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.

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.