[MrFixr55]

Hi Antipodal,

I had a 62 Comet (actually, it was a friend's father's car. Body not great, but he got it in 1974 for $40. I put a rear end and an engine in it and it became his car. Original engine ran but burned lots of oil and blew by, rings were gone. was either the 144 or 170 I6. Put a 65 200 I 6 in it, big improvement. Would have gone with a 66 but I think that the bolt pattern was different. These were rather good engines. Fuel starved due to the integral intake manifold and puny carb, but good engines. His wife did not drive and after he died, I used the car and drove the widow to the store, doctor, etc. till I got my own car. Friend's sister's boyfriend sold it for $500 in 1980. I hope someone restored it. Had the 2 speed slush-box. Was the S22 model, had the nicer seats, was an upscale version of the Ford Falcon. I liked the chrome spoked steering wheel. Now, if it was the 63 with the 260 V8...
I never did have to work on the radio however. Most radios of this vintage allowed rear access to the PCB by taking covers off.

I would try signal tracing techniques. However, first check out the radio to see if the thermistor shown in the schematic exists in your radio. If so, try bypassing it. I believe that the 2N176 is socketed but you have to carefully desolder the other transistor. Maybe the heater voltage for the detector /1st AF tube is too low, that would cause low sound and distortion. Also, check all resistors in the transistor section of the circuit. You may have to remove the transistors. The 2 Xistors are germanium, I think. You can pull the 1st audio tube and, using a cap, inject a signal from a cd or MP3 player. Don't expect the cleanest sound; germanium transistors were not quite "HiFi". Working the other way, put the tube back in, and use a cap to connect the plate of the 1st AF to the line input of a tube type amp (Phono input on a vintage radio will suffice. Good AM sound should result. If not, start swapping tubes. and checking caps, resistors, etc. These are "space charge" tubes and were only used in the 58 - 62 model years for Ford (and a lot of others). Funny, Lincoln and T-Bird had all Xistor in 1961, Lincoln had FM available in 1962. Rest of Ford and Merc went all Xistor in 63. A 63 Falcon radio would be a bolt in fit for your Comet, if the same as US models of that vintage.

Regarding the board, there should not be too much heat damage from the tubes, they don't really run that hot. Foil can be glued down with either cyanoacrylate glue (Krazy Glue or Gorilla Glue in the US), Duco cement or a non-metallic epoxy. If foil is bad use solid wire and glue down with any non-conductive glue.

Hope this helps.