[Arran]

I just picked up two Philco's at Renningers, a model 37-610 and model 38-89. My question is about the plastic dial scales. The 38-89 appears very original and a light yellowish color. The 37-610 appears much darker and in one spot (probably left in the dial window over time) almost black. I restored a model 70 back a year ago and the dial scale was closer to the 38-89 in color, but was cracked so I got a reproduction dial from Radio Daze. That dial is very nice but is a much lighter beige color.

My questions are: does anyone know what the color the dials were when new? Does the Radio Daze reproductions come close to the original color, and is there any way to clean or treat the original dials to lighten them?

Thanks,

Steve D

The story I heard is that the only way to clean these was with mineral spirits, water will wash the numbers off almost instantly on most of the 1936-38 dials, I would test anything on an edge of the dial where it can not be seen, like where the part number or alignment marks are.
Best Regards
Arran