[Arran]

I've been restoring arcade cabinets for years. I'm not an amateur, and I don't do things like buy a Honda and stick some flames on the sides and put an M3 badge on the back haha.

No, but what you are doing is akin to buying a Harley-Davidson and trying to shoehorn a Honda motor and drivetrain into it.

<editorial>

Funny, I was just having an email discussion about the future of the antique radio hobby with a friend of mine recently.

My friends, you see here with your own eyes the future of the antique radio hobby. Too many of the big console sets are destined to be butchered into touch-screen computerized thingys that completely destroy the historical significance of a vintage radio.

And when all of the consoles are gone, what's next? iPhone-size screens in what used to be table model radios?

I see stuff like this and, really, it makes me wonder why I am wasting so much of my time and so many of my favorite dollars carefully restoring my Philcos when I now know that the next generation is going to butcher all of my hard work.

Sorry, JROZ, you won't find a sympathetic audience here. My friend, I am afraid you do not know the meaning of the term restoration. And I really don't mean to be picking on you, but most of us are quite passionate about this hobby and the old radios we enjoy. It's about preserving history. When it's gone, it's gone. Your way of doing things makes me think of the "urban renewal" projects of the 1960s in which we lost many, many historical older buildings. These old buildings of the late 1800s and very early 1900s represented a style of architecture that shall not return.

</editorial>

Your last post just came up as I prepared to post this one. I'm willing to turn my back on a 38-3 or a 38-7, if the cabinet is empty and in rough shape. But not a 38-116, one of the best radios Philco ever produced, or a 38-2. I know this sounds like I'm contradicting myself...but I also know you kids are going to continue to do this, regardless of what us old geezers say. And if you're going to do it, better it be done to a rough, empty cabinet that has little collector value than a set that is collectible and restorable.

Ron;
I don't think this is the future of the old radio hobby, I think this is just some sort of FAD among the technogeeks. What we need to do is steer people towards the empty cabinets that are typically headed towards the dump until the fad blows over, which it will eventually. I remember that there was a guy on the other forum who inherited a 12 tube 1937 or 38 Zenith and was going to do the "digital juke" thing with it until the forum educated him on the fact it was $600-1000 radio and someone lined him up with a less collectable cabinet.
I'm relatively young compared to most radio collectors I got into old radios because they were not state of the art, because they work differently then the electronics they make today. I'm probably a bit odd compared to most people but I actually look at the chassis in the back more then the cabinet. I was fortunate that the first old radio I bought was already repaired and working quite well so I got to find out how well even a lowly AC/DC could perform very early on.
Regards
Arran