Interest check: Antique radio MP3 players/iPod docks

[Johnny B]

Silver like chrome mirror silver, or just sparkly gray?

I found this on the internet as an art deco colour pallette; I like these colours:

Anyway the resin has set and the case now looks like this:

which doesn't look all that hot but once it's filed, sanded, patched, primed and painted should look worlds above what it first looked like. PS that dark line in the second picture isn't a raised section it's just the stripped paint on the joint

And that's all the work I can put in for the next few days, they have me run ragged at work due to the long weekend here in Canada so once I'm back home in my workshop progress on this and the wood Rogers radio will just speed up on by. Right now I'm trying to find a good pair of speakers to replace the insides with.


To help pass the time I'll tell the story of how I came into possession of these radios:

A friend of a friend of a friend (honestly there are quite a few degrees of separation here) inherited his father's radio collection some time back. This was a fairly substantial collection. There were about 300 radios, dating back from about 1919 up to 1962. There was everything in there- refrigerator sized consoles and over designed bakelitle streamlined cases.

At some point he needed money and was not doing anything with these radios except keeping them in a damp basement so the whole thing got picked over by collectors. All the most desireable radios were taken and the remainder were cannibalize for tubes, capacitors and whatever other electronics they could salvage from them

Thereafter the remainder was shoved into a storage unit and forgotten about. When I learned about them I asked if I could have a couple (for the purposes of rebuilding them as described in this thread) and asked for a bakelite one and a wood one and got these two.

The little green Philip radio's story is esepcially tragic; it was painted a horrible green at some point, then crushed when another giant tabletop was stacked on top of it.

I hate to see the last remnants of good design die in a storage locker, being eaten by water damage and father time so I hope (well, I know) that there are people here who can give these guys a new home as I fix them

 

["Skeet" McD]

To help pass the time I'll tell the story of how I came into possession of these radios...I hate to see the last remnants of good design die in a storage locker, being eaten by water damage and father time so I hope (well, I know) that there are people here who can give these guys a new home as I fix them

Well, Johnny, that's quite a story, and thanks for sharing it with us. I doubt I'm the only one here who likes your approach to this project very much. Like they say: "they ain't making 'em any more"...and many folks would just look at this as so much trash; that seems to have been the take of the collectors who cherry-picked.

I'll be grateful to you, whether I end up with one of these numbers or not. And so will all the folks who own them for who knows how long, after you pass them on to us.

Cordially and Respectfully,
"Skeet"

 

[J.J. Gittes]

Good work with the Green Phillips. It pays off to see something that looks like a basket case come back to life and put to use. I think it would look good in a dark blue.
Keep Em' Coming!

 

[Talbot]

Nice project, looks like you have a lot of support here. I'd hold off talking $$ until you know what your costs are IMHO.

I have a couple of portable radios from the late 40's through to the late 50's that I have been threatening to do this to, but can't bring myself to gut them.

Go for it, and post the finished results, please.

 

[Firefyter-Emt]

Might I make a suggestion too? I have been thinking about making something like this for my office computer speakers. I am not into Ipods much, but I stream a lot of audio in my home office. If one could be made to use a small amp with RCA inputs, then a cable that runs RCA-1/8" stereo can hook to a sound card. I plan to do this with a larger Philco console one day, but this might be a good option for these too. One would look great on a desk hooked as computer speakers.

 

[Johnny B]

One can be made with any sort of output jack as long as I had access to them and spliced them over the 3.5mm jack most speakers use

 

[CherryRed]

I think that green one would look smashing in red......and perfect for my kitchen.

 

[Johnny B]

The experiment was a failure

I have learned a few things this weekend. Namely, radio restoration is both a) very difficult, b) very time consuming and c) very expensive

I worked on my two little radios trying to do my best with them but the more I worked on them the more it was apparent they were never going to be showroom condition again.

