[rfeenstra]

Pretty much stuck at home so I have to start another project to maintain sanity.  I finished the cabinet many weeks ago so now to start the electronic restoration.  I purchased the cabinet with speaker and "acoustic clarifiers" last year.  With Ron's help, I found a 37-116 chassis as well.  So, time to make the radio work and mate the two together.  The 37-116 cabinet is on the left.  It's younger sibling, the 38-116 is now complete and playing beautifully.

                   

[KCMike]

That chassis should keep you busy for awhile. Beautiful work on the cabinets!

[Eliot Ness]

Those cabinets are beautiful, did you do those yourself?

[rfeenstra]

Thank you, John. Yes, a lot of spraying and sanding and spraying and sanding.

[462ron]

Terrific job on those cabinets indeed. Do you have spray equipment or use rattle cans? I have a 37-116 that someone kept a house plant on the top. There is water damage, but I doubt I would ever find a perfect match for the toner so I’m looking at refinishing the whole cabinet instead of just the top. I don’t relish doing that with rattle cans on such a big cabinet! 

Ron

[Jake Blake]

+1 to Mike, John and Ron.   Gorgeous!  

[Bill Bacco]

Great job on the cabinets. It is a lot of work to get them to look that good.

[rfeenstra]

Ron, I have an HVLP system that I've had for years for other purposes (painting my airplane). Works well. I've taken to mixing my own toners as I can't get an even job with a rattle can. Just not very good at it!

[morzh]

Super! This is what I expect they should look like.

[rfeenstra]

Thanks guys. I have a 37-116 that is in excellent original finish, so I had an example to work from.

[rfeenstra]

Decided to get the RF chassis out of the way first.  The Police Band oscillator had to be rewound, as expected.  I hope it works!  This chassis is fairly rusty so I decided to paint.  I replaced all resistors and re-stuffed all of the caps.  There are 2 caps between switch wafers that are a real pain. I had to remove the coil/switch assembly in the antenna and RF sections from their associated mounting plate to get at the solder connections.

           

[RodB]

Are you using a metallic paint on the chassis?

Rod

[rfeenstra]

Yes. It's metallic aluminum, Rustoleum Painters Choice 2X with primer. Not a perfect match to a clean, later model chassis, but it's okay. I will sometimes use it to cover removed rust spots for protection. It blends quite well with the cleaned, original, plated metal. I kind of like the clean look of a painted chassis but would never paint a well preserved chassis. I'm concerned that a rusty chassis with the rust removed will rust quickly if not protected. Some have used clear, others have used a protectant like BoShield, and others paint.

[462ron]

Thanks for the reply on the spray system. On my 37-116 I had to rewind the band #2 oscillator coil also. Took me 3 tries, ugh, but finally got it working. It’s still not right because I think the inductance is probably off. When I did an alignment, I can get the low end and the high end pretty decent with the associated trimmers, but sensitivity falls way off in the middle of the band. I don’t think the oscillator is tracking properly. This was the first coil I ever tried to rewind. Since there isn’t much on this band anyway, I’m leaving well enough alone. Not trying a fourth time. I didn’t dismantle my tuner as much as yours, so to get at those hard to reach caps, I made a long replacement tip for my soldering gun out of 12 gauge house wire. I saw that tip on the phorum years ago. It was a real pita to get in there but doable. Good  luck with yours, looking great so far!

Ron

[rfeenstra]

Thank you, Ron! This is the second one of these I've done so I the advantage of a little experience. This one will, no doubt, go faster as a result.