The Three Amigos! Triple ER200 Restore Project

[bastimret]

This is a continuation of my first brush restore thread found here.

So after completing and using the ER200 with the TGN Finest XH knot I fell in love. I knew I needed more, and the draw of the red handle and green handle brothers to my black and butterscotch were calling for me to hunt them down. After a couple weeks of stalking Ebay, Google, and BST I have aquired my missing pieces and am now ready to complete the brotherhood. When I am done, I will have assembled:

The Three Amigos!

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I've decided that the already completed Butterscotch with TGN Finest bulb will be Ned and he's short and scubby, but a dead eye quick draw when it comes to lathering! The Red which will I will be starting on this week with a new TGN Finest 24mm Fan will be Dusty....I dunno, the larger fan just seems to suit his personality! And when the Green I recently aquired arrives, I will be transforming it into Lucky! Why? Because like Steve Martin he's also going to have silver hair thanks to a 21mm Shavemac D01 3-band that I'll be putting in it.

This thread will track the continuing creation of the band of brushes. Ned will watch as I start working on Dusty in the next day or two, so expect some pre-work pics soon. Honestly, he's already in pretty good condition, so the cleanup will be minimal. Lucky, however, is a diamond in the rough, and I'm betting that with some TLC, he's gonna come out shining.

So keep an eye out folks, there's more to come. In fact, the Infamous El Guapo might even make an appearance . . .

 

[NexlevMM]

Cant wait! Congrats on completing the hat trick of brushes! Haha

 

[chrismikehead]

Looking forward to watching this play out. We need a catchy name for the Ever-Ready restorer group, with a funny acronym.

 

[bastimret]

Bit of a delay in the progress as I got sick last week and had a nasty sinus infection as a result. But I got the red and green handled 200's in the mail last week. Here they are pristine out of the packaging:

As you can see, the red is in pretty good, clean condition already, so not much cleanup is going to be required. The green however is showing its age, with some scarring to the front logo and massive staining to the green handle, especially the bottom, which isn't even green anymore. This one is gonna take some elbow grease!

 

[Omak]

I'm excited to see how the green handle turns out, posting so I remember to check the thread!

 

[Obiwan]

It's a sweater!!!!

 

[bastimret]

It took a crap load of wet sanding with 320 grit paper but I finally got all of the staining from the green handle removed. Didn't realise it was such a light color under there, most of the pictures you see of the green handled Ever Ready's show them darkened up some from age. The gouge at the top sanded out nicely, though I had to be careful around the letters as I wanted to try and leave enough to allow for filling them in with some paint later on. The pictures don't do the level of translucent marbeling in the handle justice.

Check out the difference in the bottom! Night and day.

Top drilled out and ready to fill with some epoxy.

Here's the pictures of the red. Obviously it was a bit cleaner, so with some light sanding to remove buildup and scuffing it polished up nicely.

It seems that I might have to make a change in my original plans. Turns out the Green's knot was a bit bigger than the red and after drilling it out it clocked in at 26mm while the Red was at 22. Looks like the 24mm TGN Finest Fan is going in the Green and the 21mm Shavemac knot is going in the Red instead . . . or maybe not . . . stay tuned!

 

[MeanGene]

They look fantastic! I'm also shocked at the difference in the green. Can't wait to see them with knots in full bloom.

 

[chrismikehead]

I think there is a thread buried deep in this forum of another black/green 200 that someone sanded down to the really bright green. I am really impressed with how that damage on the lettering cleaned up.

Both look great, really nice work.

 

[bastimret]

But wait! There's another contender! In a stroke of luck I happened across another Green handled 200 which just came in the mail today! I snagged it just incase the damage over the lettering of the first one was unrepairable. Here are some shots of it fresh from the packaging:

Went to work on it this evening and it also cleaned up great. The marbleing in this handle is even more pronounced with the translucent green allowing you to see the layers of swirls inside the handle. This one is the true twin to the Butterscotch handle I started with, the full text on the front of the handle, where as the other green and red have the Made in the USA text on the back. You can also see below that those two are a tad taller than the full text versions. Also, this new green had a smaller knot, with a drilled out hole of ~23mm, making it a better fit for the 21mm Shavemac knot. But then I'd have to widen the hole on the Red to allow for the 24mm TGN Finest Fan if I went that route....decisions decisions. I think I'll wait till both knots are here to make a decision on which to use.

 

[NexlevMM]

Wow you find these 200's like nothing =o very nice!

