[Ron Ramirez]

Last year, I refinished a dozen or more cabinets, learning how to use grain filler and producing some pretty decent work, if I say so myself.

Today, I started on this season's crop of radio cabinets. I am hoping that I can get another dozen refinished by Fall.

First on this year's list: a 1942 model 42-761EZ Tropic.

Here's how it looked when I acquired it back in March:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00001.jpg]

Yesterday, I removed everything from the cabinet; and this afternoon, I took it outside and stripped what remained of the old finish.

It's funny, the black "paint" came off easier than did the remnants of the walnut lacquer finish. And that black wasn't paint - it was actually very, very dark red, almost like a stain. It started staining the walnut areas of the wood red as I worked! Fortunately, additional applications of my concoction of acetone and lacquer thinner removed the red, and this is how it looks now:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum..._00001.jpg]

At first, I was afraid that the veneer above and below the dial and speaker might be photofinish, because of how it looked when I bought the set. Fortunately, as you can see above, that is real wood veneer. Looks really nice, too!

It is missing some very thin strips of veneer on the top back edge, which may be a challenge to fix. Other than that, this should be a very good looking radio once finished!