A member of the local radio club who is moving gave me this 37-630 today. I went to his house to pick up a 116B and a Stromberg Carlson 10. I also walked out with a stash of tubes, old grill cloth, a complete set of Riders, Baitmans and various Philco service manuals, which I have yet to sort.
I looked up the 37-630 in Riders but did not see it. The closes chassis I could find was a 37-620. Is that close enough or did Riders miss this model?
I have attached a picture of the cabinet, he already had the chassis out, and so it is now on my bench. Several caps around the band switches under the tuning cap look almost imposable to get too. I have yet to see a Philco chassis like this, why would they build it like this?????
Yes, that is a model 37-630, and what a beauty she is! I have one just like it, but not nearly as pretty. The grill cloth looks brand new. What condition is the chassis in? Chassis layout is quite similar to the 37-620 except this has the addition of the tuning window light. These can be quite an experience to work on with that "wonderful" modular chassis design.
The cabinet looks like it was stripped and then just clear coated, perhaps the previous owner attempted to darken the solid wood parts with oil stain first but that never works. Hopefully the clear coat was lacquer and not poly, is so you can go over the solid parts with Mohawk tone spray. The grille cloth looks like it was either dry cleaned or replaced with a reproduction which is good.
As for the chassis I have not had the misfortune of working on one of these modular chassis Philcos but nobody that I know of likes working on them.
Regards
Arran
Yes the grill cloth looks to be original, it is worn some in one spot around the speaker. The cabinet is just lacquerd so yes toning the trim pieces should not be too difficult. The chassis is very clean and looks good, so I figure this radio has not had a bad life. So far all the coils test good including the shadowmeter.
Modular chassis, now I know, I have read about these on this forum. Well I will take it on as a challenge to restore this chassis. This should be fun.
I like working on them. Probably because I have worked on a lot of them. If you think that one is bad, a 37-116 will give you nightmares.
Even though it does not look like it, I'll bet that sub-chassis made assembly line construction faster/better, especially when it comes to some of the larger units like the 37-116.
On the less complicated units, say, the 37-620 and down, you can most often recap them in place. Starting around the 37-630, it is easier to pull out the sub-chassis.