 

[bastimret]

Lots of eBay stalking on my iPhone helps

 

[bastimret]

TGN knot received! 24mm of Finest 2-Band Extra Stuffed Fan goodness. I could slap it directly in the first Green now with little to no widening of the hole, but I still think I want the Shavemac D01 3-Band in the green handle, as it's my fav color. That would mean that the Shavemac would have to go into the second Green though, as the first one's hole is already too wide for the 21mm knot, and I'm still not sure which Green handle I like better yet.

Anyway, with the butterscotch handle I used Liquid Nails Sealant to both fill in the handle and set the knot. Easy to work with, as it doesn't set chemically like Epoxy does, but the flip side is that it takes forever to dry. I used pennies to add weight to the handle and the process took forever. Pour in some sealant, let a skin form, drop in a penny, let it cure some more, add more sealant, etc. Since the sealant dries by air contact I also had some concerns afterwards about how well set the core of the sealant in the middle of the handle was. I also think that it caused some of pennies to continue to sink down toward the bottom of the handle as it set. Worked great for setting the knot though.

So this time I think I'm going to go the epoxy route for filling up the handle to speed up the set time between layers/pennies. May still use the Liquid Nails for setting the knot though, we'll see. Grabbed some Gorilla Glue Epoxy from the store as it was the only one they had that dried clear. 4 pennies were used last time, with the last one resting on the top of the sealant to act as the shelf prior to setting the knot. I had to wait awhile for that last one too as the Liquid NAils had to build up a nice skin before dropping the penny on top or else it would have sunk down into the sealant and not stayed at the depth I wanted to set the knot at.

I was wondering though if this was a sufficient enough shelf, or does it really matter...? Once the knot is set it doesn't seem like it's going to go anywhere, so is the shelf really necessary from an actual supporting of the knot standpoint, or is it there simply to serve as a solid bonding point between the knot and the sealant/epoxy?

 

[Omak]

I like the green on the right FWIW

 

[bastimret]

I'm leaning that way too. Its got alot more depth to the visible swirling in the handle and it's the "true" twin to the Butterscotch with the full text front.

I think I'll spend some time here tonight doing a little paint job on all the lettering. Still waiting to hear back from Rudy on confirmation of my Shavemac knot. He placed his order with Bernd last week

 

[chrismikehead]

Those are looking great! I am leaning towards favoring the green to the right as well. I like the "brighter but not too bright" green color it has.

 

[bastimret]

It seems like the one on the right had less of the white component in it, so the handle is more of the green translucent material, making it a bit darker and it also has a greater depth of view of the swirl effect of the white. The left one has more of the white material in it, making the color lighter and giving less depth to the visibility into the handle.

Once I'm done painting in the lettering I'll get my DSLR out and snap a few pics with better lighting and clarity so you can see some of the detail vs the iPhone camera shots.

I wonder what the Red material is though. The Green and Butterscotch, once cleaned up and polished, showed a nice translucent base material with the white swirled throughout to give it some opaqueness and character. The red, however, looks like it was a more opaque color to begin with, so you don't get the same effect with it, looking more like a flat marbeled effect with no depth.

 

[otto76]

It took a crap load of wet sanding with 320 grit paper but I finally got all of the staining from the green handle removed. Didn't realise it was such a light color under there, most of the pictures you see of the green handled Ever Ready's show them darkened up some from age. The gouge at the top sanded out nicely, though I had to be careful around the letters as I wanted to try and leave enough to allow for filling them in with some paint later on. The pictures don't do the level of translucent marbeling in the handle justice.

Check out the difference in the bottom! Night and day.

Wow, are you kidding me?!!! I never would have guessed it would clean up so nicely! Maybe I should have kept it....

I am impressed, glad it came out so well for you. The lettering looks good too.

 

[bastimret]

Here they are with a first coat of paint applied to the letters and a wipe down with a paper towel. I'll give them a second coat later after this one sets and then start widening the hole on the Red for the 24mm TGN knot. Then they'll get another cleaning and polish.

Red took the paint great, the letters were still nice and deep. The first Green (left) worked well also, but obviously the lettering was not as pronounced due to all the sanding to remove the prior damage. Even moreso for the second Green (right), which honestly could use some additional sanding on the upper. However, I didn't want to risk loosing the lettering due to oversanding, so I left it as was shown in the after pics above.

 

[wireburner]

Wow they look awesome! I can't wait to see them with there new hats.