Welcome! Today's restoration will be an old cast iron doorbell manufactured by Reading Hardware Co. in the 1890s. This antique door bell and bell pull are in the Windsor design. The Reading Windsor was first offered in the earlier 1880s, and was manufactured for many years. I am currently working on restoring a full Windsor set, so expect to see a few more restorations covering this very cool design in the future!
To start this hardware restoration off I disassembled the door bell and doorbell pull. In comparison to some of my previous restoration videos, this wasn't going to be much of a rusty restoration, as this bell was shockingly not too rusty haha. There were four rusty rivets that I had to grind off, but it went pretty smoothly. With the hardware fully disassembled I moved right on to paint stripping. I used a spray on paint stripper which (although sometimes needs a couple applications) works better than most others I've tried in the past.
With the paint removed completely it was time to take care of the rust. My choice for the rust removal process is Evapo-Rust, as it does a great job removing rust from impossible to reach areas. Then all the small and large parts were wire wheeled. Next up I moved onto restoring the small parts, starting with cleaning and lacquering the interior components with an original looking brown translucent tinted lacquer. The small parts and cast Iron bell base were all coated in a dark brown lacquer from the factory. I've been painting on the lacquer with an airbrush because it's easier to get an even tint with small, odd shaped parts.
Then I went ahead and made some new rivets. I was going to use e-clips to hold the new rivets on, but I ended up making all new rivets in the end and simply hammered them into place, as the doorbell wasn't functioning properly with the first rivets I made. Bluing steel parts was up next, as the new rivets and springs had lots of bare steel that needed to be protected from rust. Then it was time to restore the bronze and cast iron parts. I started off by straightening the bell pull, then I moved onto sanding with the goal to repair as much damage and defects away as possible.
The large parts were then polished (unintentionally) to a mirror finish. Then they were lacquered. Watching the iron bell and base turn from silver to a lovely golden color using a tinted lacquer is a real trash to treasure moment - It makes a huge difference! Following this, the recessed areas were painted black. Now it was time for the reassembly! I ended up making new rivets and hammering them solid in place rather than using e-clips, and was able to get the door bell working perfectly 100% of the time! Overall I think this bell looks and sounds fantastic - It'll be even better once it actually is installed on a door!
Time Stamps:
0:00 Welcome!
0:34 Disassembly
3:22 Paint Stripping
4:55 Cleaning Parts
5:36 Rust Remover and Catalog Stuff
6:36 Wire Wheeling Parts
8:59 Making New Rivets
11:12 Lacquering Small Parts
12:10 Bluing Small Parts
12:32 Restoring Bell Bolt
13:02 Straightening and Sanding Bronze Parts
14:25 Polishing Bronze Parts
15:07 Lacquering Bronze Parts
15:42 Painting Bronze Parts
16:14 Sanding and Polishing Iron Parts
18:02 Lacquering Iron Parts
18:58 Painting Iron Parts
20:05 Reassembly
25:12 Before and After
25:45 Installation and Test
27:50 Thanks for Watching!
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