06-18-2026, 10:21 PM
If you used two part epoxy to glue the pieces back in, and it was the type that takes 24 hours to set, then you can probably skip the fiberglass, I've glued several broken and cracked cabinet with that and it never let go. I used body filler (bondo) to fill the cracks, and painted the cabinet, either partly, or in full, ivory spray paint is usually a safe choice, although you can pretty much paint it any colour you want, it won't make a broken cabinet worth any less if it's done well. I once painted a Motorola blue and black, and another orange.
The orange one had a light grey cabinet but the paint was shot on the top and sides, cabinet was not cracked or chipped in any way, the front grill was fine so I stripped off the top, sides, and bottom, masked off the front, and painted it orange. It was just an ordinary 5 tube AC/DC set, on a printed circuit board, from 1952 or 53, ironically it was the P.C board that was broken and had to be epoxied back together. The blue and black set was originally white, the paint was flaking off, and it had a slight crack near the front edge, I epoxied the crack, filled it, and since the Bakelite underneath the paint was black, I panted the top, sides, and bottom blue, and painted the back black. This set was a clock radio, and the chassis and control panel comes out through the front, so it was backwards from most radios, it was a 1954 model.
The way I figure is that since many 1950s cars and TV sets were painted in bright colours then there is no harm in picking a similar shade for a radio cabinet. With 1940s and earlier Bakelite radios I either repaint them white, off white, or in a more subdued shade since the cabinets themselves are much more sculptural then 1950s sets, which are often just boring rectangular boxes.
Regards
Arran
The orange one had a light grey cabinet but the paint was shot on the top and sides, cabinet was not cracked or chipped in any way, the front grill was fine so I stripped off the top, sides, and bottom, masked off the front, and painted it orange. It was just an ordinary 5 tube AC/DC set, on a printed circuit board, from 1952 or 53, ironically it was the P.C board that was broken and had to be epoxied back together. The blue and black set was originally white, the paint was flaking off, and it had a slight crack near the front edge, I epoxied the crack, filled it, and since the Bakelite underneath the paint was black, I panted the top, sides, and bottom blue, and painted the back black. This set was a clock radio, and the chassis and control panel comes out through the front, so it was backwards from most radios, it was a 1954 model.
The way I figure is that since many 1950s cars and TV sets were painted in bright colours then there is no harm in picking a similar shade for a radio cabinet. With 1940s and earlier Bakelite radios I either repaint them white, off white, or in a more subdued shade since the cabinets themselves are much more sculptural then 1950s sets, which are often just boring rectangular boxes.
Regards
Arran




