Here are a few images after a good cleaning. I spent about an hour with a jar of Goop and two rags. I am really impressed with its appearance after all of this time! Now I see why everyone said NOT to strip it
So there are two issues: The water damage on the sides of the cabinet and the cracking finish on the top (and a few other places). I would like to see if I can minimize the appearance of the damage marks. Are the marks on the side of the cabinet and on the speaker grille bars a good candidate for some Howards treatment? If so, what color should I choose?
The harder issue for me is the cracking finish, I am undecided about what to do with it. It is most prominent on the top of the cabinet around the control panel, the flat panel beneath it with the Philco name, and (to a lesser extent) the side panels. On the one hand, it provides some interesting character that fits its age. On the other hand, I would like to keep it from deteriorating further.
Lot's of thoughts about the finish but that radio cleaned up very well. If it were me, I would wipe it down with a little Howards that was close to the color and see how it looks. If good a few sprays out of a spray gun of shellac and some rub down with 000 steal wool, just to flatten out the finish. Then a couple coats of lacquer from a spray gun. That finish is really nice. You just need to get a little color into the scratch areas. Then a little finish over it.
Nice radio. Jerry
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Jerry! I am really thrilled with how nice it looks, someone took very nice care of it over the years. I've got a new set of buttons on order for it. Looks like I need to track down some Howard's.
The original knobs are also in nice condition, but have some caked on grime. Can I also use Goop on the plastic knobs with a toothbrush, or should I use something else?
Yup, a toothbrush is great, don't use the one from your significant other. Really pisses them off. I know. Nice job and many others will have probably better ideas but dang, that thing is looking nice and a little wipe on with a proper color on the scratches will just make them disappear.
Jerry
Great job, Eric! See, you can do a lot with an original finish.
A toothbrush works to clean knobs, if they're not too dirty, but I've found to get the long dried crusty crud out of the ridges around the diameter of knobs, you need something a bit more ridgid. I use one of those toothbrush-sized brass bristled brushes, and it usually does a good job of de-crudding.
I've seen some people clear coat their knobs once they are cleaned, and they do give off a nice shiny appearance. Perhaps a bit TOO shiny, but they look nice anyhow.
There are thousands of opinions on the care and feeding of knobs. As always "it depends." Well wooden knobs can just about always be restored or replicated, bakelite requires remediation and wax, mold can be cured by a move to Arizona, common plastics can be buffed with a cotton wheel and pumice, etc, and metal knobs can of course be painted. Whatver, remove the set screws first, and replace them last if still good, or make new ones out of proper guage stainless steel. Yup, you can usually drill out and tap up to the next size most of the time.
I found a local retailer that carries Howard's. I'll grab some tomorrow and see what happens with the little surface defects. There is really only one or two very minor scratches in the surface, the rest just seems to be places where splashes of one sort or another chewed into the finish. I'm optimistic that those little defects will disappear. I feel like a kid on the night before Christmas...
I spent a little bit of time today working on the speaker and grill cloth. Both were quite dusty and it seems that some water got in somewhere a long time ago. The good news is that both cleaned up quite nicely. I used a soft toothbrush (my son's instead of my wife's , Jerry) and my air compressor. I was able to remove all of the caked on dust and both now look nice.
Here is a picture of the speaker after cleaning and the grille cloth before cleaning and trimming the stray strings of the burlap. The speaker cone itself seems quite thick by today's standards. The voice coil travels in and out without any scraping. What is the point of the two voice coils? Each measures a different impedance on my meter: the top (more wide spread) set of pins seems to measure between 4 and 6 ohms depending on frequency of measure and the bottom (more narrowly spread pins) seem to measure between 16 and 56 ohms (depending on frequency).
I also spent some time cleaning the escutcheon and knobs with goop. Both cleaned up pretty nicely. There are a few spots where the paint has given way to few small dots of rust or corrosion. You can also see two buttons that seemed to store the most favored radio stations since the paint is worn away around them.
The knobs also cleaned up nicely, but comparing the front of the knob to the back of the knob, it seems obvious that the knobs had some sort of shiny coating on them. I am not able to tell what material they are made from. How do you differentiate bakelite from plastic? They seem quite solid and heavy. No set screws for the knobs, just a gentle pull was all it took to remove them.
What is the best way to restore the shine to the knobs? The candidates to me seem to be clear coat paint or lacquer.
Everything here seems to be original, with the exception of a new power cord. The receiver is missing the tuning string and the tuning indicator. I found a source for the tuning string. Does anyone have a lead on where to find a tuning indicator?
