Restoration of a Diebold Banker's safe style "E"

[Jerzy]

To move this safe I had to buy a set of "Scarnes Rol a lifts". These are known in the safe moving and heavy machinery moving business. Also, I particularly needed the type with 4 wheels,on each side, to spread the load. I am lucky in that the floor on which this safe resides is very well laid porcelain tiles, on concrete slab. Ceramic tile, or any natural stone would have required some kind of plate - steel or aluminum to spread the load.

[vgillett]

I have a variety of antique bankers safes and have been "with a lot of effort" pushing them into, and throughout my house.
I just purchased a set of Rol a lifts M4 to make my job a bit easier but they have the single casters, not having the dual casters will that still make it easier to move 3000lbs safes.
Thanks
Vic

[Jerzy]

Without a doubt. The double wheels simply protect the tiles a little without needing steel or aluminum plates to roll on. Of course, if you have carpet or wood flooring, you would still need some kind of hard plating under the casters, especially with weights approaching 3000lbs.

[00247]

The safe looks great, Jerzy! PM sent on some details.

[Jerzy]

Thanks 00247, I tried to reply to your PM, but something went wrong and now I can't find it, so I'll try again here.
I took the top vault door to a well respected auto paint store, that specializes in antique cars and there they matched the paint color that was under a hinge. They took into account some oxydation, and we came up with the color. I don't know what the base color was, but we chose minimum metallic effect, to try and remain as authentic as possible. Also, against some recommendations, I decided to go with acrylic lacquer, which is more stable as a base for gold leaf and some pinstriping paints. In other words, you can paint enamel over lacquer, but not the other way around. Authenticity was my big thing, down to the original blemishes and imperfections. I really didn't want it to be too shiny with a modern urathane paint look.

[OnTheFence]

Leave it the way it is. In my opinion, and that's all it is... an opinion, nothing is more hideous than over-restoration of anything. Age... patina ...and wear are lovely, and many people where I am pay faux finishers a ton of money to replicate the kind of surface that you have.
At the end of the day, when you try to sell anything to a true collector... be it an antique chair, a clock, a painting... 99% of the time, restoration of surface detracts from value. Something to consider even if you were planning on keeping it.

[Jerzy]

Well, On the fence, your opinion is as valid as anyone's , but I don't think you read this thread in i'ts entirety. The whole point of this thread, in my case anyway, was the quest for absolute authenticity. A well restored antique is always more desirable than the same object in a damaged and abused condition. Try playing a damaged Stradivarius, this is a no brainer, you would restore it.