HELP - Broken grille, Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: HELP - Broken grille, Philco Tropic 41-758EZ (/showthread.php?tid=11230)

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RE: HELP - Broken grille, Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Ron Ramirez - 01-30-2015

So far, so good. The three repaired breaks in the grillebar are holding.

I did not get one of the breaks aligned just right, so one side of the break pokes out a bit. Oh well. As long as it holds together, at this point I will be satisfied.

I have just glued the grille bar to the main frame. We shall see tomorrow how it turns out. Still keeping those fingers crossed!

Sorry, no pictures. The work was tedious enough without stopping to take a picture at every move.

I'm not using J-B Weld this time. I found a product made by Loctite - Metal and Concrete Epoxy, that has aluminum in it. So far (knocking wood), it is holding much better than J-B. The 42-788 dial pointer I repaired was a trial run for this product, and it worked extremely well; better than I expected.

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RE: HELP - Broken grille, Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Ron Ramirez - 01-31-2015

The end result - best that I could do.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00020.jpg]

Close-up of the grille, left side:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00021.jpg]

Close-up of the grille, right side:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00022.jpg]

The Loctite Metal & Concrete Epoxy, in conjunction with the pieces of a small drill bit used as splints, is holding well. I guess it's OK for an amateur job. At least it's all back together.

How many Philcos have you seen with a chrome grille? This is the only one I have ever seen.

One more close-up, the center of the lower grillebar where I didn't get the two pieces aligned just right when gluing:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/41-758EZ/Image00023.jpg]

Not knowing what else to do with the glue residue there, I touched it up with Krylon silver paint. Yes, it shows, but I think that is better than not having a grillebar.

So that's it for this set. The cabinet really could use a refinish and it is missing a piece of veneer on top. I'll have to think about it. I would have to have some custom decals made for it, as I will have to do for my 42-788 cabinet. That will have to wait a while.

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RE: HELP - Broken grille, Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - klondike98 - 01-31-2015

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RE: HELP - Broken grille, Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - NostalgiaRadioTime - 01-31-2015

Looks great Ron! Excellent work. I would've done the same thing with touching up with Krylon paint. If you would've tried to have it chrome plated, you'd run the risk of it breaking further or worse than before. It's obviously a very fragile piece to start.

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RE: HELP - Broken grille, Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - sam - 01-31-2015

ron
they all can`t be prefect
but looks great
sam

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RE: HELP - Broken grille, Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Warren - 01-31-2015

Maybe if you tried some of that Chrome paint they sell now it would look a bit closer than silver... just a thought.

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RE: HELP - Broken grille, Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Ron Ramirez - 02-01-2015

I thought about that. But I just wanted to get it back together and back on the shelf before anything else happened to it. I had Krylon Silver on hand, so that's what I used. It shows but it looks better than light gray glue residue.

Words of wisdom: On the off chance that one of you should find one of these sets someday, never, ever attempt to straighten out a grillebar if it is warped like some dummy did with this one (me). The cast aluminum is very brittle and does not take kindly to attempts to straighten it.

You will notice that the top grillebar (unbroken) is warped a bit. And it can stay like that.

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RE: HELP - Broken grille, Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Eliot Ness - 02-01-2015

Nice save Ron  

Sometimes "close enough" is far better than one of the alternatives!

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RE: HELP - Broken grille, Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - Steve Davis - 02-01-2015

Sometimes one wishes he could just back up a minute.

Steve

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RE: HELP - Broken grille, Philco Tropic 41-758EZ - GarySP - 02-01-2015

Hey Ron, with regards to the grille.  Looks fine to me...a little distress gives it character!  Japanese artisans would spend countless hours making perfect pottery items.  Before final firing they would put a scratch in the item, because nothing could be considered "perfect".  That grill looks more than acceptable, and you can consider your repair to it your "scratch".  Take care, Gary

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