[Sam samuelian]

Yesterday I had a nice long talk with Bob of Antique Radio Restoration and Repair in Connecticut. He is a very knowledgeable in every facet of restoration and gave me valuable tips. But I came away with that mind blown feeling that I'm not even close to doing a real restoration. Some of his points I absorbed when asking about my Philco 38-690, which he has great respect for. 1-recapping is only one step and not the answer to all ills as many think 2-there are many resistors that should be replaced just like the caps, especially the thinner, weaker ones. 3-Speaker paper is too old and brittle to give good sound so all speakers must be reconed. He felt speakers were only designed to last ten years, twenty at best. 4-Most people have no idea about the little "trays" of electronic parts which are covered with a black tar like substance. He said the gook must be carefully picked out with a pick and then the caps, resistors, etc, replaced. 5-Tubes should all be replaced with top quality new old stock 6-Pots that sound scratchy should be replaced rather than cleaned 7-Chassis work must be done to beautify them. Sanding, painting, etc. That applies to the base as well as tube shields and anything metal. 8-When replacing electrolytics above the chassis be careful to use the same length wires and place them in the same positions or risk unwanted hum or squealing 9-Refinish as you would a fine car. Lots of finish removal, hand work, sanding and re-sanding, many coats of lacquer, etc. 10-save all decals or put on new ones 11-stick with authentic grille cloth. He has about 50 different types after having bought out many existing inventories. Similarly he has over 100,000 NOS tubes. He also has hundreds of sets restored to the above specs for sale. They are VERY expensive. He said a set like mine done RIGHT would run about 5,000.00 and that doesn't even include the price of the set. He compared putting that kind of money into a radio to buying a 56 Ford for 2,000.00 and then spending 22,000.00 to restore it. My major concern was value. He felt sets restored that beautifully will hold their value. What? Where do I ever see table radios or consoles restored like this being sold for such high dollars. I felt the 32,000 I have already sunk into my radio was rather like a "money pit" but he said that was nothing and I still had plenty of potential for increasing the value. Oh yes, he also advised some sort of voltage regulator since today's voltages are higher than they were years ago and that could seriously damage and limit the life of those expensive tubes. My set has 20 tubes, so replacing all with new old stock can run as much as 4-5 hundred dollars. Of course silk covered power wire should be used and all knobs fixed and treated with finish. I should have asked what he does with the old yellowed dials whose black printed ink is fragile and easily smeared. My guess is he has those totally reproduced with fresh white plastic and black ink. There is more to tell, but that's as much mind blowing as I could take in one long phone session. I WOULD like to travel from PA to CT to visit his shop and see some of the miracles going on over there!