[Joeztech]

    Today I spent time cleaning the chassis top side. I used some citrus aroma waterless hand cleaner along with a fine bristle stainless steel wire brush. With the tubes removed I worked on a small section at a time. I took the power transformer top cover off and used the wire brush on it plus some sand paper where the rust was worst. It cleaned up nicely and then I followed it with a black gloss spray epoxy paint. The cover was then put in a toaster oven to speed up the drying process. I noticed that the transformer cover has the Philco name on it and the part number also appears on it. With the transformer cover off the top insulation over the internal windings also has the transformer part number imprinted on it.

The one area of the chassis that did not clean up very well was the area under the dial where the two electrolytic capacitors are mounted plus the area around the two IF transformers. I will order axial lead electrolytics to use in rebuilding the existing electrolytics. Each one is an individual electrolytic with no other sections in the case. That will make rebuilding the capacitors easier.

I also took time to clean the dial knobs by removing them. The hardest ones to remove are the tone and volume control knobs. It takes a little study to realize that the only way they will come off is to loosen the volume and tone controls from the chassis enough to allow enough play to get the knobs off after the outer shaft bracket is removed. Reassembly is somewhat tricky as the tone and volume controls both have to be adjusted so that both work smoothly. I also lubricated the control shafts.

The tuning capacitor assembly needed lubrication, so I did that while the knobs were off. I did not want to turn it until the lubrication was renewed.

Most of the rust is now gone and I will do some additional cleaning of the chassis top when I get the Electrolytic capacitors off for rebuilding. The mice had built a nest underneath the dial and control/push-button assembly and in front of the tuning capacitor. They chewed completely through the wires to/from the tuning capacitor and the push-button preset coils. I will be ordering some hook-up wire in multiple colors to take care of that. I will be looking for some wire with identical colors if at all possible. Solid color wire is fairly easy to find, but not the wire that has a base color plus a stripe. Some homework lies ahead on that.

Joe