Hopefully, some of you will recall my good friend and workmate, Wade, who last year did the chroming for my Atwater Kent 856 restoration project. If not, here he is again:


Anyway, I've been wanting to repay Wade for his great help, so a while back I bopped around ebay and came up with this little mustard-colored monster, a Philco 37-610. The plan was for me to restore the electronics and for him to restore the painted cabinet...but I'd first have to talk him into it. When done, the radio would belong to him:








To make a long story short...ole Wade totally fell for it (he's not easy, but he can be had ).
What about the rest of you? Any of you brave souls feel like plowing through another Badrestorer restoration project, warts and all? Last year there were several very good restoration threads, so just say so if you're burned out on it. Believe me, I'll understand.

Dam... That is one butt ugly colour. That radio desperately needs your help. Feel free to bore me to tears

Love that leaky cap

I guess I could , I was going to take an online basket weaving course, but, it can wait Bring it on, David

Sensai,
You have so many pupils and so little time. Please enrich us with your experiences and shutterbug visuals.

Just be warned, I believe that the 37-610 had a faux wood grain on the front panel, likely they painted the set to cover up a damaged front panel finish. If you strip it off there will be a blond grainless wood like maple or poplar. You could try to reproduce the faux finish or you could veneer over the front panel with something like figured walnut or mahogany or you could paint it white like some were.
Best Regards
Arran

Arran is correct, folks. Beneath that front layer of mustard paint there is indeed a faux/photo finish. Sounds like a Wade problem to me.

John:

GO FOR IT!
The odds are that the dial light will need repair. I just finished fixing one recently for my nephew's radio and I will be interested in seeing your solution to the problem. Someone also painted the escutcheon, knobs and speaker mounting screws.

Pat

Just was thinking this past weekend while working on my TO, that I wish John would do another step by step. Looking forward to it! - Don

I have the 37-620 that the dial light is completely missing on. Does it use the same one this one does or is it somewhat different?

I believe the dial light housings and mountings are identical.

Go for it John, I'm looking forward to watching your progress. Might consider replacing that electrolytic spilling its guts out.

Jerry

Looking forward to it John. I'm sure I will learn a lot about my 37-620 in the process.


-Phil

I'm watchin'

Expect a progress report with lots of pics starting tomorrow.

Brian

Come'on John- It's been 24 hours,(almost) where's the pics of the initial out of the cabinet chassis assessment. I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks. It's good to see all the positive responses, but where are the newbies? Stop lurking, dudes...chime in here.

Well, I'm not exactly a newbie, but I'm a recent returnee after a couple years. I loved BadRestorer's recent TO documentary and I will follow this one with interest if it materializes. So count me as a Yea vote!
-trent

Yes!
It's the middle of winter and us northern folk need to be entertained

I'm a relative newbie to active restoration depite being interested in old radios for years. I learned a whole lot from your AK restoration which I put into practice with my first "real" restoration, a Zenith 9-S-367. I would enjoy, and hopefully learn some more, from seeing you another set through the process. So please, please go ahead!

John,

Please do ... I'd really like to see each step as you make a silk purse out of that sow's ear.

Richard

John,

I hope you decide to do this restoration, including the cabinet. Since this is a faux finish, I assume that is the same, (or at least similar), as the Crosley Photo finish. I would really love to see someone do a step by step of these finishes. I have visited several web sites that discuss the process and show pictures, but not the indepth instructions and detailed pictures as the past step by step restorals on this site. Anyway, my 2 cents on the idea.