[Ron Ramirez]

I've been restoring arcade cabinets for years. I'm not an amateur, and I don't do things like buy a Honda and stick some flames on the sides and put an M3 badge on the back haha.

No, but what you are doing is akin to buying a Harley-Davidson and trying to shoehorn a Honda motor and drivetrain into it.

<editorial>

Funny, I was just having an email discussion about the future of the antique radio hobby with a friend of mine recently.

My friends, you see here with your own eyes the future of the antique radio hobby. Too many of the big console sets are destined to be butchered into touch-screen computerized thingys that completely destroy the historical significance of a vintage radio.

And when all of the consoles are gone, what's next? iPhone-size screens in what used to be table model radios?

I see stuff like this and, really, it makes me wonder why I am wasting so much of my time and so many of my favorite dollars carefully restoring my Philcos when I now know that the next generation is going to butcher all of my hard work.

Sorry, JROZ, you won't find a sympathetic audience here. My friend, I am afraid you do not know the meaning of the term restoration. And I really don't mean to be picking on you, but most of us are quite passionate about this hobby and the old radios we enjoy. It's about preserving history. When it's gone, it's gone. Your way of doing things makes me think of the "urban renewal" projects of the 1960s in which we lost many, many historical older buildings. These old buildings of the late 1800s and very early 1900s represented a style of architecture that shall not return.

</editorial>

Your last post just came up as I prepared to post this one. I'm willing to turn my back on a 38-3 or a 38-7, if the cabinet is empty and in rough shape. But not a 38-116, one of the best radios Philco ever produced, or a 38-2. I know this sounds like I'm contradicting myself...but I also know you kids are going to continue to do this, regardless of what us old geezers say. And if you're going to do it, better it be done to a rough, empty cabinet that has little collector value than a set that is collectible and restorable.