The Restoration of my old Philco Radio
As a child, I spent countless hours sitting in front of our old Philco. I can't remember when it came into our home, but it had to have been around 1945, and it had to have come into our home as a 'used' radio; my parents could have not afforded to purchase such a radio new! The radio made many moves with us and I can remember my family still having it in 1957; after that, I have no idea where it went.
The death of both of my parents this past January caused me to renew my efforts to find an old Philco identical to the one we used to have. Through an internet Forum, and other resources, it was easy for me to identify the old family Philco as a 41-280... now I could start an intellegent search!
A couple of months ago, I located one in Austin, Texas and my son was gracious enough to pick it up for me and bring it to the Fort Worth area. I immediately set about the restoration process... I would "restore" the cabinet, and Randal Walls, of Texas Vintage Audio in San Angelo, Texas would restore the chassis.
In my restoration of the cabinet, I completely disassembled the whole thing! The curved side panels had to be completely re-veneered as did a couple of the top pieces. The old finish was a lost cause, so I did my best to achieve a decent effect with stains after laboriously removing all the original finish with acetone-soaked paper towels. I know that my work will probably offend those who are the real 'purist' in this hobby (and rightly so!), but I worked within my abilities and the end product satisfies my sensibilties. And that's good enough for me. I tried to make my own call letters 'tabs,' but frankly, they aren't very good... perhaps I can find some originals on eBay or somewhere. Also, I am missing four of the little oval-head screws that hold the eschutchon to he front panel... that may turn out to be a real 'quest.'
Mr. Walls did a great - and remarkably thorough - job with the electronics... I am deligted! It plays very well... I can't wait to hook up a long wire antenna and see how it behaves on SW.
Yesterday, I married the freshly restored cabinet with the resurrected electronics... it is now a treasure for me and my wife!
Cheers!
Rob
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