[jontz]

Well, I've finally done it. I've started restoring my first radio. It's a 1935 GE model A-65 that I picked up at the same time as my Philco 40-190, mainly because I felt so sorry for it. Thankfully I paid almost nothing for it. I decided to start with it for three reasons. First, it has a fairly simple chassis that shouldn't present many problems for a radio restoration amateur. Second, it needs a fair amount of cabinet restoration, allowing me to get some practice in before I tackle other more valuable radios. Third, it isn't particularly collectible so if I screw it all up it's no big loss. This will take a while for me to finish up as I have a fairly limited amount of time to spend working on it, but I'll try and post regular updates.

So without further ado, I present to you my poor, tired, battleship gray A-65:

[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...3bd0f5.jpg]

Notice the lovely choice of grill cloth! Here's a close up for your viewing displeasure:

[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...6b715a.jpg]

As you can see I have my work cut out for me. Here's the radio gutted and ready for stripping:

[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...1d0ad9.jpg]

I was hoping that the gray paint was latex based, so I tried to strip it with denatured alcohol. That didn't work at all, it just cleaned the paint really well. I quickly realized I was in oil base territory so I switched over to using Zinsser Magic Strip gel. So far I like how it works. It supposedly has a citrus smell to it, although if any citrus fruit I was planning on eating smelled like that I would quickly throw it away. It doesn't smell as bad as the strippers of old though and I can use it in my basement workshop which as you can imagine isn't all that well ventilated. Here's what it looked like after round 1:

[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...512363.jpg]

Primer eh? I see how you want to play this. Fine. More stripping gel!!!

[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...fbab5c.jpg]
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...a66248.jpg]

So after round two it didn't look much better. I only let the stripper sit for about 2 hours. Obviously it was going to take longer. This time I laid it on thick and waited until the next day, about 21 hours or so.

[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...aa07bf.jpg]
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...fdf8e7.jpg]

Now it's starting to look like an old radio again! Maybe there is some hope for it yet! Again, I'll try and keep updating this on a regular basis. I have some more progress already, but that's enough for tonight.