Philco 40-160 Restoration - Part 3

Well, after a long break, I'm finally back to working on the Philco. I took it outside the other day to start sanding it down and get all the grime and gook off of it. The initial results were amazing. Take a look at this picture...





I’ve got a lot more sanding to go, but it’s getting dark, so I clean up and head inside to work on the center rails in the front, covering the speaker. There are four of them and each one has a vertical split in the same place which makes me think this is a common problem with this model. The cracks can be seen of both sides of each rail but luckily each piece is still intact.

As I look at it closely, I figure a couple of screws and some wood glue will help strengthen these right back up. I decide to do this work before I sand the pieces down so I only have to do that once (I will undoubtedly get glue on the sides of each piece). I measure the rails’ depth and figure a flat head wood screw 8 x 1.5” will do perfectly. I drill two pilot holes in each one, being careful not to drill too far. I pull the split wood apart carefully, just enough to squeeze in a little glue, then screw the pieces together by hand and wipe off the excess glue. After they dry overnight, I’ll sand them all down and fill any cracks left with wood putty, then sand them one more time.

Silvertone 7181 Restoration - Part 1

For this radio, I may do something a little different than a traditional restoration. First off though, I had to identify which model this was, and that was no easy task. With only a picture and a brand name, I started my search online. Google gave me nothing but links to Silvertone amplifier and guitar sites. I did finally find a site where a father-son team restores old Silvertone radios. I emailed them and after telling them what I had, the model number of the chassis and the types of tubes in the receiver, they told me this was model number 7181. The next day I verified this through my online post to the Philco forum. Another hobbyist told me the tube selection was unique to this model from Sears. I have yet to find a picture however of another one. Strange, huh? Well I ordered the electrical schematics for $10 online through another hobbyist’s website and I’m still waiting for him to email the document to me.

The cabinet was painted black sometime ago, which may have looked ok wherever it was, but it’s not authentic. I really would love to strip the paint off of this and see what’s hiding underneath. I also promised the antique store where I bought it from that I would send to them pictures when I was finished, so I want to show them a dramatic change.

While surfing eBay one day last week I saw a radio where someone had hooked up a connection to be able to play your iPod though the radio. That would be a really great idea I think. So I got to thinking about restoring the cabinet and then installing an mp3 station player inside using the chassis as an amplifier to get some really great sound out of it. Of course the dials wouldn’t work on the front of the cabinet; they would really just be for on-off-volume. Maybe I could hook up a remote to it to scroll through the selections. The possibilities are endless.

Philco 40-160 Restoration - Part 2

I’ve taken the time to research through a couple of online sources the prices for the capacitors and the vacuum tubes. It took some time to sit down with the chassis and the schematic to trace out all the components and find their values. Once I had that list, I went online to find the parts I needed. I haven’t bought anything yet, first I want to just do an assessment, establish a budget, and then see how far I can get without spending too much money upfront. I may even have some capacitors in my inventory at home that will work in this radio.

One of the biggest concerns I have in this project is in finding the two replacement parts on the front of the cabinet. These are the bezel and the escutcheon. The original parts were molded in plastic, but over the years, they have warped and cracked so much that they really are no good to use any more. In doing a little research on the internet, I’ve found that there’s a guy out in California that makes parts like this. Old Time Reproductions is the name. I sent him an email earlier this week, and I’m waiting on a response. Meanwhile, I’ve posted my question on these parts to a Philco forum online in hopes that someone may have spares or know where to find them.

On this forum, I’ve also posted the question as to how to repair the antenna loop. The paper/fiber material has crumbled all around the edges which were stapled to the top and bottom wood pieces. The wires have also dry rotted, which should be relatively easy to fix with some heat shrink. Ron from the Philco forum suggested some glue to reassemble the paper, but I really feel that a patch job will be an ugly way to make this work and won’t be too sturdy. I am toying with the idea of remaking this using some brown craft paper, new antenna wire and some contact cement. If I do that I’ll make a replacement before taking apart the old one so that I can always reuse it if absolutely necessary.

