[Derek D]

I just acquired a 16B shouldered tombstone(4 band). Yes, the mangled one recently on eBay. Amazingly, it "survived" shipping. This should be a fun project. Nothing like taking something from the junk pile and making it look good again! My question is about the orginal finish.

Are the sides, top, and front trim dark(Van Dyke Brown)? The majority of the front medium walnut? The section between the stripes and below the escutcheon lighter walnut?

I think I can get away with replacing the top and side panels with something other than walnut as it will have dark toned lacquer applied. Probably won't see much of the wood. I may use walnut anyway to keep it as "original" as possible. The tough part is finding plywood that is about 13/32" thick. That seems to be what it measures. I guess I can take a piece of 1/2" through a wide belt sander and take 3/32" off the back.

Also, is the escutcheon suppose to have glass in it? Sorry, I guess that's quite a few questions. Thanks.

Derek

[Ron Ramirez]

Derek

No, in this case, the darker areas are not that real dark Van Dyke brown. The front panel is Medium Walnut; the rest of the cabinet is a darker shade of walnut; say, Medium Dark Walnut. Tone the darker areas of the cabinet fairly lightly; i.e. not so much that you make the woodgrain disappear as you would with the Deco 16B tombstone and Van Dyke brown.

If you don't go overboard with the Medium Walnut on the front panel (again, tone lightly), the center section will come out looking O.K., different than the rest of the front panel.

No, the escutcheon does not have any glass in it.

Good luck - that is going to be quite a project. I have one just like yours but in somewhat better shape; the sides are delaminating but the set is otherwise O.K. It will require refinishing. While I am selling several of my radios, I'm keeping this one. Eventually, on some of my days off the road, I'll get it restored.

[Derek D]

Thanks again for the help Ron. I'll give that a try.

Derek