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Here is the original typewriter before I painted it. As acknowledged, I am late to the painted typewriter game. Behold this gallery of pioneering paint makeovers from the typosophere:
This just in: Mpclemens has created a most excellent Flickr gallery of painted typewriters for your enjoyment.
Note for purists: This typecast was in fact typed with, well, what else? An Olympia SM9 the color of depression mixed with burlap. Because after all, beauty's on the inside.
34 comments:
You raise the interesting question of why there are "wrong" colours for certain objects. Typewriters, as you say, were mostly produced in various shades of drab. You don't see many production bicycles, buses, cars, phones or computers in pink, puce or purple. Why?
As for platen ossification on the Hermes, have you tried typing with three sheets of paper?
Happy Christmas and very best wishes for the New Year to all you Strikers Thru and Silent Type types.
Hot. Pink. What could be better for a baby typewriter. Maybe you could find a little brother for it and paint it sky or powder blue.
That is a VERY nice paint job using only an aerosol can. The issues arising from lack of surface prep usually do not manifest themselves until much later. Or perhaps not at all anymore with today's modern paint formulations. Either way, it's a beautiful job at the present time!
It's interesting how, in its original usage as an office tool, a hot-pink typewriter would seem inappropriate, even anti-business, a distraction from the seriousness of the corporate environment; hence the preponderance of various shades of drab.
Yet the new-found life of typewriters as retro-writing tools removes them from the milieu of the business office environment, opening up the possibility for more exciting, personal color choices. Strikethru's hot-pink typewriter is symbolic of these new uses we find for discarded technology.
~Joe
See, this is how I know I'm not some stuffy antiquarian "collector"--I see this (and her sibling Little Bluebird) and my only impulse is to cheer you on. If it gets the li'l mechanism used more, more power to you! Only adds to the mojo, really.
I have a Hermes Rocket that I'm all sorts of meh about, mostly because of its breath-mint aesthetics. Maybe, just maybe, a trip to the planet Krylon is in the cards.
I'm taking this idea and going one better--I'm getting Jimmy The Butt Ugly Refrigerator Green Classic 12 powder-coated a particularly noxious shade of orange, because paint is for you pansies with no access to powder coating places. My dad takes motorcycle parts to get coated all the time and it's absolutely beautiful, so I figure we could also apply this technology to typewriter pieces.
But god, that's just an absolutely gorgeous pink. Go you. I would have done it silver glitter myself, but to each their own.
Nice color! I think that rocket was meant to be pink.
And what a great pink that particular pink is. In the mid-60s, my sister had a Royce Union bicycle that shade of pink, with chrome fenders, white handlebar grips and hot pink streamers. I forgot all about it until I saw this wonderful typewriter. Nice job! Thanks for sharing.
Hey Julia, care to elaborate on what would be required (in terms of prep) for a powder coating number? I got a drabbest of drab Rem. Letter-riter that I want to dress up to a dark gray crinkle coat...
Hey, pink typewriters rule! When my mom died, I inherited the baby-girl-pink (production color!) Royal that she used as a high school guidance office secretary from 1963-75 and took with her when she got fired. I've been wanting to paint my computer pink but my wife keeps objecting... wonder why...
Rino,
It's gotta be a metal case, not plastic. You take the body panels off and take them to a powder-coating place, where they use a form of high-powered sheep dip to take all the finish and gunk off and then blast it with the powder and bake it for a few hours. Then you pick it up, all pretty and shiny and new, and reinstall it on your typer. My dad and I go to Exotic Coatings in Romulus, MI. They're affordable, the guys are great, and they've done absolutely ace work for us. I'm sure if you google "powder coating *your major city center*" you'll be able to find a place. Unless you're in Southeast Michigan, in which case just go to Exotic and don't waste your time anywhere else.
Julia - thanks so much. It is a metal one, but it's got that noise-padding fabric on the inside which can be replaced with felt. I've already sussed out a few local coaters in brisbane. Am sure all the prep can be handled by them.
Wonder if a Remington can fudge that classic Royal crinkle finish... ;-)
This may be an unnecessary question, as I'm sure you know about this, but are you aware of a place called Ames Supply that will put new rubber on old platens? I had it done with my SM-3 and it was a great investment.
SnoWri-- where is Ames Supply? I haven't heard of it.
You can get powder-coating kits off the Eastwood catalog and online thingy, and Mr S (my parts manager and informant) sez an oven is hot enuf to melt it on. Also I gather they will sell you the equipment... Just FYI.
Strikethru-
You take off the platen and ship it to Ames. They'll put on new rubber to the correct original specs depending on the manufacturer. (They can do the feed rollers too but mine are okay.) Once they get it they call you with a price and a timeline. When I did it it cost $4 or $5 to ship it to them, $12 for the recovering, and $10 to have it shipped back. I use my SM-3 so much that it was worth the near $30 but you'll have to decide how much using the Hermes means to you. It took about two weeks from when I shipped it to when I got it back.
