How to restore Sears light six switcher's silver line on the bezel ?

[Level42]

I was given a very nice present, a light 6 switch Sears Tele Games console.

 

These are quite uncommon here in Europe of course because naturally we had no Sears here.

 

I first tested it and.....it worked fine right away the only issue was the power connector which was really loose....a quick resoldering fixed that of course.

 

Next fully cleaned it and it came out very very nice. The only issue left is the bezel's edge which has quite a bit of dark spots because of intensive use....

 

Does anyone have a good idea how to restore this silver line ?

 

Also....I tried cleaning/shining the switches, I mean the metal parts that stick out of the console. These tend to get really dull looking... any tips for improving those would be great too

Edited October 24, 2016 by Level42

[BassGuitari]

I used a metallic silver paint pen on my Sears 4-switch bezel. First I used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to clean the remaining silver paint off the bezel (felt bad to do it, but it was patchy anyway and it wouldn't have looked even with the new paint), then essentially just traced along the front surface of the bezel with the side of the pen tip. Flubs were made along the way (being human, the pressure applied with the pen wasn't always even, resulting in some places with paint smudged on the top/underside edge of the bezel, which thankfully could be cleaned up with the Magic Eraser ), but it came out looking pretty good. It finished a little more dull than I'd hoped, but you probably wouldn't even notice unless you compared it directly against a Sears bezel with the original silver still intact--it still looks great, and if nothing else, it's at least even now.

The ideal solution would be to spread an extremely thin layer of silver paint in something like a cookie sheet, and "stamp" the bezel into it. I haven't tried this though. (Can't find the right paint!)

(For grins and giggles, and to test the pen, I retouched the ring on a parts/junk CX-40 with the silver to match the Sears system, and that came out pretty good as well. Too bad the stick is missing the rubber handle and also doesn't work. )

For the switches, I scrubbed the hell out of them with Brasso. It took a *long* time and my hands were cramped into crinkled claws by the end of it, but they came out looking really good. Basically just took a rag (an old T-shirt, actually), dabbed some brass cleaner on it, and twisted it around the switch ad infinitum. That's really all there is to it...just gotta give it some elbow grease.

[Osgeld]

I do the same with the switches but barkeeper's friend, cause I have a huge bottle of it in liquid form and the store at the time didn't have brasso

[Level42]

Great tips, thanks !!

 

I thought about the stamping method too to be honest....mmm....OK, let's see what I can find here. Hadn't thought about brasso great tip, thanks !

[Mad-Mike]

I was thinking about trying it using silver leaf or that stuff you can buy to create chrome plating on plastic model kits that you can find at a hobby shop - I might do that to my Sears Sixer and see how it comes out.

[Level42]

Sounds interesting !