[kiwi_steve]

Just a quick update on this:

Cabinet:
I've finished the cabinet (finished is a relative term - its neither perfect nor 'restored' - I'd call it 'rejuvenated with patina'   Its not bad for a first attempt at cabinet recovery and its much better than it was.  I used locally available products - wood filler of a similar tone to fill the damaged bits and nail holes, shellac as a sanding sealer, then oxalic acid to remove the stain (as much as possible) - yes, I know... wrong way around.  I had already sealed it thinking I'd leave the stains then found some cheap Oxalic acid so tried it over the shellac thinking I could strip it all if needed but it cut straight through and did a reasonable job... once cleaned and dried I applied black Kiwi shoe polish to the rounded edges (on advice that it was a similar composition to furniture wax - so far so good) and buffed that off, leaving them slightly darker - the shellac or what was left of it presumably stopped it from intruding too deep into the timber.  Then a thinned black oil paint on a small brush to re-blacken the inside edges of the fretwork... this is the bit I'm least happy with and would take any advice on the best way to do it.  Once that was done I applied a red mahogany stain to the entire cabinet and 0000 steel wooled the cabinet to flatten it again once that had dried.  I finished the cabinet in a dark oak Briwax and buffed it out once done with a clean dry rag.

Big experiment, but reasonably happy with the result.  It wasn't perfect to start with, its now less imperfect

From this:
[Image: http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff222...hmavfu.jpg]

To this:
[Image: http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff222...2ippos.jpg]

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


Chassis:
This has consumed quite a bit of time and while not a full restoration its been an intensive rejuvination with a lot of elbow grease and some experimentation.  There is a full write-up on ARF but here are the highlights.  

New (old) transformer that actually looks right and fits (from a NZ model Gulbransen which I believe has its roots in the Montgomery Ward camp somewhere).  Voltages are pretty close, slightly low but I can live with that.  Rewired it with new wire then fitted it.  Replaced out of spec components and tidied up the initial rewire and recap I did.

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


I've re-wired the lights (because the wire looked grotty compared to the rest of the chassis) and replaced the grommets so it looks original (apart from the heatshrink), and if someone wanted to they could fit normal bulbs to it - but thats not what I did...

[Image: http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff222...u1pdzg.jpg]

Small bridge rectifier, 470uF electro, old bulb with the guts smashed out of it, 2 small sections of flexible 5V LED strip.  Heatshrink over the whole shebang... Fitted up it looks like this:

[Image: http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff222...snksm3.jpg]

I'll know better how it looks later tonight, but it seems to light relatively evenly (shining the LEDs sideways rather than from the back helped).  It was just an experiment, but its completely removable by just taking the bulb base out - everything is mounted on it... so I can put normal bulbs in it if I don't like the look.

And it looks like this now:

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

[Image: http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff222...v51lor.jpg]

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

There is still a few things to do.

- Find a couple of period correct electros to bolt in for appearances sake
- Polish the second tube shield.  I have a matching pair of NZ Columbus ones one of which is polished and fitted.  The scruffy one is (I think) original but I only have one of those... Its just fitted for alignment purposes.
- bolt in the padder... just remembered thats floating in the chassis - I took it out for derusting so I didn't fill it with vinegar.
- replace the wiring to the speaker and tidy the speaker up - job for another day
- replace my experimental dial cord/band.  Originally probably flat braid, I tried a wide hair band and 2 wraps of dial cord - neither is proving satisfactory.  I'll go buy some flat shoelaces later and try that.
- gill cloth in the cabinet.  I've cut it out to the right shape, just need to glue it in
- anything else I've forgotten.


Cheers

Steve