This Zenith arrived covered with soot inside and out. It obviously had been dropped on its face, placed in a chimney, and forgotten about. We first cleaned off the case to see how bad the finish was. This took a lot of mineral spirits and elbow grease. There was some minor scratches and dents but nothing to major to take away from the look of the radio. We decided not to strip it and keep its original lacker finish. Some of the preset buttons had been broken during its face plant. We found some NOS and had a real fun time getting the old buttons out of the holder and the new ones in. Pot metal doesn't like to be stressed which became a small problem.
Once we got the case looking good along with repainting the molding the look of the set really got us motivated to hear how it sounds. We went to work on the radio itself. Swapped out all the capacitors and tested all the resistors. We found a mysterious wire connected to the volume pot with a switch and a 1" connector on the end. We did some research and it turns out there was a aftermarket line in you could put in for a record player or TV. SO in keeping the originality and for just a useful option we rewired that back in with RCA jacks. Now a CD player or MP3 player can be plugged in and heard on this set. Really neat and useful.
Once the above mentioned was done we put a fuse inline to avoid any future melt downs. This is for safety and you can't see it in plan site. Pictures of it to the right. We replaced the deteriating speaker carpet and gave the case a good waxing before putting it all back together.
We turned it on and it sounded like something was scratching. Turns out that when it took its face plant years ago it must of damaged the coil in the speaker. After research we find we need to find this exact year speaker for this year radio. Luckly someone had an extra one in a barn and overnighted it to us. Once in the radio sounded great. Lots of base and the preset tones work great. The changing white arrows on the face pointing to what band your in is cool to work. One neat sounding and looking radio. We can do the same for your radio. Give us a call.
Third Bay Radios
518-466-8673
info@thirdbayradios.com
 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |