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Well, I've finally done it. I've started restoring my first radio. It's a 1935 GE model A-65 that I picked up at the same time as my Philco 40-190, mainly because I felt so sorry for it. Thankfully I paid almost nothing for it. I decided to start with it for three reasons. First, it has a fairly simple chassis that shouldn't present many problems for a radio restoration amateur. Second, it needs a fair amount of cabinet restoration, allowing me to get some practice in before I tackle other more valuable radios. Third, it isn't particularly collectible so if I screw it all up it's no big loss. This will take a while for me to finish up as I have a fairly limited amount of time to spend working on it, but I'll try and post regular updates.
So without further ado, I present to you my poor, tired, battleship gray A-65:
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...3bd0f5.jpg]
Notice the lovely choice of grill cloth! Here's a close up for your viewing displeasure:
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...6b715a.jpg]
As you can see I have my work cut out for me. Here's the radio gutted and ready for stripping:
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...1d0ad9.jpg]
I was hoping that the gray paint was latex based, so I tried to strip it with denatured alcohol. That didn't work at all, it just cleaned the paint really well. I quickly realized I was in oil base territory so I switched over to using Zinsser Magic Strip gel. So far I like how it works. It supposedly has a citrus smell to it, although if any citrus fruit I was planning on eating smelled like that I would quickly throw it away. It doesn't smell as bad as the strippers of old though and I can use it in my basement workshop which as you can imagine isn't all that well ventilated. Here's what it looked like after round 1:
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...512363.jpg]
Primer eh? I see how you want to play this. Fine. More stripping gel!!!
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...fbab5c.jpg]
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...a66248.jpg]
So after round two it didn't look much better. I only let the stripper sit for about 2 hours. Obviously it was going to take longer. This time I laid it on thick and waited until the next day, about 21 hours or so.
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...aa07bf.jpg]
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...fdf8e7.jpg]
Now it's starting to look like an old radio again! Maybe there is some hope for it yet! Again, I'll try and keep updating this on a regular basis. I have some more progress already, but that's enough for tonight.
(This post was last modified: 02-25-2013, 07:04 AM by jontz.)
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Yeah... the grillcloth seems like it used to be a curtain at some point of its life. Or aspired to be one.
Anyways, good job on striping the paint. How's the chassis going?
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Thanks! It's been a lot of work so far, but it's rewarding to see it start to come back to life. I haven't even started on the chasis yet. It's complete though and not rusty, so it shouldn't be too bad. I'll include the chassis restoration in this thread once I get that far.
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What was it with off-white painting jobs on old radios? I have an oldtimer working with me, also an EE, and he showed me a photo of his youth where he is about 15 and stands leaning against an old floor Philco painted all white.
Did the natural finishes at some poit start getting out of fashion so people felt compelled to paint over when maybe doing renovations at their places?
Looks stupid too!
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The choice of grillecloth isn't as bad as some I've seen, If it were dyed brown it would look fairly appropriate in a radio, though not that radio. Brown burlap, tan burlap, red, green, or blue velvet, corduroy, plaid shirts, terrycloth towels, old drapes, I've seen it all.
As for paint stripper I've never been happy with most of the safe strippers I've tried, some of those old paint concoctions you run into won't comer off with anything short of methylene chloride paint stripper or acetone. I actually like the design of this set, while not elaborate it is still a nice, clean, design with nice inlaid veneer. It also still has at least two of the original knobs I think.
Regards
Arran
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Morzh,
I don't know what the deal was with people painting old radios. I blame home style magazines though. They often have articles about giving your old furniture new life by painting it. I can't see how anyone would think that what they did to this radio was attractive though.
Arran,
I've used more harsh chemicals in the past and they do work more quickly, but this stuff doesn't stink up the house and seems to work just as well if you give it enough time. I like the design of this set as well. Like you said it isn't elaborate but it is a nice, clean design. It just has that "something" about it. It does indeed have two original knobs. I'll have to see about coming up with a couple more. From other pictures I've seen all four were the same.
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Is the stripper leaving the original finish intact? Looks that way in last picture.
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Jontz
Bad taste is still a taste...I guess this was (and still is) the reason.
Then again, de gustibus no est disputandum.
