Restoration Notebook: A Destroyed 32B Becomes a "Super" 89
The Philco Model 32 was designed for operation on 32 volts DC, which was used on some farms in the 1930s. The chassis is based on the Model 89, with some changes to allow the set to operate on 32 volts DC. The main change was the addition of a separate vibrator power supply, whcih was housed in a heavy metal container placed above the radio chassis.
The particular 32B that is the subject of this story is a mid-season 1935 model, and was introuduced in January 1935.
It started out nice enough.
I spotted a decent looking Philco 32B tombstone on an online auction site. I felt it would be a good addition to my collection, as I did not have a 32-volt Philco set.
I won the auction, and looked forward to receiving this neat tombstone.
The photo above shows a typical late 1935 32B (another model I formerly owned, which was identical to the subject of this story). The set in the photos above and immediately below is not the same radio I won on the auction site.
A back view of a typical late 1935 Model 32B.
Good grief! The set was destroyed in shipping!
This photo and the one immediately below show the resultant damage inflicted by UPS.
Sad. Very sad. The power supply has come loose from its wooden supports on one side and has fallen down on the radio chassis, taking out a couple tubes in the process. The top broke loose, The left shoulder broke loose. The left front trim came loose. Two grillebars were broken out. It really was destroyed!
Fortunately, UPS paid off on the claim, so I received a refund.
I did not know initially what to do with the leftover mess.
Luckily for me, the chassis was not severely damaged. And I was even luckier when I found another, identical, 32B tombstone cabinet. I bought it and transferred the chassis and speaker from the destroyed 32B cabinet to the good one. (See the first two photos above on this page.)
Eventually, I sold the 32B in the good cabinet. But I could not bring myself to throw away the damaged cabinet.
So...I made the decision to try and salvage the damaged cabinet, thinking that it would make a nice home for an 89 chassis.
The first thing I did was to glue the left front trim back in place. I would later discover that I glued it a tiny bit lower than it had been originally. More on that later.
In the photo above, you can see that I have begun the process of repairing the broken grille bars.
As you can see in the above photo, a lot of work remains to be done. The left shoulder and top need to be glued back on. The wooden supports that held the 32 volt power supply need to be glued back in place. And I will need to add a piece of quarter-round trim to the top front to replace the trim piece that was missing.
Back view of the 32B cabinet. You can see where the wooden supports that held the 32 volt power supply came off on the right side.
Some time passed before I decided to kick this project into high gear in 2008. In the photo above, I've added a piece of quarter-round to replace the top molding which was missing.
I have also glued the broken left shoulder and top back into place, as well as the wooden supports for the power supply.
Another back view of the cabinet. Everything has been glued back together at this point. Here, I am still working on stabilizing one of the grillebars, as you can see at the left of the grillework.
Some sanding...some veneer patching, chiefly in the grillebars where they were broken...
...and slowly, the 32B begins to look like a complete radio cabinet once again.
I had to fill some cracks in the wood where the left shoulder was broken. Fortunately, since this area will be toned with Extra Dark Walnut toning lacquer, the filler should not be visible.
In this photo, I have toned the top, sides and front trim with Extra Dark Walnut toning lacquer. The repairs to the grille bars are nearly complete; all I have to do now is match the colors to the original front panel.
If you look closely at the picture above, you can see that the left trim does not match up with the left shoulder. As mentioned above, I accidentally glued the left trim on slightly lower than it should have been. But at this point, I decided to leave it as is, as sort of a "character" mark.
At this point, let's set the cabinet aside and find out what I did about a chassis...
UGH. This derelict hulk of a defunct radio furnished the chassis I am going to use in this project. I saved the escutcheon from this cabinet for a possible future project. It turned out handy that I had it, as I later found a good 89B cabinet for another 89 chassis which I had.
Yes, this is the chassis which came from the 89B above that was in such terrible condition. As you can see, the chassis is nearly as bad as the cabinet was.
Back view of the rough 89 chassis. It looks terrible, but at least it has almost all of its tubes.
Here is what that 89 chassis looked like underneath.
In the photo above, I have begun to remove everything from the rusted 89 chassis. The plan was to remove the rust and paint the chassis, then reassemble.
Notice how I put the parts in two Ziploc bags, as seen to the left of the chassis.
Now, everything save for the tube sockets have been removed. These, too, will be removed from the chassis.
The chassis was cleaned by sanding, scraping, grinding with a wire wheel attached to a Dremel tool...whatever it took to get the job done.
Then, it was painted with flat gray primer.
Back view of the primed chassis.
An underside look at the primed chassis.
The priming was follwed by a few coats of Krylon satin nickel paint. The satin nickel looks very good on this chassis.
After the paint dried, everything was reassembled. One major change was made - a seven-pin socket was installed where the 36 tube had been, for use with a 6A7 tube. The oscillator coil was rewound to the specifications of a Model 18 oscillator coil.
This is the heart of my "Super 89" modification. I had already done this mod to a "rust bucket" 71 chassis, with excellent results. My plan all along was to try this mod on a Model 89.
Here, the chassis has been completely rebuilt, using new capacitors, new resistors (except for the B-C bias resistor), and new wiring.
You cannot tell by looking that this chassis has been modified.
Well, yes, the power transformer is different. The original one was toasted and unusable.
The speaker, also salvaged from the junk 89B, was also rusted and had a bad cone. Fortunately, the field coil and audio output transformer were still good! So the frame was carefully sanded, primed, and painted satin nickel. I then reconed the speaker.
In the photo above, the 89 is playing merrily away on the workbench. It sounds great!
The aluminum coil shields on the chassis were polished with Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish.
The tube shields were sanded, primed, and painted satin nickel to match the chassis.
I picked up a set of hex knobs at a swap meet. The hex knobs will match the 32B cabinet perfectly.
Above, you can see how the "Super" 89 chassis looks underneath.
I actually wired this radio to match a Model 19, Code 128. Only no shadowmeter is used.
The 19-128 used a power transformer which supplied a higher B+ voltage; as a result, the audio output of the 19-128 was rated at 5 watts compared to 3 watts for the 89. The replacement power transformer I used in this chassis also supplies a higher B+ voltage so this "Super" 89 will also enjoy this benefit.
Changes from the 19-128 chassis:
I added a tone control potentiometer in place of the original two-point tone control switch.
And, of course, that 6A7 oscillator circuit in place of the original 36 autodyne oscillator.
The 19-128 had a different chassis layout; it used terminal boards in place of many of the bakelite blocks. However, the layout I used gives the appearance of an original 89 even though it has been modified.
Notice also how the electrolytic capacitors were rebuilt to give the appearance of original electrolytics.
The finished product! I could have done a better job refinishing the top and sides of the cabinet; the flaws do not show in the photo above, but they are very evident when looking at the cabinet.
With the higher audio output and the tone control potentiometer, this set is capable of sounding like a much larger console radio. Very mellow!
Back view of the restored "Super" 89. It looks somewhat empty back here without the separate power supply, doesn't it?
Interested in Converting Your 89's Oscillator Circuit?
If you would like to convert your 71, 91, 89 or 19 to use a 6A7 oscillator circuit, I have placed the directions on a separate page:
