[Joeztech]

Phlogiston;

I did not waste any time getting the mouse nest material out of the building. I felt absolutely contaminated from the scraping exercise and had to go in and shower and shampoo to get rid of the smell.

Your thoughts seem to echo mine. Like you, I am reluctant to use anything which would really penetrate the wood. Shellac or polyurethane varnish do a pretty good job of sealing wood against odors. I had to tear a wall apart in one house I owned years ago and strip out the insulation, vacuum out roach poo and then used Kilz oil base primer followed by shellac to seal out odors. Then fiberglass insulation was installed and new sheetrock followed that along with textoning and primer plus new paint. It had been a long standing odor proplem, but the process I followed did the job. Shellac or varnish can also be used to stop a spreading water stain on a sheetrock ceiling or wall. Of course the source of the water has to be found and stopped first. Then after the shellac it can be repainted and the stain will not reappear.

Of course a radio cabinet is somewhat different. One possible solution would be to remove the existing plywood shelf the chassis sits on and cut a new piece of plywood, then use it as a template to drill the right size and position of holes in the new plywood shelf, install it and seal and repaint it using the correct flat brown paint that Philco used. I need to recheck the shelf and see how it is attached. I seem to remember seeing a row of wood screws along the front connected to a horizontal brace that the speaker panel is fastened to underneath, I will take some pictures of the inside of the cabinetm, the chassis etc. and post them.

I will see if I can get a piece of inside bracing wood loose to take in for color analysis at a local paint store.

Joe