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completed & future incoming restorations
#1

Luckily, I have had several vintage radios in my shop for total-elec restoration that didnt need complete point-to-point rewiring, or other bad previously hacked chassis issues recently! In the past few weeks, I completed full restorations on another 49 Chev 6v Truck Radio, a 1938-39 model Coronado ac/dc true 6v orig battery or AC trans powered Farm radio tabletop, and a 1936 RCA tabletop, & a 1949 model Zenith ugly Bakelight set.I nicknamed it "Ugh" while restoring it!
My next "incoming- scuds" sets for repairs, are the following: a mod 66X Kadette tabletop,a Philco 46-1226 ( with rubber wiring insulation issues?) hee-hee!!, and Zenith 6D029 ( according to my customer calls) also.Lordy mercy, I never realized when I started this vintage radio restoration hobby yrs ago, that my customers were this serious about getting their "finds" restored!! These customers folks are retired!, and have nothing better to do than travel coast-to-coast finding these vintage radio sets to be restored! On top of that, my dear Wife, found another of her very-favorite sets, a very nice vintage Truetone D-723 tabletop model that also needs full-electronic restoration. We already have 2 of those same model Truetone sets fully restored in our collection already! Im doin the customers "payin-restorations" first!! Just hope I dont find another rash of bad antenna-coils on any of these sets! Ive had plenty of those very-recently. Hope my luck changes for the better, but Im not counting on it either!! Save all those vintage Radios!!! Ive never had this much "back-to-back" vintage radio-repair work before all at one time! Im starting to realize what "bench-tech-burnout" is all about! I love restoring vintage radios as much as anyone here, but doing that on-top of my regular day job is sometimes challenging for "clock-time" issues! Im sure Ron & Chuck can also agree (testify) on this issue as well!! Seems once folks find the techs, you can occasionally have a "outbreak" of vintage radio collectors enthusiasm all at the same time!,.. to get their sets restored!?? I dont even advertise services, these collectors find me by word of mouth lately! Every customer says: "Im not in a hurry at all",take your time!!!!!!!!!,... but they all call up next week wondering if their Radios are ready to go!!??? Those folks dont realize the whole full electronic repair scenario at all !! I consider myself lucky, in having a sincere customer base & still growing!! These vintage radio repair customers "back-off" also, when the electronic restoration time process is explained to them again. Seems they just simply "forget" that take-your-time part of the deal indeed !! Icon_wink
#2

I empathize with you, Tex. If you're doing this for "friends", it's one thing. But, my feelings are that if you're going to do this for pure love, you may like to go for the gold, and the stuff you'll treasure for lots of years in the future. I did that long ago, and on one occasion, I had to thin out a lot of (nice) stuff, just because it was of a low priority character. Among that stuff, there were about 10 Scott chassis, and a couple of McMurders. Most of those sets went to Texas.

After thinning down, there is nothing left to want to dispose of, and still, there are about 600 radios here. They've been accumulating for more than 50 years.

Oh, by the way, referring to Trutone.......was there ever a False tone? Icon_mrgreen
#3

Hello Doug!, man, I wouldnt have room for 600 sets personally.Sounds like you have a very nice "select" massive collection indeed! At this point, we only have close to 200 radios here, mostly smaller vintage bakelights,wood tabletops, metal midgets,and some lost in the storage-, etc from the mid 20s- early 50s sets. Several consoles also. Weve sold a bunch over the yrs, not much profit to speak of, but it keeps us restocked on parts, etc to keep the hobby going for our customers.
I took a couple weeks off, away from my workbench, now Im fired up again! Ive never had a hobby before that I truly enjoy as much as this, cept chasin women when I was single & much younger, and better lookin in my younger days! (hee hee) All my good tech friends here sure help alot as I always learn something new! Every set restoration has a different challenge, even tho the basic designs were similar. Ive learned more about this hobby from the "previously-hacked" sets, than the simple fixes, but then again, I still get-stumped on these old radios sometimes from burn-out. Sometimes during "burnout" ( for me personally), the best thing to do is walk-away from it for awhile. Icon_wink




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