A few photos of a fairly mixed-up 1943 lamp. A steel font (unfortunately poorly painted), mixed brass and steel cage rods, original red seals to tank and NRV, “patents pending” on cage, and a black control knob. So an early (1941?) cage that had a couple of replacement rods during the war? The steel ones were painted blue but no sign of paint on the brass ones. The NRV came out and apart very easily but the control knob won’t come off despite all methods being attempted (heat, cold, wd40 overnight, vise+long wrench). So I kept the original gland washer and added a bit of PTFE tape. Seems to be air and fuel tight. I replaced the pip in the NRV and retained the nice red seal but added a new one on top. This solved the problem of the pump being pushed out. I also retained the red tank washer, again with no leak. The brass on the hood was in an awful state. I stripped it in rust remover (works a treat but turns the brass a bit pink) then repatinated it with patination fluid until it matched the cage. The cage was fine so just cleaned it. I challenge anyone to spot that the hood was not just cleaned up. Now to the tank… There are hints of original RAF blue paint (btw, I wouldn’t call this Rapidal grey because Rapidal referred to the type of paint not the colour afaik). But it’s going to get stripped and repainted with BS143 RAF blue/grey, which I guess is about as “authentic” as I’ll get. I also bought a yellow sticker from Artpharty. I burns a treat! Updates to follow.
