Yellow is mellow

[lablover]

Ive only posted a few times this Spring in my quest to hunt down an elusive Southern California Yellow Chambers 90C (it's like searching for buried treasure). After a couple of flaky sellers, I finally found one out at the beach. Don't go any further unless you want to hear the gory details.

If anybody out there knows the parking situation at a SoCal beach in summer, then you know that driving a giant Dodge pickup (extended bed no less), and with a trailer behind it is like trying to manuver a big rig on a NASCAR speedway. Not a happy thing. However tempers in check, my sweetheart managed to get our rig up the freakishly steep and narrow street and then backed the trailer successfully down a similarly long & skinny driveway, hemmed in by concrete on both sides WITHOUT even scraping the paint (getting out of the car was a whole other story). My hero. One hour later after lots of padding, straps, and sans the four skinny 'legs', our new stove was ready to accompany us back home to the desert.

Now when I picked up the stove I noticed there was a spot on the front of the back splash that had been 'touched up' sorta-kinda. I figured gee whiz, but I had already called Gigi's and checked prices on getting new porcelain for the grates,burners, and even on the panels should we encounter a mishap during transport (we didn't) so I was disappointed but not worried. What I had failed to ask Gigi about was if they could COLOR MATCH YELLOW! Sob, sob..it's a negatory. So instead of spending today traversing the freeways of southern california to drop off the grates and burners for new porcelain, I've been on the internet looking for places that can match the yellow. Again, not a happy thing.

HOWEVER, I did find a shop out here that might be willing to sell me/swap out a yellow backsplash (I need to email them a picture). If they have extra parts for it and anyone out there is also in need, I'll let you know. They also might part with some mica (my is broken), but I'm not sure what it costs. By the way, my stove came with the Thermobaker contraption (very cool), but alas and alack no pots.

QUESTION: The previous owner had the stove partially restored, but the broiler plate looks & feels like someone sand-blasted it trying to clean it. Aren't they supposed to be smooth and shiny? Any ideas on how to fix it? Next series of phone calls will be related to rechroming the top if it doesn't buff out. Much work ahead but I'm a happy camper just thinking about it

ps Our newly adopted stove has been christened .... 'Mrs. Doubtfire' (I haven't seen anyone use that name, and it just seems to fit).

Hey guys, thanks for all your great postings on this great website.

G.

[phoebe9435]

Congratulations!!!
Sounds like you ae hot on the trail to making your Mrs. Doubtfire perfect. Michell might be able to re-surface your broiler plate - there are also ones for sale on eBay from time to time (like right now).

Photos please!!

[clutter-bug]

Hello Lablover,

I too am a Chambers newbie with a buttercup yellow 1941 BZ...and chips in the door. Use the search function on this website and type in PORCELAIN REPAIR. Then scroll down and find the post where there is a listing for someone in Illinois that does porcelain repairs and restorations. You might be able to get some help there.
I can tell you it's overwhelming when you start taking your stove apart and trying to restore it, but all the people on this website are SO helpful, sending photos, etc, and you can buy a manual for your stove from Todd White or the Uncertain Stove man, and you will be good to go.