The wooden Majestic had actually had its cracks filled with hot glue at some point in its life and this absolutely destroys any chance of a good looking restoration. I will show some pictures of the process and where I am now:


First I sanded the veneer down as far as I could and glued down the blisters that had occured from water damage in the top veneer and filled the various missing bits with plastic wood:

Then I sanded the radio 6 times using 6 different grains of sandpaper until the original veneer was long gone and the wood was as smooth as silk:

Then 3 hand rubbed coats of dark walnut varnish. Hand rubbing is incredibly tiring as you have to buff the hell out of the wood and really get that stain down in there. This is when I noticed the most problems:

Namely, the blisters I secured down and filled show up as the stain works its way under the veener, making it look a little "bloody". Second, the veneer on the side of the radio was from a different lot than the front! It stained slightly differently, almost a very dark oak versus walnut. Third and most noticable was the hot glue filling. Obviously it's not going to take to stain because there's no more porous surface to soak into nor wood grain so it comes out a very dark brown

The other problem with the radio is that the plastic dial window had yellowed and clouded over a long time ago. I attempted to make a new one but my vacuuforming skills are... well, nonexistant and I couldn't quite get the hang of it so I cleaned the original window up as best I could and took maybe 4 shades of stain off. The dial face cleaned up gorgeously. Right now the radio looks like a well preserved antique, not new. It's like a 200 year old piano: stains and darkening and repairs to the wood show but the colour is rich enough that it looks like it's been maintained for those 2 centuries.

I hand polished the wood with just a hint of clear wood coat until the natural wood "glows". In sunlight it's almost phospohrescent, glowing with an otherworldly light. The last bit to do is install the new electronics but that's never an issue.

Overall I am not happy with this wood radio. I do not like the stain on it because of a) the horrible past repairs and b) the differences in the veneers and c) the irrepairability of the plastic parts

This prototype will look great in a 30s decor or trash can

The bakelite radio also did not turn out very well

Here is the top of the case, fit back together with the hole patched and the seams resined:

And then sanded down, again the 6 times strategy until you could ice skate on it

Unfortunately the top, which was in pieces originally, would not smoothen out completely. This became evident during the priming and painting phase. Here is the radio with its first 5 coats:

One can see the seamlines in the light. Try as I might they could not be tamed so I did what I could with the rest of this salvage operation.


The final radio, after 10 coats of gloss cherry red, enamel coat and oven baking. The dials were done in a lovely cream that cost me $7 for a tiny can the size of my fist

And the top in indoor lighting. Again the seams and cracks show through; an obvious and amateur repair job

Overall I rate it a 3/10

So now I've learned that radio restoration is just not my thing but I don't want to give up and I don't want this storage shed of radios being taken to the dump or burned or crushed so here's the news:

I'm going to buy the best dozen or so examples of his collection which are mostly wood at this point. Take the best cathedrals and tombstones as well as the best smallest units I can find (smaller units are infinitely easier to place) and I will clean them. Not restore them because I'm neither good nor prepared to do so, but clean them as best as can be. I will refit their empty chassis with my modern components (which I AM good at and is fairly easy to do). I will replace pieces as necessary (ie new buttons, dial faces and winows, feet, grille cloth etc). Then I will assemble them into modern mp3 player docks/stereos as I promised and will sell them off for essentially cost, so radio + speakers (which I get wholesale so they cost like 7 bucks) + maybe 10 bucks profit which will keep the costs affordably low.

This way these radios get saved, find new homes for those who want them, become useful again but at the same time do not end up costing 50+ bucks, get destroyed during a clumsy restoration or take up 3 full days of my time. If anyone is still interested in this idea you can email me, pm me or just say so and I will sell them off as I retrofit them. I am not willing to charge for a full resto job because I believe it's unfair to even ask for money for these things if this is the sort of end result but this way I still can manufacture a product and maybe make an extra month's rent if I spend a week fitting them all with new electronics and wax and fresh buttons.

So to recap: These two radios constitute, to me, a failure but I've retool my strategy and will be using only 8+ on a scale of 1-10 condition radios, refit them and charge essentially cost which would end up being roughly 30-40 bucks depening on the radio (which is the biggest cost unfortunately). If nobody here bites I will stick them on eBay and be done with them; I just do not, do NOT want to see these gorgeous relics of the art deco era disappear to the landfill to become little more than bakelite and wood as ugly, horrible, cheap walmart entertainment systems replace the last elements of style in this world.

 

["Skeet" McD]

The experiment was a failure ...
...If anyone is still interested in this idea you can email me, pm me or just say so and I will sell them off as I retrofit them....So to recap:...I've retooled my strategy and will be using only 8+ on a scale of 1-10 condition radios, refit them and charge essentially cost which would end up being roughly 30-40 bucks depening on the radio (which is the biggest cost unfortunately). If nobody here bites I will stick them on eBay and be done with them

What a sad, but noble story. Thanks for being interested enough to do what you've done. I'm as sorry for you--feeling your time was invested in a failure--as I am for us, hoping for the best....

