[Guest]

My grandparents originally bought this 37-650, and according to my mother, it hasn't worked since the 60's. For the last 25 years, it has been neglected in her basement. Time to make something of it. I took the chasis out, and took the cabinet to a professional refinisher, and just picked it up yesterday. He did 6 coats of lacquer, but to me, it looks like it just came out of the spray booth. I questioned if there was a touch of orange peal, and his answer was that I was just seeing the texture of the grain. What do you guys think? Could I hand polish it to get a glass finish? Have I done anything wrong yet?

Next is the chasis. All new caps and resistors just arrived, and I am trying to make up my mind about how extensive my work should be: Make a working radio, or strip it down to nothing, polish everything and rebuild it from scratch.
BTW: This is my first radio project, I have enjoyed surfing your forums. What a wealth of knowledge. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31...1196521507

[Ron Ramirez]

Hello and welcome.

Man, I hate to rain on your parade, but...Who is this "professional" refinisher? Where are the toners? Good grief, it's been stripped and refinished in one color!

I need to take a photo of a 37-650X I have here that Barry Jones did a year or so ago. It was toned where it should be toned...and is walnut where it should be walnut.

If it was sprayed with lacquer, don't worry, it can still be made to look right. But I would be having a long talk with that "refinisher"...especially once you see what that cabinet should look like.

[Guest]

I would love to see some pictures. I was eager, and maybe jumped the gun a little, to get it done.

You mention, "made to look right"... From what I could tell, the original finish was all one color, so wouldn't this be right?

I found this guy's 37-650, and he has added tones, http://repairbench.com/philco37.aspx This would have been nice for my radio, had the right person been working on it.

[hotrod]

It is a shame a so called "professional" did not finish your radio correctly but it can be fixed. I think it is wonderful that you have a radio that was in your family.

Rod

[Guest]

Any suggestions for a qualified person in the northern New Jersey area? I would also like to see some pictures of how this could have looked. Please post.

[Ron Ramirez]

Quick, slightly blurry photo of a 37-650X...

[Image: http://i326.photobucket.com/albums/k420/...7-650X.jpg]

Another refinishing job by Barry Jones of Evansville. You can see where the shading should be in certain areas.

If your cabinet was finished with a true lacquer finish, it can still be made to look like this. All it would need is some light sanding, then some extra dark walnut toning lacquer sprayed on the trim as shown above. Follow that up with some coats of clear lacquer. I believe it should have extra dark walnut on the trim instead of the medium dark walnut used on the cabinet above, but this cabinet still looks better than a single-color (monotone) finish.

[Arran]

Hello and welcome.

Man, I hate to rain on your parade, but...Who is this "professional" refinisher? Where are the toners? Good grief, it's been stripped and refinished in one color!

I need to take a photo of a 37-650X I have here that Barry Jones, a friend of mine and a genius at refinishing cabinets, did a year or so ago. It was toned where it should be toned...and is walnut where it should be walnut.

If it was sprayed with lacquer, don't worry, it can still be made to look right. But I would be having a long talk with that "refinisher"...especially once you see what that cabinet should look like.

Unfortunately that sort of work is pretty typical of many "Professional" refinishers, strip and spray, no dye, no toner, no grain filler, and sometimes oil stain slobbed on, I think many are former car painters that branched out. There is only one guy that I know of around my parts that would refinish furniture properly and unfortunately he quite the business to go into kitchen cabinets.
Best Regards
Arran

[Phlogiston]

Mine is a 630 but very close to the same finish.
This is out in the sunset, so it is a little darker in a room:

   

   

Your "refinisher" should be painting houses.

That one could still be fixed. It would not be too hard for someone that knows how. Maybe you need an amateur.

[Keith]

I say it depends on what you paid for? If you told the "professional" to refinish the cabinet, then that's exactly what you got. If you gave the guy a picture of what it was supposed to look like and how you wanted it, you might have gotten a different outcome. Most "professionals" wouldn't even know where to look to find out what these old radios looked like when they came from the factory.

[Paul Philco322]

IP wiz has a point. Good information up front is key in determining the refinish approach. Oddly I had a fellow do a cabinet some years ago and he found out that the wood was not the type that RCA had in their advertisement in 1946. He had a very good eye for detail, he asked for several images before proceeding. A gent from the old country, checked with me on the progress.

On the plus side the cabinet seems to be in good physical shape and has a future even if not redone right away, at least it did not get painted with Rustoleum.

Paul

[Tom Hamilton]

All the refinisher had to do was look at what he had in front of him and duplicate that. As long as the finish had not been stripped before it was taken to the refinisher, what would be wrong with this person using the original finish as a guide?

Tom