Fabulous Fablon

Submitted By Member Slidertogrid

Chris mentioning re-Fabloning the GEC has reminded me of how the good old stuff helped with scruffy and damaged cabinets back in the day…. We would cover scratched and damaged cabinets with the stuff early on when ex-rental colour sets were in short supply, and you had to take what you could get. Later on you could ‘modernise’ a teak set if it had a grey or black front (Philips KT3 and K30 springs to mind) by recovering it in ‘Black ash’ which was all the rage at one time. The only problem was that after a few years the Fablon could shrink a bit, and you could end up with a teak strip at the back top and sides!

We had a salesman who never missed a trick when it came to selling. One day an elderly lady was looking at the somewhat limited selection of cheaper used sets we had on display, She complained about the fact that they were all either black or grey cabinets, saying that it wouldn’t match her furniture. Andy the salesman eyed up an ex rental set that had been ‘black ashed’ he said “I think we may have one of these in teak” The lady said that would be fine and that she would buy it. Andy whipped the set into the workshop, plonked it on it’s end and with a Riiipp ! It was teak! The slightly sticky teak set was then taken back into the showroom and the sale made. I just hope she didn’t try to dust it with one of those ‘hairy’ yellow dusters too soon!

Another time we had one of those massive Amstrad/Fidelity AVS things in for repair. After it was fixed, some bright spark shoved it under the repair rack where it was a bit of a tight fit… When the day came to deliver it back, it was pulled out only to find something had snagged the Fablon and put a huge rip in it! One of the lads was dispatched off to a local DIY shop for a large, deep roll of Fablon. When he returned, it was apparent that the Fablon was somewhat lighter than the original. This couldn’t be helped it was Hobsons choice, due to the depth of the thing this Fablon was the only one that was deep enough. The set has been awaiting the customer to arrange delivery for some time, so it was decided that hopefully they wouldn’t remember what shade it was, and we would get away with it….

When the lads carried the set into the house, to their horror they realised the set fitted on a wood effect stand which was the colour of the original Fablon! The set was now a lot lighter than the stand! Saying nothing, they installed it and the customer paid! Just as they were leaving, the customer thanked them for cleaning the set, saying it looked a lot better now…
A hasty retreat was beaten!