This Seth Thomas Lincoln dial suffered partial flaking, mostly around the center section. The previous restoration attempt included trying to fill the missing sections with a body filler and then painting them with white paint.

As you can see in these detailed photos, the patching was poorly done and there was no attempt to blend the paint to match the surrounding faded sections of the dial that were still in otherwise good condition.

The first step required carefully removing the filler material without disturbing any of the original sections that remained in good condition.

The next step was to restore the dial to a smooth and even surface. Areas that showed original cracking, but no significant deterioration were preserved and not made to look like new. You can see this between the 10 and 11. This photo was taken mid-process. Thin layers were added gradually to build up the surface to look as close as possible to the original.

After the surface was restored, the color was blended to match the dial's variations using several colors so there were no areas of sharp contrast between adjoining areas.

Color matching is a slow repetitive process requiring a keen eye and ability to select or blend the best color, or as in this case multiple colors. This photo shows a self critique of areas that needed improvement.

After color matching, the process is still not complete. As you can see here, the surface finish and sheen look dramatically different under different lighting conditions even though the colors had been matched very well at this point.

The final result, showing the dial from several angles and after restoring the details to some of the numbers.

This dial had sections of missing paint around the hands and winding arbors. The paint had flaked off all the way down to the dial pan.

Note: The before and after photos were taken in different lighting conditions. Only the area around the winding arbors and hands was retouched.

Restoring dials requires matching the color, the depth and the gloss of the original finish. For this dial, after matching the color many thin layers were applied to match the thickness of the existing paint.

After matching the color, the different thickness was still quite noticeable.

The final result after raising the new paint to match the thickness of the old and varnish applied to match the gloss.

I'm still experimenting with different techniques to match the crazing of the original finish (which can be seen better by clicking on the image).

This dial looked like it only needed a cleaning and had a few minor chips. While cleaning, it was discovered that the center section had been damaged with areas of the porcelain broken out and patched.

After removing the patched areas and cleaning the dial, a new layer of epoxy was applied and contoured to match the convex profile of the dial and smoothed to the same texture of the original finish. The dial was then painted using a high gloss white spray paint. A mask was applied over the numbers and center chapter ring, but a second mask was suspended slightly above the surface. This prevented a sharp line at the edge of the mask and allowed a little over spray to blend the edge of the new paint with the original finish.

This dial had sections of number that were scraped away, specifically, the 6, 7, 8, 210 and 11.

The outline of the numbers was carefully traced to keep a clean sharp edge, and then the inside area was filled in.

This dial had poorly drawn roman numerals.

The left was supposed to be a 12 (XII). The 2 (II) had very irregular lines.

Fortunately, the poorly drawn numbers were able to be cleaned off completely without damaging the dial. New numbers were applied using a fine point pen to draw a hash pattern so that from a distance, the numbers did not look overpowering on the aged and faded dial. The results are in keeping with the age of the clock.

Close up of the revised 2 (II)