I found some Howard's at the store this morning on my way into the office. I'll give it a try tonight and post the results.
In the mean time, I've started a thread over in the electronics restoration phorum for the other part of this project. Someone mentioned that I was tackling my projects in reverse order...
Seeing how the question was asked on this thread and it is chassis related, I will none the less answer it here.
On your speaker, you should have 4 wires going to it from the chassis. Your set has the speaker output transformer under the chassis and not on the speaker. (saves some wires). Two of the wires go to the speaker voice coil. The other two go to the speaker field coil. The field coil is used in the B+ power supply for filtering and the speaker for supplying a magnetic field so the speaker will function. No permanent magnet on that speaker.
As for tackling the project in "reverse" order I will say most going through the chassis first. Perhaps to see if there are any show stoppers that would indicated it would not be financially reasonable to restore the set. Makes no difference to me if you do the cabinet first. I will say the chassis will be a bit more of a challenge. Getting the cabinet nice will no doubt give you some confidence.
Jerry
A friend in need is a pest! Bill Slee ca 1970.
(This post was last modified: 08-26-2013, 03:54 PM by jerryhawthorne.)
Thanks for the speaker details, Jerry! What a clever design. Just after I asked that question, it dawned on me that I should have put that one in the electronics phorum.
I just finished with some Howard's and it did a VERY nice job! I used the Cherry colored one that I thought might be too light and it seems to be just a tad dark. Perhaps it is just the difference in the surface reflectivity that makes it look darker. I can still see where the surface of the lacquer was disturbed by whatever caused the spots, but the color match is excellent. That stuff is great!
I used an old washcloth and gently wiped it on and rubbed it in. When I was finished with the entire cabinet, I wiped it down with a dry cloth. I'll let it dry overnight to see how it looks tomorrow. I didn't have the nerve to use steel wool on the more rough spots just yet.
Now I'm torn between leaving it as it is and putting a top coat of shellac and lacquer on as you suggested. If I do spray it, does this require a spray guy for my compressor, or can you use spray cans?
The top image is from before I did anything at all (on the left) and after cleanup with Goop and some Howard's (on the right). Both are from roughly the same vantage point and both were lit by a flash.
The bottom image is looking down at the same side panel. You can still see the unevenness in the finish - not really a surprise, but I'm thinking I'd like to smooth this out a bit.
Overall, I'm REALLY impressed and happy with the results so far!
Nice job Eric, it certainly made a big difference. Personally on the checkered areas I would just leave them, nothing wrong with the lady showing some of her age. What ever you do, don't try going over that area with any abrasive without building up some of the surface with either shellac or lacquer. You don't want to cut into the high areas and remove the toner. Problem is that if you do those areas you may have to do the whole cabinet in an overcoat to get the "gloss" to look the same.
It certainly looks nice to me and you have the original finish. You only get that once!
Jerry
Took a closer look at the pictures around the dials and I think that taping that area off it could help in appearance and stability with the addition of a few coats of lacquer. I don't use spray cans but for an area this small they should work. Nice part is that the lacquer will fuse with the old. Try to keep the spray area as close to flat as you can to eliminate runs as you want to apply enough to allow it to wet the surface, don't just lay down a light mist. After 10 minutes or so, give it another round and that should do it. Let it dry for a couple days to see how it looks. Lacquer shrinks over time.
You may be able to find lacquer in a spray can (gloss) at your local hardware store. Just make certain the area your spraying is clean and dry. Of course a good wax job would also protect that area with probably a lot less work and assurance everything is going to match. From a few feet away and without a flash from a camera only you will notice that.
Regards, Jerry
A friend in need is a pest! Bill Slee ca 1970.
(This post was last modified: 08-26-2013, 08:18 PM by jerryhawthorne.)
Hmmm... Now I'm torn. My new set of knob decals arrived in the mail and I'm not sure that I want to use them. I am thinking that trying to coat just the area around the knobs with lacquer might cause more harm than good. It would be cool to use the decals and have them more easily readable, but I'm not sure that things would match when I was done. There is some appeal to keeping as much "original" as I can given the nice shape that it is in.
Jerry, I presume the wax you are referring to is Howard Feed-n-Wax?
Nice job and many others will have probably better ideas but dang, that thing is looking nice and a little wipe on with a proper color on the scratches will just make them disappear. 
Great job, Eric! See, you can do a lot with an original finish.
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