My latest Philco restorations

[ecmorris]

Philco Transitone Model PT-25

1940 Philco PT-25 five tube AM receiver. My brother gave me this radio for Christmas in 2009. The cabinet was in very nice shape, but there was a lot of rust on the chassis, the power cord was rotted away, and the dial pointer didn't turn. I pulled the chassis and recapped it, and replaced one out-of-tolerance resistor. All the tubes tested good. They are all Philco tubes. The pilot/dial lamp tested OK as well. I used Naval Jelly and a wire wheel in a Dremel tool to remove the rust from the chassis. The dial cord was intact, but stretched, so it was slipping on the tuning knob axle. I restrung it with new dial cord. The speaker cone had also come unglued from its basket, so I had to fix that. When I attached an antenna and powered up the radio, it played beautifully, with the nice characteristic sound of these little Philco's. I cleaned the cabinet with Brasso and Novus, then buffed it with Carnauba wax. I replaced the yellowed dial cover with a new one from Art Deco Radio, and reinstalled the chassis. Its only flaw is that most of the back of the radio is missing.



Philco 46-250

1946 Philco 46-250 bakelite AA5 AM receiver. The cabinet was also a gift from my brother for Christmas, 2009. I began searching for a chassis to fit in it and after a time found a model 46-250 on Ebay with a badly damaged cabinet. The electrolytic caps had been previously replaced and the radio played very well, despite a rusty chassis and a number of rips and gaps in the speaker. I used Naval Jelly to remove the rust from the chassis, and then painted it. I replaced the discolored dial background with a new white background. I repaired the speaker and replaced the other wax capacitors and installed a new AC cord. I put the chassis in my cabinet, and now have a very nice looking radio that plays like new.

[7estatdef]

A couple of real nice set!! Keep up the great work!
Terry

[TA Forbes]

I'm not a bakelite guy, but you got both of those radios looking d**n good!! Well done!

[Ron Ramirez]

Great restorations, thanks for sharing these with us.