[Ron Ramirez]

As the warm days of 2011 wind down, I've been busy refinishing quite a few cabinets. Here are my latest projects.

First of all, a "before" shot of a 53C cigar box pee-wee that was a wreck when I acquired it:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...before.jpg]

As you can see, it had multiple issues: part of the wood was missing at the top edge, veneer missing on the front panel, no knobs, torn grille cloth.

And now, the "after" photo of the same 53C:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum..._after.jpg]

I had a few extra medium rosette knobs, so two of them went onto the 53C. The cloth is #40 from Radio Grille Cloth Headquarters; not exactly the same as the original, but pretty close. The missing wood at the top edge was filled with Walnut wood filler. Overall, I think it turned out quite well.

I have not done anything with the chassis of the 53C yet.

Next up, a "before" shot of a 40-125.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...before.jpg]

Not terrible, but you can tell it was stripped and given a coat or two of clear lacquer (fortunately polyurethane was not used!).

Now, the "after" shot.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum..._after.jpg]

Here, the main body of the cabinet received Medium Walnut toner; the grille was sprayed with Medium Dark Walnut; and the top and bottom edges received Extra Dark Walnut toner as did the edge of the dial opening. It also has a new dial cover. I think it looks much better.

I completely recapped the chassis of this one while it was apart, adding a pushbutton assembly that was missing when I bought the radio. It plays very well.

Finally, here is a set I am kicking myself for not taking a "before" shot of - a 41-231 "Little Bullet."

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum/ARF/41231.jpg]

This thing was in really bad shape when I acquired it. The curved end on the left had pulled away from the base. The entire front panel had become delaminated. The chassis is very rusty. The entire set looked as if it had sat submerged about halfway in water at some point.

It was not easy to remove the front panel, because of the trim running horizontally below the pushbuttons; you can see at the right of this trim where I had to break the trim to get the panel out. The trim was probably applied at the factory after the panel was put into place. Amazingly, as bad as the front panel was, this trim was still tightly glued on and would not come off. Just my luck. Anyway, you'll have to take my word for it on this one - the ugly duckling became a beautiful swan after a lot of work.

And the work is not yet complete - I still have to redo the chassis.