I wish you lots of luck. You can do this if me and my 16 year old son are tackling it!

~~~Joslyn

[chipperhiker]

After extensive research, I think it's fair to say that your best bet, by far, is to get your hands on a vintage original panel in the matching color.

Color matching is a nonstarter. Expensive, and almost guaranteed not to really match. New porcelain is perfect and shiny, but the vintage porcelain is covered in tiny little abrasions from decades of wear that make it duller and grayer in appearance.

I LOVE CHAMBERS YELLOW!!

My 61C is, alas, too damaged to make even buying new panels an option. I've settled on a green 90C and a blue 61C to make up for my poor neglected yellow stove! Every time I look at the poor thing, though, I think, "What a great color!"

Best of luck on getting that new panel. Just for reference, I forked over $250 for a replacement backsplash for my green 90C. (The seller that damaged the stove reimbursed me, luckily.) Considering the alternatives, it could have been worse.

Good luck!

-Jenn

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ June 14, 2006 11:42 AM: Message edited by: chipperhiker ]</font>

[pmisaber]

I know that this is blasphemous and will duck as soon as the message is sent but...

Since color matching (like resistance to assimilation into the Chambers fold), as Chipperhiker points out, is futile why not do something else?

If the porcelain is intolerably damaged, but the metal substrate is still in good condition, why not get Gigi or the porcelain application expert of your choice to apply enamel that is some other compatible color that coordinates well with the original color of your stove (and kitchen?). Seems like the cost should be about the same and it has the added advantage of keeping your stove original. This is essentially what I have decided to do with Opal's oven and cabinet service door (if the two small chips ever really bother me).

There is a precedent for revisionist color schemes in the Painted Lady Victorian homes of San Francisco and other locales. This is the way that many of those in the vintage stove restoration business get around the problem of cosmetic defects too.

One other point for others considering brightly colored stoves. This issue has come up a number of times and seems to me to be an argument favoring those of us who decide to fall in love with those pallid white stoves. If one insists on having a flawless stove, it is a lot easier to find replacement parts, but some people just have to pursue a life full of challenges, sigh...

Peter (now the owner of two WHITE 1948 BZ stoves)

[fatfutures]

Morning Lablover,

If someone actually used sand as a blasting medium on your broiler pan... it's most likely ruined. I say likely because you could PROBABLY sand it back to a smooth finish. It wouldn't be an easy task. You might want to just purchase another one. They seem to be fairly reasonable on Ebay.

For future reference, glass bead is the best medium for cleaning your Chambers' aluminum parts. My broiler turned out showroom new!

[lablover]

Okay, after careful inspection in the harsh light of day it appears that Mrs Doubtfire has had a little 'face work' done by an unskilled plastic surgeon. Someone sanded and masked the entire backsplash and put a beautiful thick coat of car paint on it.Which is why it seemed a little shinier than the body. HINT: never purchase a stove while under the influence of a warm summer evening, the smell of salt air and a lovely ocean sunset.

This is a shame as the rest of the stove has been partially refurbished and quite clean (althugh now I'm suspect about everything).

I still need to download and send photos to the restoration appliance shop to see about a swapout, but I think I should take some acetone to my side panels to check for more 'touch ups'.

It's funny that Gyringophilus mentioned changing out the color (that's what my sweetheart said we should do). On the heels of that, I saw an ad today for a BLACK model B (my second color of choice but I love the yellow highback C). Of course it comes with ALL the original pots, AND burners fresh from Gigi's. I can't believe it. I've been looking since last Fall, can't find anything and now after purchasing my beloved yellow stove whose porcelain is in need of a Total Makeover, along comes a shiny black one will all the bells and whistles. Yes of course I'm going to go look at it. Vince is now worried that the garage will soon be filled to the rafters with old stoves. Who knows? Well, maybe just two.

QUESTION: Are the thermowell pots interchangeable(will they fit all models)?

[pmisaber]

I agree with your observation. There are more stoves available in Southern California at the moment. That is how I ended up with my second BZ last weekend. Maybe people are doing spring cleaning. A number of folks have acquired multiple stoves for a variety of reasons including, among others, sources of replacement parts or as an additional stove that will be located at a different site than the first stove. Good luck with your stove.

[pmisaber]

The thermowell pots are interchangeable (at least between model B and C stoves), but the Idle Hour Cookbook (excellent reproductions available from Sam and Todd) says, only the C was designed with the Thermobaker in mind. Joe Pieweed has reported that you can use a thermobaker in a model B with some modifications to cooking technique.

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ June 15, 2006 04:17 AM: Message edited by: Gyrinophilus ]</font>

[stoveman]

I think Yellow is the most attractive of the Chambers colors. Decoraters say that yellow is a warm, happy color. Bright and sunny. We painted our Den, Kitchen and Breakfast Room in a pastel yellow, similiar to Chambers. And they are right, it does promote a good happy feeling. Our kitchen cabinets are a darker shade of blue that my Bride likes. Blue seems to go good with yellow. Our Chambers Model OKM is in white and I think white gives a feeling of cleanliness. It is sandwiched between the blue cabinets and looks good to me. I think when you folks get ready to put your colored ranges into your kitchen, You will find that color choice is very complicated and if not done corectly , you will not be happy with the colors. Ha_Asfan is a great source of kitchen design! Hopefully, he might read this and add his opinion of colors.