[kiwi_steve]

Thanks for posting.  I have one in great shape waiting in the queue, hoping it'll be an easy restore.

No problem, it was a pretty easy radio to work on - all except the dial 'string' on mine - which I assume should be a drive belt... one of the 4 wraps of string rolled off the pulley while I was doing the alignment and jammed in the mechanism... so I had to pop the little spring-rivets out of the dial and rotate it to get in with a small screwdriver (the needle wouldn't come off with what I deemed excessive force so I just worked around it) to un-jam it and work it back into place - at some point I will need to use the correct belt material...

[Image: http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff222...fvmugh.jpg]

 Chassis photos to come, but here is the cabinet mostly sanded

Please don't sand....
Lacquer thinner and #0000 steel wool will clean off every bit of finish without hurting/scratching/destroying the veneer.
Sanding takes off the Veneer and especially on the grill work as in your photos, it is sanding the edges and not the center of the grill pieces. If it is done too deeply, when stained, it will be darker in the center and wont take stain on the low areas... I almost NEVER sand a radio...

I don't see any issues on it so you didn't sand through.
It is a beautiful radio...

Kirk

Hi Kirk, thanks for that advice.  I will consider myself properly chastised and educated - I will not touch the cabinet again until I have some lacquer thinner - I have some 0000 steel wool here somewhere that I bought because I thought I might need it one day.  I used a rubbery sanding block (which I don't really like since it wrapped around the fretwork, attacking the edges harder - I'm going to retire it) and did not attack it too hard - and I was careful to try and not sand through - I just wanted to knock down the rough spots and try to even the tone of the wood a little... it worked but only to a very small degree.

steve
please start a post in cabinet restore

thanks sam

Hi Sam, I considered doing that but the title of that section is 'Philco Cabinet Restoration' - I didn't want to put another brand in there... but if thats where it should be I will gladly start a thread there for it.

Cheers 

Steve