The PHILCO Phorum

My apologies as I deleted my thread by mistake. Especially to Warren who was helping me out. Live and learn. I'll start over again. I just started a Philco 47-1227. I obtained it free from a Facebook friend and since I saw it I caught the vintage radio bug. There's just something about the beauty of a nicely done radio. Anyway, so far I have "goopified" the cabinet 3 times in order to remove many decades worth of cigarette nastiness. There's still some tint on the wiping towel so my guess is there's another round or two in the cards. I'm torn on whether to strip the cabinet since it's in such good shape. There's only one piece of veneer that needs to be repaired. Other than that there's just the usual scratches and bumps. I could use some advice on the next steps:

1. The veneer is super thin on the side that needs to be patched. If I understand the procedure correctly I should use a utility knife and square off the piece to be replaced then fit in a replacement piece. I've looked online and I found 1/16" and the stuff that you run an iron on to adhere to the cabinet. Not sure what I should use. Looks like medium brown veneer.

2. I'm leaning towards not stripping the cabinet. Is there something not as invasive I can do to pretty it up? Perhaps run some fine steel wool over it to rough it up a bit, use some Howard's or Old English to help with scratches then go over the entire cabinet with some clear gloss?

Here are some pictures. This is after 2 rounds of goopification.

For no larger than the patch is you could recycle a matching piece of veneer from a piece of old furniture, jewelry box or anything picked up at a flea mkt for a couple bucks. New unfinished veneer is harder to color match.

I would think in a city the size of Boston you'd have woodworking stores that carry veneer, otherwise I hear eBay has a few vendors. I stocked up on veneer from flea markets and old cabinets years ago so I haven't searched for any in a long time. I would think if it was too thick you could use a sanding block to get it to the right thickness easy enough.

When you're done with the Goop cleaning let the cabinet sit for a few days for the oils (used to soften the hands) to evaporate. I prefer an original finish even if it is not perfect, so I'll suggest what someone else did in your deleted thread. Apply some Old English Scratch Cover or Howard's Restore-A-Finish per directions. Then after that sits a few days apply some good paste wax. I like Johnson's paste wax or Minwax dark colored paste wax, and some like Howard's Feed-N-Wax (but I haven't tried that yet).

There are many techniques for veneer patching as a Google search will reveal, but here are three ways I've used in the past with good results, although I use wood glue instead of epoxy. Practicing your chosen technique on an old cabinet is highly recommended.

http://blip.tv/popular-woodworking-video...er-4199455

http://on.aol.com/video/how-to-patch-ven...-517479544

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhrOgj0e4Vw

Edit: It looks like our own Old Restorer has started a thread on veneer replacement:

http://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread...9#pid65749

Awesome. Thank you John. I'll give the scratch cover and paste wax a try. I have them bought and ready to go. I'll post pictures after I'm done. Hopefully it'll come out ok.