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dixierat,
Nope. The stripper took the original finish off as well. To be honest, it might have been partially stripped by the person who painted the radio as there was a fair amount of paint down in the grain of the wood that wouldn't have been there had they painted over the original lacquer. The next pics will make that more apparent.
morzh,
Bad taste is like pornography. I can't define it, but I know it when I see it 
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This weekend I had some time to go at the cabinet with some 0000 steel wool and stripping gel. It's starting to clean up nicely, but it's not without some problems. First off, someone decided to sand against the grain with what must have been 60 grit:
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...fd0f64.jpg]
The paint I hadn't gotten to yet made it look a little worse than it really is, but I'll definitely have to do some careful sanding. With a little elbow grease I was able to get most of the paint out of the grain.
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...319aea.jpg]
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...d37c81.jpg]
Before I can go any farther though I'm going to need to do some veneer repair. Any sanding beforehand will probably end in tragedy.
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...270f5b.jpg]
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...e78db2.jpg]
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...76536d.jpg]
That's as far as I've gotten for now. I'll definitely have to spend some time with wood glue and clamps. Unfortunately I also need to do the same for our dining room table and my wife would like that done first. If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!  On the bright side maybe it's a good excuse to go buy more clamps. It seems you can't ever have enough of them.
I also need to find a way to clean out any stripper that got underneath the veneer. Maybe some mineral spirits will do the trick.
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Definitely coming along well. I like the looks of that radio myself for some reason. I think my friend has the matching tombestone style radio to that console he loves to listen to.
As far as the paint goes, it seems once the 50's hit, that people seemed to suddenly hate anything natural looking. It all had to suddenly be bright colored or at least super clean and sterile looking for some odd reason. They did the same with old buildings, bolting horrid looking steel facades over what were (and sometimes still are once the steel is pulled off) beautiful looking brick and stonework.
No matter where you go, there you are.
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Well, I've made a little more progress. Time has been a precious commodity lately and I haven't spent as much time at the workbench as I would like.
There's been a lot of veneer damage to this cabinet over the years. It was hard to find a spot on the side where the veneer wasn't split or coming off of the radio. So there's been a lot of this:
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...7c3d61.jpg]
And this:
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...3a2627.jpg]
And this:
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...207784.jpg]
The cabinet was actually pulling apart at the bottom. I was able to pull it almost all the way back together. After the glue sets up a little creative filling will hide most of the problem.
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...7f5f32.jpg]
So while the cabinet was all clamped up with no where to go I decided to turn my attention to the chassis. Its dirty and much of the wiring will need to be replaced. I'll also have to get up close and personal with a lot of Brasso. At least it's all there!
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...25fe9b.jpg]
Dirty dirty:
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...6bab5b.jpg]
Old wiring. Can't wait to get started on that! 
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...d05409.jpg]
I started off by removing the tuning condenser. It was super dirty and greasy. It was partially covered in a grease that resembled axle grease in consistency. I wiped it down as much as I could:
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...28dae2.jpg]
I dunked it in the ultrasonic cleaner with some lukewarm water and dish washing detergent and ran it 4 times at 8 minutes. It came out much cleaner, but not perfect. The heavy grease was not going to be defeated so easily, but that didn't shock me. I'll pick up some Purple Power and let it soak for a bit. Still, I'm pretty happy with the ultrasonic cleaner, it got in between all of the plates really well:
[Image: http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/...737a4a.jpg]
That's it for now. Not a lot pf progress, but much of it is the slow process of clamp and wait, clamp and wait. My next post should show some significant progress on the chassis.
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Grease is dissolved very well by fuels: gasoline or kerosene. We used gasoline / alcohol mix to clean up electronics in industry back when I serviced NC tools in the USSR.
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Good point. Now that you mention it I remember using gasoline for dissolving grease on engine parts and such. I have no idea why I didn't think about it here. I guess I don't associate gasoline and old radios
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I have seen several posts on soaking variable capacitors in vinegar overnight, but haven't tried it.
I like to tighten down the trimmers and note how many turns and partial turns needed for each one. Then you can back them out all the way and carefully remove the mica, and clean everything. assemble again and back off same number and partial turns you wrote down and you will be very close to original settings. Any slight difference will be taken care of when you do the realignment, which will certainly be needed anyway.
Whatever you don't put gasoline, paint thinner or alcohol in an ultrasonic, and do your work outside if you need to use those solvents.
Of course bearings and bushings will have to be lubed when you are all done. I use a tiny amount of lithium grease and a tiny amount of WD40, applied with a toothpick.
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