[RadioMan55]

Hello All:  I am about to apply stain to my Philco 40-158 cabinet and need if there is somewhere to look to find out the name of the color of stain to use. 
I'd appreciate any help I could get on this.  Thank you, Tom

[Phlogiston]

Well, if you are going to use stain on the "white wood" then walnut would be OK. BUT, stain was not used on these cabinets so the result will not appear to be original. These cabinets were tinted with toner which is a lacquer paint. A combination of toner colors can be used.

[klondike98]

Welcome to the Phorum!


Do you have a 40-158F?  http://philcoradio.com/gallery2/1940a/#Model_40-158F

If so, we don't have pictures of that in the gallery (but if you can send some to us that would be great..email to Nathan Slingerland or me).

So...without a photo here's what I can tell you, perhaps Ron (our site owner) will have a better thought.

the cabinets were not stained, they were toned with spray lacquer toners.  Mohawk medium brown walnut ultra classic is often used in many philcos.  Its hard to tell if the set is all one color or multi colored.  Photos on the internet seem to show a center top section as a little darker.  the advantage with toners is that if it doesn't look good, they are easy to re-strip and do over.  I use the can sprays but there are folks on here that are very skilled and have sprayer set ups.

update: phlogiston was typing his reply and posted before I did...he is one of those folks with excellent skills.

[Ron Ramirez]

Russ (Phlogiston) and Bob have given you good advice, Tom. As Bob said, without a good color photo of an original 40-158, it's hard to tell if the white wood trim (the grille bars and molding above the speaker opening, and the bottom trim) were toned darker, or not.

I just looked online and found a photo of an original but rough 40-158, and it appears that it was a single color after all. Bob's suggestion of Mohawk Ultra Classic Medium Brown Walnut is a good one. An alternative is Mohawk Medium Walnut Tone Finish, which does not have as much pigment as Mohawk's other Tone Finish colors but will still turn into paint (hides the grain of the wood) if too many coats are applied.

[Greggshere]

I too am currently refinishing a 40-158. Just today I shot the toner and chose Extra Dark Walnut for mine. I could not find any good color photos either and could only go by what was left on mine. Since it is also just for me I am changing it up a little bit as well. The attached photo looking downward shows that the lowermost base wood was dark, the speaker bars and upper piece they attach to was dark, and also it appears the 1 1/2" "white wood" band that goes from bottom front to upper back and separates the sides from the front and top were also dark at one point.

   
   


Here are a couple of shots today of the toner applied. It looks very dark under the florescent lights, almost black, but in natural light you can see the brown tint. If I wanted to shoot it again I probably would go with just Dark Walnut vs. Extra Dark, but since this is my first cabinet restoration and I'm changing it up just a bit anyway, I'm leaving it as is.