[Ron Ramirez]

Last year, I refinished a dozen or more cabinets, learning how to use grain filler and producing some pretty decent work, if I say so myself.

Today, I started on this season's crop of radio cabinets. I am hoping that I can get another dozen refinished by Fall.

First on this year's list: a 1942 model 42-761EZ Tropic.

Here's how it looked when I acquired it back in March:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00001.jpg]

Yesterday, I removed everything from the cabinet; and this afternoon, I took it outside and stripped what remained of the old finish.

It's funny, the black "paint" came off easier than did the remnants of the walnut lacquer finish. And that black wasn't paint - it was actually very, very dark red, almost like a stain. It started staining the walnut areas of the wood red as I worked! Fortunately, additional applications of my concoction of acetone and lacquer thinner removed the red, and this is how it looks now:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum..._00001.jpg]

At first, I was afraid that the veneer above and below the dial and speaker might be photofinish, because of how it looked when I bought the set. Fortunately, as you can see above, that is real wood veneer. Looks really nice, too!

It is missing some very thin strips of veneer on the top back edge, which may be a challenge to fix. Other than that, this should be a very good looking radio once finished!

[Arran]

I figured that the veneer around the knobs was real as I could see from the prior photos that much of the lacquer had flaked off and there was still grain there. When a faux finish flakes off you are usually left with a blond and relatively grainless wood underneath. The tricky part will be to repair or replace any chipped veneer.
The best method I have found is to cut the patch beforehand in a shape that roughly mimics the grain of the veneer needing repair, preferably of a veneer of the same species and of a similar colour to the original. Then you take that patch and tape it over the chipped area and cut around the outside of the patch with a razor blade basically tracing out the shape of the patch. Then you remove the patch and tape and then remove whatever veneer is inside the area that you just traced out. The objective is to create a patch with as few straight edges as possible with no sharp angles, the eye is drawn to square shapes.
Regards
Arran

[Ron Ramirez]

Agreed. I would rather try to follow the contour of the missing piece rather than cut an obvious square patch.

Well, today, I stripped another cabinet - this time, a 19B cathedral. As I usually do when I get in too much of a hurry, I forgot to take a "before" photo. Suffice it to say that the 19B is basically solid, and only has a couple minor veneer issues in front along with a very small piece of bottom trim missing on the right front. The old finish was very dull, very dirty, and very rough. Cleaning did not help - it (unfortunately) had to be stripped.

I'll post a photo of how the 19B looks now, later on.

[Arran]

There are cases in which a straight edged repair works well, that is when you replace an entire strip of veneer and make the cut parallel to the grain, like the repair Bob Andersen made to the top of his 15DX for example.
Regards
Arran

[Ron Ramirez]

Well, of course. And I have seen some Philco consoles that came from the factory with two pieces of veneer on top with the obvious parallel joint (like the excellent repair Bob made to his 15DX). After all, a Depression was on, and manufacturers kept cranking out the radio cabinets even if they did not turn out 100% perfect or if they did not end up with one sheet of veneer on top.

I have a 610T "Big Bullet" with a long strip of veneer missing on front, that may end up with a similar repair.

[LASJayhawk]

Ron do you have a very big picture of the Philco Tropic decal? Just wondering

[Ron Ramirez]

Not yet, but I borrowed a tripod so I can take pictures of this and the other decals on my 41-788, because not only will the 42-761EZ need the "Philco Tropic" decal, but the 42-788 will need a complete set - and no one reproduces Philco Tropic decals, nor does anyone reproduce some of the decals that go above the knobs on some Tropic models.

So, yes, I know what you are saying - I'll have to have custom decals made.

[tab10672]

If you are any good with photoshop you can make them yourself, our local hobby lobby has decal paper (6- 5x7 sheets) and gold ink for ink jet printers I have made my own with the kit and they look identical to the originals. the kit and ink runs a total of about $19 the only hard part is injecting the gold ink into an empty printer cartridge.

[Ron Ramirez]

Thanks for the idea, but I would rather not try that - my printer is only a year old and I would rather spend a little more $$ and have custom decals made by someone who knows what they are doing than take a chance on a used ink cartridge screwing up my printer. Besides, my printer (an HP Officejet Pro 8500) uses four cartridges - black and three colors.

[LASJayhawk]

I'm Brave

I took some large pictures of what was left of the decals on my 37-116. I've cleaned the artwork up as best I can, and they don't look to bad printed on white paper using yellow for the gold. Got the size right so the next step will be prototypes.

I plan on getting a kit and the cheapest inkjet I can find to do prototypes. Once I'm sure the artwork is OK I'll have a local printer make a silkscreen to make them in mass.

I CAN'T stand the incorrect font on the available ones.

[Ron Ramirez]

I CAN'T stand the incorrect font on the available ones.

Thank you, John! So that makes two of us. All we need now is a third.

Some months ago, I was approached by Mike Slusser of Radio Daze about submitting artwork to improve their decals with the awful non-original font.

I submitted the artwork.

And that's been the end of it - no word since.

As long as enough of the sheep keep buying the incorrect stuff, why change?

[codefox1]

Ron, please send me some scans and hints. I'll get Ling to have a look. We can get back some artwork in photoshop, .jpg, whatever. If we do have some winners, can make few sets available to members, or at least pay for this forum. Don't ever want a nickel out of it.

[Ron Ramirez]

Codefox - I have not yet taken photos of the decals, but I will be doing so in the coming weeks. As soon as I do, I'll send them to you. Thanks!

Meantime, folks, here's the photo of how my 19B looks now.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum..._00005.jpg]

It would be a lot easier to refinish if I could get the front panel out of the cabinet. Philco not only used several wood screws to hold the panel in, they also glued the panel into place.

[Steve Davis]

If you pop the front panel insert out it will probably leave part of the veneer on the back side of the front arch. Been there done that!

Steve

[Ron Ramirez]

Me too, Steve

As much as I hate to, I'll probably leave the front panel in place and do some serious masking before toning it.