Here's their contact information:
http://www.amessupply.com/contact.asp
I have always wanted to spruce up my dull yellow Royalite but have never had the courage or know how. Maybe I'll give it a go soon. A great post, hope the new paint job inspires you
Jae Leslie;
I just looked at that on your tip, and it seems like it might be a good investment if you're doing a whole car or motorcycle restoration by yourself, but not really so much if you just want the occasional typewriter done. The guys we take our stuff to are much more economical than trying to DIY something like that--I got it quoted and it's going to be $30 and the results are guaranteed. In cases like this, I'd say just leave it up to the professionals.
Joe - agreed, pink would be seen as a very "anti-business" colour for a typewriter. But it would be interesting to know where in our culture such decisions (black, drab green = sober, businesslike; pink = frivolous) came from. It's kind of colour linguistics.
Snoho - useful to know that Ames does a good job.
Strike - have you seen the platen-rejuvenation suggestions on Richard Polt's Basic Typewriter Restoration page? But before anything else I'd try typing on three or even four sheets of paper. It will be cheaper for sure than restoring the platen, and might be just as effective. It worked for me on three Empire Aristocrats (the licensed British version of the Hermes Rocket).
Your next photo of this machine should include your typing hands with matching nail-polish. With a green backdrop!
Indeed that particular carnation pink is my favorite, I did a happy dance at the hardware store when I found it amid the grays and blues.
Indeed, time for a manicure, if only to look stylish typing on this Rocket.
That was one too many indeeds.
Quite correct, indeed. And, indeed, a friend in deed is, indeed, a friend indeed.
Dear Strikethru,
For those of us who are painting-challenged, would you say a bit about how you did the painting. Me, I can write like a wolverine, but I have messed up every single thing I have ever tried to paint. And, now, seeing yr jewel of a pink typer, I gotta make me a lemony one. So, if you have time some time, maybe a post, a really simple post with no big words, on how to paint yr typewriter?
Thanks,
Joe in Austin
Wait, so now not only are full-face pics suddenly acceptable in the typosphere (and btw, you're looking rather - ah - 'fey' in your shot, strikethru), but now suddenly manicured-hands-on-typewriter pr0n is fine, too? Not sure that'll make it past my filter.
One more addition to my monomania about mitigating the age-related hardening of Rocket/Aristocrat platens - make sure you use fresh ribbon. Typing on dried-up ribbon, there's an insidious temptation to hit the keys harder and harder to make an impression, thereby punching those points o'lite in the typescript. (Who would be so stupid? Well, me last night, for a start.)
It never occurs to me to consider the age of ribbons. Hmm
There has been controversy over my profile pictures in the past, see the foxygate incident. Actually not many full-face pics out there in the typosphere, are there?
A painting post is forthcoming although I attribute my results with the rocket to luck.
I know I'm banging on about this, but could I request a formal Strikethru technical report (family, work and grad school permitting) on whether typing on backing sheets does anything to reduce the platen problem on your Rocket? I stumbled on the technique when I had to take the carriage off an Aristocrat to fix a broken mainspring, then couldn't get the on-feet adjustment quite right when I reassembled it. If the type were ok at the lefthand end of the line, they were fractionally top-heavy at the right, and correcting that threw them bottom-heavy at the left. They were almost right, but not perfect. Then I tried typing on three sheets of paper, and instantly the type were on feet across the full line. Presumably the extra thickness of paper added just enough elasticity to disguise the fact that some of the type were not absolutely on feet. That same cushioning effect might help with the problem on your Rocket. Just to shut me up about it, could you try it and let us know?
As for your author photographs, they all look like different people to me. I have often wondered how you maintain the quality and quantity of your Strikethru output while dealing with the aforesaid family, work and grad school, and I suspect it is because there are at least four of you. I also wanted to ask about the photograph before this one - it looked as if you were being hit in the face by a very small snowball while wearing a summer dress. Can you reveal what was going on?
Right, that's my entry for longest and most obsessive comment on Strikethru in 2010. You have almost twelve months in which to outdo me, people.
'On feet,' I like that expression.
Oh, all the pictures are me, all right. The former photo contained no snowballs (that was perhaps a wave, or a cloud) and was taken at a friend's wedding last August.
Under the guise of imparting potentially useful information, but really because having helped to get this board to 29 comments, I can't resist taking it to 30, I first encountered the term "on feet" in typewriter maintenance manuals bought from Office Machines Americana, prop Ernie Jorgenson. A useful resource for those so far from the few remaining repair shops that DIY is the only option. Ernie has servicing manuals for a huge range of machines, and in my experience is a good guy to do business with. When we had a snafu on a shipment he fixed it without a murmur.
Your best author photo by far is the one on tinydog where you're holding two babies. I don't know how many times I passed that pic before realising that one of the babies was not a baby. It cracked me up. Why posing for a photograph holding a baby and a not-baby is so funny, I can't explain, but it is. It's making me smile even now. Inspired.
The first comment posted on this board - by the indefatigable bikethru - has mysteriously vanished, nullifying the bottom post's claim (also by bikethru) that it takes the total number of messages to 30. I suspect the surreal hand of the creator of tinydog.
This post redresses the mysterious disappearance, taking the total back up to 30. I'll be watching what happens next with some interest.
Dang me, the first comment has reappeared. I gotta stop smokin' this stuff.
What kind of paint did you use? I want to paint my typewriter too since it's a dull beige color, what kind of paint did you use and get it from?
I love it! Who wouldn't want to type on that cute machine!
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