Finally, the speaker cone has a big tear in it, as you can imagine. So at some point I will have to pay to get that re-coned by either doing it myself or sending it out to someone else.

So after all this assessment, here’s my budget for this project:

All new vacuum tubes: $ 70
All new capacitors: $ 60
Bezel & Escutcheon: $100 estimate
Speaker repair: $ 50
Wire, grill cloth & misc: $ 50

Total: $330

With any luck this radio, when done, will be worth around the $500-$600 range. I most likely will never sell it, but at least I’ll know what it’s worth, and that my costs didn’t exceed the total value.

Philco 40-160 Restoration - Part 1

To start off with, here’s what I know about this radio: Essentially this is a floor model version of the 40-135. This model receives standard AM and the 1.5 to 3.3 mc "police" band, uses six tubes, and operates on 115 volts AC. It also features six electronic push buttons.

Original selling price: $45
Number made: 26,513

To start off, take a look here for some pictures and an idea of what I'm starting with.

The first thing I did was to remove the receiver or chassis from the cabinet and look it over carefully. It was loaded with dust and grime completely. I began removing the tubes, along with the dialing device and anything screwed into the base. When you do this, be careful to keep track of every screw and dried up grommet that comes off. I always take pictures of what I’m doing, especially before something comes apart. That has been an invaluable asset when the rebuilding phase comes around, which is usually long after dis-assembly. Using some fine grade steel wool and 3M scotch pads, I started to bring back the shine to as much of the metal as I could. Hint: wear a mask when you do this as the dust you will release is just nasty to breathe. Be careful as well not to erase any markings on the chassis.

For some reason, on this job I thought that just a clean up wasn’t going to be enough. Looking through the basement, I found a can of chrome spray paint and thought to myself, oh yeah. Now this may not be the best thing for a genuine restoration, but I really want to show this radio off when it’s done, inside and out.

Welcome

Welcome to my online restoration journal. Here I’m going to document the progression of the restorations on which I’m currently working. Like anything the more I get into the se projects, the more resources out there on the internet I find, and it’s always amazing to me the ideas that people come up with to solve problems that they face. I’m hoping that you can take away something from this too. Maybe, like me, you’re looking for ideas on restoring your own antique, or maybe you’re just trying to identify a recent purchase. Whatever your reason for visiting, thanks for coming and enjoy your stay! Feel free to leave comments as well.

Currently I have three different projects in the works, each in a different phase:

1952 Seeburg M100C Jukebox

1940 Philco 40-160F Floor Model Radio

Silvertone 7181 Floor Model Radio

The Seeburg is sort of my life-long project. It’s about 90% complete and I hope to finish it soon. The cabinet has been fully restored and I am ecstatic with the way it came out. There’s an electrical problem with the amplifier that has eluded me for many years. I need to go back to the drawing board on this one. Recently I’ve been buying new tubes for it, so I hope to power it back up soon.

The Philco I acquired at a flea market in Roanoke, AL back in September 2007 for all of $60. It’s in rough shape, not terrible, but not great either. The cabinet will need to be refinished, and a few pieces of wood on the front are split and cracked. It will need a new grill cloth definitely and a re-coning of the speaker. The receiver was covered in a quarter inch of dust and grime, so that will be fun to clean. It will also need all new tubes and capacitors as usual, and the antenna is in really rough shape. Basically it’s a mess. To me, though, it looks beautiful, but I’ll make it look gorgeous when I’m done.

The Silvertone I recently bought at a local antique store here in Manassas, VA. It was a birthday present to me from me and like the Philco, I only paid $64.26 including tax. Not bad at all. I don’t know the model number or the year it was made, I’m still researching that information. All I know is that it’s intact, minus the vacuum tubes (7). It looks as though it was painted by someone many years ago, so that’ll be the first thing to go. I’ll strip the cabinet down to the bare wood, give it a nice light sand job and maybe some Tung Oil and varnish to finish it off. It’ll need all the same things the Philco requires, grill cloth, speaker cone, tubes, caps, antenna, etc. This project will come last on the list as I need more information before starting on the receiver.