Here is my somewhat abbreviated story of the restoration of a very derelict Philco 41-255.
http://home.comcast.net/~suptjud/philco41255.htm

Terry,
Just so you know...you're the gent who caused this thread.
I happened upon your web site several months ago and it was your restoration that motivated me to start looking for a 41-255 on ebay. I liked its style and you did a terrific job on yours. In fact, yours is a tough act to follow, but I'm using it as the standard for my restoration. I also appreciate you supplying good poop on where to get repro parts.
I'm glad you made this posting because for quite a while I've been wondering about something:
The 41-255 dial scale is brown, but the one you made appears to be a really neat-looking kind of purple/violet color. Is that the color or just the way it came out in the pic?

Hi John,

I came in late. It took awhile to get up to speed. Don't want to miss one of your threads. Keep up the great work!

Hi John:
You've still got a couple images now on page two that are at 1024 pixels wide.
. so that too is causing text to run wide there.
Just re-check all your images making sure none go over 900pixels .. 800 is even safer.

Great new thread.

I have what to the experts is probably a dumb question.
What is the deciding factor that would cause one to remove the tuning capacitor from the chassis? Maybe the answer will be self-evident from the steps to follow, but I would appreciate the thinking behind the choice to remove it.

Barry

Yes , this is REAL good . You are showing how a chassis should come apart for the proper cleaning . Your time and effort is priceless .

It is the flash used to make the photo. In normal light the scale looks normal. I have to assume it is the dyes in the ink. I made it on an ink jet printer.

Hi Barry:
For me there can be several reasons. For instance if the metal chassis is rusted and grungy and I am going to remove as much as possible to have an easy time wire brushing the chassis top... then off comes the tuning cap.

But even if the chassis doesn't need much de-rusting I look to see if the rubber mounting grommets are cracked and dried up causing a cocked or sloppy mechanical mounting. Then I pull it and replace the grommets.

If there is any malfunctioning or poor mechanical movement of the tuner that I don't feel can be easily corrected then once again I remove it.

But sometimes it's just good to take it off and slosh it around in warm dish-soapy water to clean it up.

It's not usually very hard to do the removal anyway, esp on most AA5 radios, so I do it just to get a chance to do some if not all of the above even if it seems just to be sort-of ok but dirty.

Hello john,
thanks for the tip on the proper way of taking out the tube.
It's been a while since I've delt with those type

Rich

bsammons asked:


Barry,
Great question.
To follow up on what Peter said, this project is a ground-up restoration, meaning the chassis will be thoroughly cleaned, de-rusted and repainted. To that end, as many items as possible should be removed from the top. Additionally, this is an instructional thread, designed to show the inexperienced that vintage radios aren't quite so mysterious, or complicated, as they might think.

Generally speaking, when working on that very first radio (maybe grandma's radio) a "newbie" is afraid to touch anything for fear they'll mess it up. But when this thread is done some will hopefully have acquired enough know-how to just get in there and start making things happen...becoming our newest vintage radio movers and shakers.
But please know that the procedures shown in this thread are not the definitive word in vintage radio restoration. Rather, they're simply basic guidelines that one may or may not opt to follow.

If you need any sockets let me know ok , for that radio with shadow meter it looks like

The weekend was pretty hectic i.e., work, Christmas shopping with the daughter and trying to get on the Ham airwaves for the first time, so not much in terms of radio restoration was accomplished. But a couple things did get done.
The plastic speaker plug has been hanging around waiting for something to break it. I didn’t like that, so it was time to fix the situation, starting with a good alcohol cleaning:


A soft paper towel used as a cushion and some painter’s tape usually does the trick. Trust me, taking the time to protect these old plugs is like putting money in the bank:



Speaking of cleaning…here’s a little experiment some of you might find interesting. If not, no biggie.
I always use Naval Jelly to clean a metal radio chassis, even if it isn’t rusty. It does a great job of removing thick grime. But I’ve read forum postings saying that Go-Jo also works well, supposedly far better than Naval Jelly. Sooooooo…I decided to put both products to the test.
First up was the Go-Jo, scrubbed around in small circles for about a minute, then wiped off with a dry cloth:


Not too impressive, and my fingers are already tired:


For good measure, I also tried some Fast Orange hand cleaner. As with the
Go-Jo, it was scrubbed in small circles for about a minute and wiped off with a dry cloth:


Even worse in my opinion:


Then came the Naval Jelly…applied with a Q-tip. No scrubbing at all. It just sat there and did its thing for about a minute, then was wiped off with a damp cloth:


The grime is gone…and so it the rust. In my mind, Naval Jelly is still the bomb, man:

Hello John,

Hope you don't mind me dropping in. Have you tried the white vinegar and Comit mixture, scrubbing with one of those magic erasers? I used this method on my last 2 radio's and it works quite well. The navel jelly also works quite well and probably removes the deeper rust spots better.

John K.

Too bad that the Gojo (Go-Jo) didn't work. As a child, I remember the great smell that it had, as my father was an auto mechanic, and used that stuff. It is good for greasey, grimey hands, though! Good to see another restoration being done by the MASTER of restorers...badrestorer!

I have read posts in the Cabinet Restoration forum about GoJo doing a good job of cleaning wood cabinets, but I don't recall reading about it being used to clean a radio chassis.

Based on Badrestorer's trials, i can see why.

Ed,
Go-Jo is the perfect cleaner for wooden cabinets. It really does work well. I use it all the time. But then I read where some have also been using Go-Jo on metal chassis. I thought that was strange, but worth a try.
Now we know.

I have similar 39-something Philco in the 'to do' backlog and hopefully can pick up a few pointers when it comes time to do mine. Looking forward to this one as with all your restorations - thanks for sharing!

Perhaps these photos of the chassis bottom and closeup of the band switch on my 41-250 will help encourage you and others to complete the rewiring:






You will need to modify the replacement plastic escutcheon, unless the molds have been corrected. I used a brand new and sharp 1/4" chisel to very carefully shave away the molding error which prevented installing the paper labels and clear plastic covers:



By the way, if you are wondering about the small socket which accepts three round prongs, it is for the Philco external antenna adapter:

FStephenMasek wrote:


You're ahead of the thread, but no encouragement will be needed here. Changing out all the bad wiring is certainly on the agenda, but it'll come later on.
I have to say that you did a bang-up job on that chassis. Looks terrific. The soldering is first-rate. Congratulations. I hope mine turns out half as well.
Thanks for the posting.

Excellent post John. I'm enjoying it very much Its like a tutorial. COOL . Glad your sharing this with us _JD_