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1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration (DONE) - Printable Version

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1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration (DONE) - OldRestorer - 01-18-2014

Hey all,

This is my first radio restoration and I wanted to share.
I have been restoring furniture for 15 years but never touched a radio and boy is it different with all the grain filling and toning.

Here is my radio:
           

RE: 1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration - OldRestorer - 01-18-2014

So I have been working on cutting away the old veneer and stripping the cabinet with #0000 steel wool and lacquer thinner.

Coming along slowly:

       

Ill skip the clamping since there was like 6 different gluing pics:

I am now up to matching the veneer:
           

RE: 1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration - VntgRads - 01-18-2014

That console looks like a challenge but definitely one that you seem to have the upper hand on. Your experience in furniture restoration will sure be valuable here. Keep the pictures coming! Nice job so far.

Craig R.

RE: 1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration - OldRestorer - 01-18-2014

Well I have finished veneering the sides, curve, and top.
I sanded and spot stained to match the colors. I have gotten them close but the toner will fill in the rest of the color.

       

This one should have been more angled but after I lightened it a little it matched better:
   

RE: 1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration - Arran - 01-18-2014

But why use large rectangular patches with square edges ? No matter what you do to it finish wise that straight line joint with the old veneer will always show, since it's perpendicular to the grain. When you have that much veneer damage sometimes it's better to strip the remains of the old veneer off and start over.
Regards
Arran

RE: 1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration - OldRestorer - 01-19-2014

Yeah I was going to but I wanted to keep it as original as possible. It was only 11 " high and the cabinet side is 46" high. I grain filled the cabinet yesterday morning early:
   

I could not sleep last night so I got to toning and sanding. She is looking much better today and you cant see the repairs. I used perfect brown and walnut toners.
Now all I have to do it give her a light #0000 sanding and get her under 3 coats on Mohawk clear lacquer.

   

Thanks for the comments Craig, I will update the post as I get the work done. May be a few days since I have furniture work to do.

Kirk L

RE: 1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration - Scott_Fraser - 01-21-2014

That sure has come out nice so far. I really like how the two veneers contract with that center band.

I'm looking forward to seeing how you were able to blend the old and new veneer on the bottom of the left side.

Sure is looking pretty.

RE: 1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration - OldRestorer - 01-21-2014

Thanks Scott,
I am waiting for my mew shipment of toner and will update when I get them toned and lacquered. Toning 5 radios at once is very smelly in my unventilated basement. lol Icon_wtf Then I get to put the chassis back in and thanks to a friend i Have the dial ring finally!
Here she is before I got started:

   

Kirk L

RE: 1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration - morzh - 01-21-2014

Looks nice. I am pretty sure she smells nice too.

RE: 1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration - OldRestorer - 02-02-2014

Ok She is done!
All I need to do is put the chassis back in!

RE: 1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration - morzh - 02-03-2014

Certainly very nice. Ausgezeichnet!

RE: 1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration - OldRestorer - 02-03-2014

ich danke Ihnen sehr!

RE: 1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration - morzh - 02-03-2014

It's good to be danked Icon_lol

RE: 1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration - Tom Hamilton - 02-06-2014

Kirk,
That looks beautiful! I'm so impressed! I wish I could do work like that.

I've got a 116X that looks pretty sad, but before I jump into that, my woodworking skills need to improve.

Tom

RE: 1st radio ever, Philco 37-640 restoration - Chuck Schwark - 02-06-2014

Arbeit macht das Rundfunk süß.

Nicht wahr?

8)

Chuck