint job, they were horrific! As Paul says, it couldn't actually have been emulsion... (but you never know!!!).

 

Kevin

[Jivemaster]

Personally I remember lanterns of many colours from assorted shades of grey to mid greens and crinkle blacks. I don't think anyone will complain whatever colour you paint them. They will however get hot, so modern paints for engine bay use seem appropriate, as do some hammerite products. Whatever paint you use will likely need to be baked off in first use to reduce the smell to acceptable levels.

[alistermorton]

I recall used lighting sold a barbecue paint that they recommended for touching up lanterns, but that was black.

[Andrew C]

Another (useless to the OP) black option is "Pot Black", for bike engines.