The PHILCO Phorum

Santa was good to me and brought me this 1950 Philco in well used condition...
[attachment=6111]
[attachment=6112]

Now this model, in 1950, only came in one color, as indicated in the gallery "maroon phenolic".

What I found with this set is it was painted, and painted from new on. You can see the remnants of the paint chipping off. It's painted under the factory installed model tag underneath, as well as under the dial light opening cover. Also, the gold lettering was still there on the PHILCO TRANSITONE embossment... and the gold paint was OVER the factory color:
[attachment=6113]

When I removed the rest of the paint, I could see there was a defect in the molded plastic on one side. It was all blotchy in appearance. So my theory is, because of this defect, Philco decided to paint the cabinets to salvage them rather than scrap them all.

So I was faced with the problem of what color to repaint it? I couldn't find anything remotely close to what the original color was, so I decided to go with the 1951 scheme: Black

[attachment=6114]
[attachment=6115]

Not totally factory correct, at least not for 1950, but in 1951, when this model became the 51-532, ebony was indeed a color offered.

[attachment=6116]

Here's another 'before' pic showing that the tiny gold PHILCO TRANSITONE letters were indeed painted after the cabinet was painted.

I would have done exactly the same. They look great in black and I bought one a couple of years back. Pretty nice playing radios as well.
Ive never actually gotten the available colors strait in my mind. There is some variation with what we read here vs what Radio Museum says about colors. Im guessing perhaps RM has the two model years flip flopped so far as available colors. But its not all that critical. For me black is "natural" for the case.
Nice work on yours and youll find visitors that look at your radios will be drawn to it..its a charmer for a lot of eyes.

Kirk