So I have a customer who is looking to restore a 1935 Packard "radio control head" and I need some technical information regarding the materials used for the (yellow/amber?) translucent plastic radio dial inside the housing (the Philco part # is 27-5247, with a designation of either P-1421 or P-1422). It looks like some sort of laminate to me. Do any of you know what material they used or have access to technical documents or at least be able to point me in the right direction? Haven't been able to find any for sale so we might need to make one... (My background is in machining and manufacturing processes not radio components).
I doubt the manufacturing specs for that dial still exist. Not sure what the original is but if you need a new one it will likely need to be made from modern materials that mimic the look you want and still have the physical properties you need. You can contact RadioDaze to see if they might have done something like this or might be able to custom make what you need. They produce reproduction radio dials and graphics as their business. The other possibility is to find another P-1421 to use as a donor but I suspect that will be a difficult task as the auto radios are more difficult to find that home radios of the period.
Perhaps some of our other members have a better idea of the original material.
