[Joeztech]

Tom;

I found that the Walmart nearest us carried the OUT product, so I bought some of that today and some Elmer's wood glue. I bought two strap type clamps to use to apply force to the two top ends of the cabinet. They wrap all the way around the bottom of the cabinet and I put some wood blocks over the area where I reglued the veneer near the front of the top. I tried the straw method and had some success with that. I finally wound up pushing glue up under the loosened veneer with a spatula or putty knife. That worked well too. The Elmer's wood glue is pretty thick to work into tight spots. Maybe I should have thinned it with some water first. Regular Elmer's glue may have worked as good or better. The glue should be dry within a couple of days. I still have a small area between the top walnut veneer and the thicker veneer level that is currently drying which will be done later. This is true on both sides.    

I sprayed OUT on the top of the chassis shelf to the left and right of where the chassis sat. It immediately started foaming like mad! This product has peroxide in it as its main ingredient. It also has some mild aromatic compound that offsets the odor of peroxide. I used 4 separate applications, wiping it off after a minute or so using paper towels. After each wiping the area was re-sprayed with the foaming action diminishing each time. I am glad to report that the majority of the rodent odor is gone. There is still some that has penetrated the top of the speaker baffle board and the cardboard backing of the center grill and grill cloth. The baffle board will be treated with OUT also. The cardboard backing for the grill cloth will be replaced completely. I am thinking about using Masonite to replace the grill cloth mounting board. I will do the same for the left and right grill and cloth panels too.

I started removing the speaker baffle board and had all the screws removed, but it was still hanging to the bottom of the chassis shelf. I finally pulled out my auto trouble light and a mirror and discovered there were two screws holding the baffle board cleat to the bottom of the chassis shelf. I removed those and the speaker baffle board came out easily, followed by the thick cardboard backing for the center grill cloth. I discovered that the grill cloth that had been hidden and held against the cabinet wood was significantly darker than the grill cloth which was visible with the unit assembled. The cloth had faded a lot over the years. There is also grill cloth on either side of center behind some wooden scroll work. That grill cloth is also glued to some pieces of thick cardboard. The cardboard pieces had a printed woodgrain pattern on their backside. A casual glance from the back would not spot the fact that it was only paper and not wood. The cardboard is about 3/16 of an inch thick.

I had to remove the rotating loop antenna assembly in order to safely access the screws that held the speaker baffle board. The paper over of the loop antenna assembly is partially crushed in one spot near the top. This will have to be repaired.

With the speaker baffle board and grill mount out of the way, I could see that each of the five vertical wooden ribs in front of the center grill are held in place with screws at top and bottom, so they can each be removed for stripping and refinishing.

I spotted two missing wood cleats on the left side viewed from the rear. One is along the bottom flange where the metal glide feet go and another one was on the top side of the chassis shelf. The one on the chassis shelf has a triangular cross section and the one on the bottom flange is just a rectangular cross section.

It is now time to rest.

Joe