And lastly in this enjoyable saga, the repaint. I quickly came to the colour choice after Dulux brought out a range of new colours. I chose Capital Yellow - slightly reminiscent of the original SW Gold.
3 good primer coats rubbed back, then 4 good solid colour coats over 4 days. Satin always responds well to a hand-rubbed polish, so I brought it from satin lustre to more of a true semi-gloss (there is a difference
). I left it a few more days, then gave it 3 hard wax coats. That'll make the dew run
Lastly were some small personal touches - I reglued the original data decal onto the focuser in a quasi-Takahashi style. I replaced the focuser affixing screws with stainless domed head cap bolts (small head size), as well as the crayford bearing plate retainer screws with the same. The pinion cover screws got nickle plated as well. The interior of the dewshield received 2 coats of blackboard spray paint followed by a roller coat of Stuart Semple's Black 2.0 (still hasn't crumbled or deteriorated on my test piece from 2 years ago that's been out in the weather!)
The focuser was a little loose on the tube, so I shimmed it with thin velvet at 3 points around the circumference. The lens cell perimeter got a full band of the same velvet to retain the dewshield.
Lastly, I replaced the simple SW ring nuts with nice tall knobs, and refelted the rings themselves.
$150 spent on the scope, about $95 on paint, screws, tape, velvet/felt, $80 on a Losmandy plate, and $35 on a 2" to 1.25" adaptor as I only have a 1.25" Tak diagonal
Time - a bit, but all after work so enjoyable.