But: at least someone here is interested, and I doubt I'll be the only one. As you'll understand all too well at this point, the final condition of the piece will be the deciding factor....but yes, I'm still interested in one of the 1930s pieces.

"Skeet"

 

[Johnny B]

Thanks for your kind words Skeet. I've got a 30s wood tabletop special in mind just for you

 

[Wil Tam]

Hey Johnny B

Great effort!

you can try this if you like to remove the hot glue from wood ... place the whole unit into the freezer for about an hour, this should freeze the glue so that you can safely remove it if not break out your dremel and drill it out, don't worry it should be fine, once you cleaned up the glue you can use some wood putty to fill the space, then sand and stain the whole unit till it is some what even in color sand then repeat until you have the color you want then varnish with a couple of thin coats

good luck

 

[scottyrocks]

I'd be interested in one.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

The red one could be saved with the careful use of body filler like Bondo™, along with some final edge feathering with spot putty.

Filling, sanding, and edge feathering, just takes some practice.

 

[Edward]

I'd be very interested! This is a great idea to re-use something that would otherwise sit on a shelf for eternity!

Absolutely. you may have had a discouraging first go, but it seesm to me like a project worth persevering with. Myself, what I'm really keeping an eye out for is someone producing basically a 'box' like this:

Maybe even something like this:

Inside which I could store this:

Speakers are much more easily disguised or hidden... I've even toyed with the idea of having a company that makes speaker boxes for guitar amplifiers make me a couple of speaker boxes that would be of a sympathetic design. It'd be nice, though, to have a 'box' that looked like one of those old radios but could have a door in it open to reveal the modern stereo system hidden inside.

 

[J.J. Gittes]

The effort it what counts!
Good job with how far you got, and that you are still going to try.
Got any 30's large-ish tombstones in mind??

 

[Johnny B]

Hey all

I'm going to be checking out the remainder of this guy's collection this tuesday so keep an eye on this thread for more radios. I will be selling them for prices SO LOW you'll think you were buying sheets of FILTHY PAPER- prices SO LOW they'll drill STRAIGHT THROUGH the earth's core and become elected MAYOR OF ALL CHINA

Here only! This week! CAPITAL LETTERS!!!

 

["Skeet" McD]

Hey all

I'm going to be checking out the remainder of this guy's collection this tuesday so keep an eye on this thread for more radios. I will be selling them for prices SO LOW you'll think you were buying sheets of FILTHY PAPER- prices SO LOW they'll drill STRAIGHT THROUGH the earth's core and become elected MAYOR OF ALL CHINA....Here only! This week! CAPITAL LETTERS!!!

Hey JB: That's good news, because I LIKE FILTHY PAPER (CAPITAL LETTERS!!!)...back in the day when you could buy amazing sheet music covers literally by the pound....if only you were willing to wade into giant piles of filthy paper and start digging. I've never regretted it...and doubt anyone will regret your offerings, either.

I'm glued to the set....

"Skeet"

 

[FinalVestige79]

id be interested as well ...

 

[Talbot]

Johnny B,

Don't be too hard on yourself with your early efforts, new skills take time to acquire. Things that seem pretty straightforward often have a few tricks to them.

Pick up a book on auto body repair, it will help with the plastic bodies. Things like skim coats and the like will become second nature in a while.

I'm assuming likewise for furniture repair. Ther must be ways of dealing with bubbles and delamination. The wood bodies may not come up perfectly, but a degree of patina can look admirable on a 'survivor'.

Don't be discouraged, its a noble cause.

I for one raise my glass in your general direction and salute you.:eusa_clap

 

[Johnny B]

coming someday SOMEDAY SOMEDAY!!!!

__________________________

Get ready to hold on to your hats lest they fly off with the force of 10 gale storms and collide with other flying hats causing TOTAL NUCLEAR MELTDOWN!!!

Rent a welder and get your jaw WIRED SHUT with the heaviest chain YOU CAN FIND or else it just might SHOOT STRAIGHT OFF your face and fly DIRECTLY INTO A SMALL CHILD

How can I make such WILD PROMISES? Simple! I'm UNACCOUNTABLE to ANYONE!

This week and next! Not on television! Not in the newspapers! Not in my neighbour's shower! I checked! Only here in THIS THREAD