[OldRestorer]

Looks good Mike,
I will have to follow your resto when I get to the 66 John gave me.

A+ (although that chassis looks a little dirty and the E-cap cover looks crappy... GEt It! Crappy...

Smart idea though

Kirk

[morzh]

Warren

I use regular hot glue....I tried to find the colored glue, tried Michaels, they got none.
If I ever get it, I will use the caramel colored one, then there will be no telling them apart.



Kirk,

I actually cleaned the holy crap out of the chassis, but I do not wirebrush it, I only use cleaners, like Windex, to lift dirt and alcohol.
Then I sanded one rust spot I had.
What you see is patina, it is not removable by cleaners, only by etching stuff like Naval Jelly, but then it will be shiny, I do not necessarily want it. Patina is an evidence of age and aged it is, 80 years old.

As for "crappy" - the crappy paper is inside, you do not see it, and on top is the original

What is kinda interesting to me is the dial.
It is intact and clean, but it is WAAAAY too dark, color of burnt sugar, and so even though I can see the light pointer and numbers, numbers are not prominent on this dark a dial.

Is the dial the same across 66 radios or is it ageing, or...?

[Radioroslyn]

Nice job Mike!! I've got a 66B ( the modern looking set not the B like baby grand. Kinda confusing) I picked up a few years ago. I was just able to find some replacement parts for the cabinet. The dial escutcheon was all but sanded off. On that set it's a little round job that is hard to find a replacement for. So now I think I have all the parts to get her going except for the hex knobs but I think I can find some at Ktown. Tnx for posting efforts as I need all encouragement I can get. So maybe when it gets cold out I'll jump on it.
Looking forward to seeing you in a few weeks!!
Terry

[morzh]

Terry

I also am looking forward to seeing y'all there.

As for 66 it only has two sixes, so it is not bad at all. Actually no worse than any small Philco radio, the single thing I did not like was that small mounting panel, like in 45, and it would be just fine but one bolt holding the tuning cap is under it and so you have to move it when changing the grommets etc.

Otherwise nothing extraordinary.

Remember this 75 tube wire - has to be inside the shield.....this is about it.

Oh...,and good thing is, if you need to clean your bandswitch, you do not need to remove it, the turning part will simply come out of the back, just bend out the wires and the mica cap out of the way.

[OldRestorer]

I have a cardboard cap cover you can have but it is black so you probably dont want it. Patina=lazy

I am actually starting to lighten up on cleaning the chassis too much. I am begining to feel the same way about the "patina"

Looks better all original but without rat crap and dust bunnies.

Wait... Is that the 66 chassis that goes in the cabinet I am doing?

I'll scuff it up a little so the patina matches

[morzh]

Here's a story about patina: about 9 or 10 years ago on "Antique roadshow" it was....

A guy found a large brass lamp in his attic. He cleaned it up and brought it in.

The expert tod him this:

First, he said, the good news: this lamp in this condition will pull about 30K on the right auction. (the guy's jaw started dropping).
Now he says, bad news: if you did not clean the patina off, it would be 90K.

So....be careful about cleaning old stuff, you could be cleaning lots of money right off.
(of course it works different with radios somewhat...still).

[OldRestorer]

That happened to me once about 8 years ago.

I got a great lamp that I thought someone had painted.
I stripped and restored it. I sold it online with before and after pics.
I got an email saying that if I had left it alone he would have paid triple for the lamp. He was not very nice about it either...

here it is:

[morzh]

Well, in this case I do not know, maybe what you did was restoring the original, but with antiques, as it is with everything, if you are not an expert, it pays to do research first and use stripper later.

In fact if anyone prefers non-original and is willing to pay, hey, you are selling it, it is his money, whatever maximizes the gain, he's the customer. (obviously there are limits and if I have a picture by Rafael and it is 100M and someone says that if I paint a black square over it he will pay me 200M, I won't...but this is no Rafael).