[Jukebox-list] Flecking an AMI F or G Series Cabinet

[Aaron's Email]

Hi Jim. You're very close. The toothbrush is a way to go if you were going
to cover a small area, but that would take weeks to do a full size cabinet
like an AMI F or G. This is the method I use...but remember that it is just
as time consuming, and you MUST practice on a scrap sheet of plywood before
you do this to your cabinet. Make sure your scrap is painted the same color
as your cabinet before you proceed with practicing.

Get yourself a short-bristled wallpaper brush. They are about 12 inches long
and the bristles are only about 3/4"  or so high. You want a brush that is
stiff but will still hold a fair amount of paint...but NOT an amount that
will cause huge splatters. You'll also need a plastic trough or pan that's
as long as the brush.

An Atoll Coral AMI has two colors of fleck: a light tan, and black. Do the
tan first. OH! Before you do any of this, make 100% sure that your cabinet
is completely dry from any repainting that you do. When I restore these
things, I make sure to give the cabinet at least 4 days to completely dry
before I put on fleck. I'll explain why in a minute.

Pour a line of the tan paint into the trough that's about HALF the length of
the brush. Dip the brush into the paint and gently swish and push the brush
around so that the bristles are good and coated with the paint. You only
want half of the brush covered with the tan paint. Shake off any excess
paint back into the trough. Now take the brush and wack it down on a sheet
of newspaper to remove any thick globs of paint that accumulated on the
brush. You DON'T want huge splotches of paint...just small flecks. Big
splotches will run and drip and you want to avoid that. You also don't want
so much paint on the bristles that you won't be able to control where it
goes once you start flecking. BELIEVE ME....you'll see the paint go flying
in the next step so very little paint is better than way too much. You just
want to get paint on and in the bristles...you don't want to get it pooled
up.

You may want to have latex gloves on for the next step. After you've removed
a good amount of the paint from the brush - and here's where you need to
practice to develop your technique and get a feel for what's going to
happen - start flecking the paint on by rubbing your index finger - or thumb
against the brush - pulling TOWARD your body - directing the splatter onto
the cabinet. Work from the outside bristles of the brush back to the middle.
You'll be able to tell when there's no more paint left on the bristles and
it's time to reload. You'll have to learn how to position the brush, your
finger, and your tumb in relation to the lines and curves of the cabinet to
achieve a good uniform result. For example, if you shoot the fleck at the
rounded corners of the top of the cabinet, and you have the brush almost
completely level with the top of the cabinet itself, you're going to get
what I call a "zinger." That's a faily long thin streak of paint that will
resemble a comet. While small zingers look cool, LOTS of them look horrible.
So practice, practice, PRACTICE!!!

You also want to have a Q-Tip, lightly damp with water, handy while your
doing this because if you get a blotch that looks awful, or too big, you can
use the Q-Tip to soak up some of the paint, or wipe the blotch away
entirely. Remember how I said to make sure your cabinet is completely dry
before you put on the fleck? Well, you actually have a small margin for
error when doing this step because you'll be able to wipe away any small
areas of imperfection in the fleck without removing any of the main cabinet
color.

You'll also discover that by the time you get done flecking one side of the
cabinet, the previous side you flecked will be almost dry. Let the tan dry
for about an hour before you move on to the black which you'll apply exactly
the same way. Only this time, use the OPPOSITE side of the brush - just make
sure you wash the brush before you proceed with the black coat.

Here's some tips to consider:
1) Stay at least a foot or more away from the cabinet when you're doing
this. If you get too close, you'll accumulate too much fleck in one area.
You want the covering to appear random.
2) The harder you flick your fingers and thumb over the brush, the more
paint you'll flick off the brush and the results will be bigger flecks -
until the brush goes almost completely dry...in which case you'll wind up
with very tiny flecks. Watch big splotches because they will drip. Try to
get a mixture of both big and little flecks. Too much of the little flecks
will drastically alter the overall color of the cabinet. Practice to get a
good mix. Be artistic. You are in complete control as to how this will look
so take your time.
3) The rails on the back of the cabinet will need to be flecked too, but
because they are curved, getting a uniform covering is difficult. Get within
4 inches of the rails with your brush and flick very slowly. You don't want
too big of an area with NO fleck on it.
4) The top dome is done seperately. Remove it from the cabinet and paint and
fleck it by itself. Watch the curves.
5) If you DO get a large splash of paint that looks ugly, you may be able to
take a very fine paint brush and do some artistic manipulation of the
splotch so that it looks a bit more pleasing. I've done this many times
where I've painted hundreds of splotches by hand simply because I wanted
something not as uniform as what was coming off the wallpaper brush.
6) Make sure you get a uniform coat of the tan, before you proceed to the
black. You CAN'T go back and redo the tan once you start the black because
the color blend will be off. You'll have to paint flecks on top of each
other manually if you make a mistake and have to go back and redo any of the
tan flecks.
7) Oh...NEVER...NEVER do any of this with an oil base paint. Clean-up is
impossible as is correcting any mistakes.

Once you are finished with the flecking, you won't believe that the cabinet
was the same thing you started out with. Once flecked, the cabinet just
JUMPS out at you and screams the 1950s. One of the Atoll Coral AMI Fs I rest
ored wound up in an ice cream parlor. It was wild to see it in action
especially once it was completely reassembled and lit up. I can send you
pictures if you like. After everything is dry - and I give it 2 days or
so...I then spray 6 coats of clear-coat on the entire cabinet.

You'll also notice that by flecking the tan and black on the cabinet in this
way, you'll achieve the exact same results that AMI did when they sprayed
the colors suspended in laquer - a slightly bumpy finish. This finish will
begin to smooth over the more coat of clear finish you apply.

Please let me know if you have any further questions. I'll be glad to help
you through this entire process.

Aaron