#1. I just acquired an Amercan-Bosch on eBay and looking at it I can't tell if the front finish is "real" wood or the photo type. Except for water marks on the top and scratches here and there, the cabinet wood is in good condition and that also concerns me in that there doesn't appear to be any veneer. I guess I find it hard to believe that it is solid good quality wood.
#2. The knobs are wood (no cracks or chips) while the pictures I have been able to find show what appear to be bakelite or something similar.
#3. The grille cloth is in very good condition but poorly aligined and maybe has been replaced at some time. Is it the corrrect pattern?

Would appreciate comments from any American-Bosch expert(s)

BTW. The only reason I bought it is because the seller said it took up smoking while he was checking it out. Sounded more exciting than just replacing some caps and the price was about the same as for a bottle of a decent scotch.

It is real wood with toner on it.I would have spent 30-40.00 also...

Glasdave, thanks for the good news. Now I need to decide how to replicate the black striping. I read all of the suggestions in this forum and will try various methods on a beat-up cabinet that is deeply gouged with a lot of failed glue joints and in my opinion not restorable or at least not worth the effort.

It looks like the stripe is actually a raised strip of some type. If so, see if it is painted, or a solid color. You can mask it off, in any case, and strip around it, or, scrape in that area to save the line.

The stripe is definitely raised and appears to be black paint. It will be a while before I start on the project because the salmon are running and there are priorities to be respected. Thanks for your interest and ideas. I'll post a photo and description of what I did when I finish it.

My how time flies. Talked about this radio 9 months ago. Finally got to it in earnest and this is the result. My big concern originally was how to do the black striping. Well, maybe I cheated but I used Pactra model striping paint. The striping is slightly wider than the original but the next narrower size was too narrow. The corners are visible by close inspection in bright light. I also polished the dial cover with Novus 1 and 2 and that came out well. By the way, the smoke was caused by a shorted 25Z5 which took out a resistor. Easy fix. Thanks again Glasdave for the encouragement.

Looks great!