To Paint or Not to Paint that is the question?

[Robohips77]

Yes or no.... Repaint a Green Label Broxton SERIAL TAG? Please give brief opinion either way. Thanks

[YankDownUnder]

Just one opinion.....

A serious collector wants the regulator in the best possible, but unrestored condition. If you are going to dive your vintage gear or are not worried about reducing the value, restore it and enjoy it. Double hose scuba has not reached a point where it is so rare that restorations are much of a problem. There seems to be a never ending supply on ebay and not much general interest. However, your's is approaching the hard to find stage. The green label was the first regulator actually made 100% in the USA. Personally, I think that is important.

My suggestion is to keep it as original as possible, including the hoses. If you change parts or hoses, keep the original stuff, in case you want to sell it. I would not repaint a tank which has original paint and decals that are presentable. If the tank has a coat of back yard brushed enamel on it, repainting is not much of a problem.

Gun collectors almost cry when someone wants to re-blue an antique firearm. For example, if you have a Colt Frontier Six-Shooter with a 50% finish and re-blue it, you now have a gun with no original fish, ie. a 0% finish. In that case, the price drops dramatically. In time that will happen to vintage scuba

I like to see my collectable gear look as original as possible, but safe and cleaned up, and without alterations. Steve

[captain]

What Steve said.

[ElanS2]

Folks,

Having been a firearms dealer and collector of antique furniture and vintage British sports cars for most of my life, I can tell you restored is fine, but original is so so much more desirable for collectors. Keep it as original as you can if you ever plan to resell it. If your interest is in creating the look of a factory new specimen then do what is necessary to replicate that. Just understand you are greatly reducing the “collectable” value.

Js

[USdiver]

Exceptions do exist. A Doug Turnbull restored Colt 1911 or SAA; or a VDH restored US Divers Mistral are all guaranteed to be "better than factory" plus they hold their value.

(I hope this is worth at least a 10% discount from Mssrs. Turnbull and Pennington )

[1969ivan1]

If it looks bad then paint it I say.

[ovalis]

I think old stuff should be kept as original as possible, but if it makes you feel any better Roger, I also have a green label that has no paint on it, and it'll be getting a paint job. Same goes for my red label too. Even worse, I have a black label that will eventually get a chrome job. That one is hard to swallow. But I must say that all this is only being done because they are my doubles. I have all three in original condition. Paint on my friend. Let us know how it turns out.

[Ron]

I say paint it. The market is us. We know how much a chrome job or a label repaint costs, that's why we drive the prices up on restored regulators on Ebay All of the guys who pay really good money for stuff on the bay are either here or on VSS. It's not like you are trying to pass it off as NOS. Hell, find a box for it too, then you make TONS of money if you sell it

[usddude]

I remember a few years ago with repainting labels using by suggestion something like 1000 grit wet sand paper on glass to knock down the paint to the chrome level. BAD BAD advice......trial and error....now I just use good ole copy paper like whats in our printers to rub the label paint off the chrome. Paint does not stick to chrome anyways.....Also remember Douchebag saying paint does not stick to chrome.

The rest is up to you Roger

Use Krylon...not Rustocrapleom...Krylon gives a thicker one coat pass plus dries faster...thats if you are shopping for spray paint

usd

[antique diver]

Thanks for info on the copy paper trick. I also tried the 1000 grit and found out it removed the thin plating pretty quickly! Thank goodness it was not a valuable regulator, but it did end up looking unique with brass colored letters like the non-mags.

Wooden toothpicks work quite well to remove the Krylon if you still need to get some paint off the tiny letters on your label, but that is pretty tedious and time consuming to do the whole job that way. I'll have to try the copy paper trick next time I tackle a label... thanks USD.

[JES]

If it looks bad then paint it I say.

Ditto.

[eskimo3883]

In my eyes if the original paint were just damaged or present to some degree I would not repaint. It would lower its worth to me. However, if the label is paint free I see no harm. Since it stated out in your hands bare you can always bring it back to what it was by removing the paint.

I have the same opinion on chrome. I would not want to re-chrome a Broxton because it had minor scratches and wear. However, I have a CG45 that someone polished off 100% of the chrome. Once I get the body off the can the reg is going to DB. The paint-less label will also be redone.