Changing the look of the old Harman Gold Fire Door

Hello
Since they do get dingy and tarnished, is this a good way to perk them up and look more modern?

Pic 1 - P61 Factory Blue Harman stove with gold trim
Pic 2 - VHT flame proof Flat Aluminum
Pic 3 - painted fire door
Pic 4 - new graphite impregnated door gasket

Take out glass and strip out old white door gasket wire brush and clean with acetone, paint and reinstall. Flat glass gasket was still good.

 

It doesn't look that bad to begin with......some metal polish and a bit of elbow grease would make them look new......much better than the paint, IMO.

 

Yes I know many people like gold. Close up in the light it does not look quite as good. If I could get it replated that would be a good option. Being shinny does show finger prints. That is why many stoves are Satin Black. The factory blue that is dirty and faded definitely has to go. So we will see how it goes,

 

I like the aluminum look. I'm not a shiny gold fan (except for one pair of earrings I have), nor a shiny brass fan (antique brass is great tho), so my opinion may differ from most.

 

I am still a fan of the gold trim.

Soooooooo 80's eh

Looks great Don.

 

Times change and so do tastes.

Style come and go and then somebody will rediscover something and go WOW, GOTTA HAVE THAT.

No different than clothing styles.

 

no....gold wasnt all that popular....why its no longer available even on new units.....plus fingerprints...ugh

 

gotta be careful with the cleaners on that gold...its not solid gold, lol, so, very easy to strip the coating off with abrasive cleaners......

 

so correct.....those Avocado appliances will be coming back soon, I am sure.....and even though gold might not be popular right now, I am pretty sure my gold nipple rings are going to come back in vogue any day now!

 

nothing like replying on FHC, listening to Enrico Morricone's "Ecstacy of Gold"......will be my theme when someone makes a hit movie of my life, starring Brad Pitt.........(was going to say Ryan Reynolds before he jumped the shark and starred in Green Lantern and Deadpool)

 

That reminds me of our old Havest Gold electric range where the case was not electrically separated from the heating elements and controls because it did not have a separate green wire for case ground completely separate from the white neutral wires on all the electrical components! The front control knobs were grounded to the front panel they were mounted to. The screws that held the panel to the stove were completely rusted for very poor electrical connection. So my wife was wiping down the counter with one hand and touched one of the controls with the other hand and made a much better connection to ground for the stove and got a real tingle out of it!!! That is why there are 4 wires for stoves now with a separate ground for the stove body. Harman has had a separate ground and neutral wires with a direct wire harness longer than any other stoves for electrical safety. The older stoves with the buss bars for electrical connections are not as safe and no longer within the electrical codes.

See the old Glenwood shocking stove below. LOL

 

Some of those colors were hideous even in the day.

We had a harvest gold reefer in this house when the place was new (came with it)
Not sure why they chose that color as all the rest of the appliances were black.

The reefer started making a weird screeching sound one morning, and not wanting to see everything in the freezer spoil if it quit I bought a new one from Fry's (Only place that had a unit that would fit the hole in the cabinets)

Now all the appliances match at least.

The avocado, the burnt orange, the harvest gold were likely a result of a dope induced haze of the late 60's early 70's

The shiny gold trim IMHO was a classy addition when added to the flat black stoves.

Granted, the fingerprints did look nasty, especially after they were baked onto the finish.

The big thing though is to have a nice contrasting color to add a bit of pizzazzz to the unit.

Even a red stripe around the door frame or the glass looks good.

I have thought about hand painting the cast in WHITFIELD lettering in silver or ????

Lottsa ways to make stuff look good.

 

How about now?
See pic below:

 

Better than the gold.

 

Yep

 

Another nice thing about the Flat Aluminum is painting the outside of the ash pan to match and Flat Black for the inside and slap a new Graphite Impregnated door gasket on the ash door matches up nice too!
Click pic to Enlarge:

 

One important last step!
After the second coat of Flat Aluminum, comes 2 High Temp High Gloss clear coats. This not only protects the Aluminum Paint from chipping off, but gives that shine you would miss from the gold or brass plating!
This way you have the modern look with a nice shoe shine!!!
Very Professional!!!

See pics

 

Stove with fire pic.

 

Looks like a nice burn - good job.