This thread is part two of a Philco 37-610 restoration effort. The previously completed step-by-step chassis restoration can be viewed here:
http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=127488

At the very beginning of the chassis restoration thread, I informed everyone that this radio is a payback gift for my workmate and friend, Wade, who had kindly done some chroming work for me on a couple of my other radio projects…and that I would do the chassis restoration on this radio, while he did the cabinet work. Welllllllllllllll…it didn’t work out that way. I was unaware that nowadays, in addition to his 12-hour a day job, Wade is a part-time college student, thus having very little free time to mess around with an old fart’s, musty 73-year old Philco radio cabinet. So the cabinet is now back in my hot little hands.

But Wade did mess a little bit with the front to see if the mustard would be easy or hard to remove. He said: “It wasn’t too bad.”
Anyway…here she be:


The top needs the full stripping treatment, which means the sides will also get it:


The inside is just dirty. A little soap and water and a quick wipedown with some stain should make it righteous:


Removing the dial cover ring is like opening a jar of moonshine…grab hold and turn counter-clockwide. But keep in mind that it could have been screwed on in the opposite direction as well:


Nothing to it:


Four tabs on the back are what hold it on:


Be careful with the glass dial cover. It practically falls out by itself:


The rest of the mess is held in by four tiny wood screws:


You should find a thin gasket beneath it:


Some of the mustard got under the edge of the plate, making the gasket stick to the wood a little bit. My pocket knife helped solve that problem:



Until later, the parts will live in this plastic bowl. Wifey loves it when I do that:

Why would anyone have painted this?

Brian

The front surface of these particular radios is not finished wood. It's basically a big decal that looks like wood...referred to as "faux" or "photo-finish". Over the years the decal would get scratched up and scrapped off, hence the cool-looking paint jobs on many of them.
Hey...who wants an ugly-looking radio?

Did you catch my post regarding the paint on the chassis restoration thread? It looks like your friend tried that method on the front panel. You need something like lacquer thinner that will soften then top layer of paint that you can scrape it off, but not strip down to the wood, it's something that I am trying on a Fada cabinet front panel. As it turns out the front panel on the Fada is a decal of olive wood grain not bird's eye maple.
Best Regards
Arran

Be interesting to see what this ugly colour is trying to hide.

Brian

Arran wrote:


Arran,
Yes I did. Wade and I had previously hashed out the best way to remove the paint from the photo-finish and came up with the same solution that you later spoke about.
You know what they...great minds think alike.

John,

I want to personally thank you for posting your restorations. I have enjoyed the TO H500 on the forum/youtube and was excited to see this one as well.

As a relative newcomer to the hobby, I am like a sponge and am soaking up everything I can. Your restorations are logical, well thought out and informative. You definitely have a gift for imparting knowledge to all of us. I am in my 40's which I hope will please some of the older members on the forum since I have seen several posts worrying about this hobby after they are gone.

It definitely takes a lot of time and effort to document each step with photos and script and post on the forum, and I just wanted you to know how much it is appreciated!

Thanks,

Greg

Greg,
It's very good to hear from you, and thank you for the gracious words. It means a lot.
I'm certainly no genius at this vintage radio stuff, but I try my very best to not make mistakes or dispense bad info, but it's bound to happen. Just yesterday ole Curt had to jump in and bail me out of a dumb advice-giving error. He's a good man to have around. But in terms of electronic knowledge, I am gaining on him. The way I figure it, I'll be passing him in less than 300 years.
Thanks again, Greg. It's good to know you're out there.

Does it snow in Arkansas?:


Oh, well…no better time to start removing the mustard:


Except that it wouldn’t come off. The lacquer thinner had no affect on it. After 10-minutes of soaking this is what I had:


So I switched to Acetone and steel wool. Failure again. I scrubbed and scrubbed, but made no headway. This was not good, folks:


It occurred to me that the mustard might have been painted over with Polyurethane, so I gave it a light sanding to break the shiny surface and again tried the lacquer thinner and acetone:


Things did not go well. Now I know why everyone complains about photo-finishes.
Ok...I'm ticked. Time for plan B. Anybody happen to know what that could be? :

Could it be Latex?

Brian

Could be, but it doesn't make any difference now. This baby is getting the works.

I have had very good success with this product :

http://www.goodcommonsense.net/mustpropavas1.html

It has given me better service than any other stripper I've used, and it has the advantage of being odorless, non-toxic, and can be cleaned up with water. Also, it doesn't harden up when left too long on the surface.

PTM

Goof-off wipes off latex.

Interested in what you do.

Brian

Hello John,
I know what plan be is but .
I figured that lat one of the beginners guess before I said anything
Rich

Hmmmmm .... lemme guess ...... belt sander and veneer.....?

cheers

John

The command decision (or plan B) is to chemically strip the entire cabinet, then re-veneer the front. It'll be less hassle, less time and less effort. So the bottom trim piece needed to come off:


The paint/varnish/lacquer seal along the trim's top edge had to be first cut loose. Again, it's good to have a sharp pocket knife:


A putty knife was then slowly worked down behind it. Easy-easy does it….go slow…take your time. If it takes two hours to get the trim off in one piece, then it takes two hours. No biggie:


Work the entire length of the trim…one end to the other and back again. You’ll find that keeping the knife at a slight angle helps a lot. Slowly-slowly-slowly. Don’t force things:


Also work it from the bottom:


Eventually, you’ll begin to see daylight between it and the cabinet:


A couple of the nails were kicking and scratching all the way, so I had to show them who was boss. Some soft (emphasis on soft) leverage with a flat tip screwdriver made them holler uncle:


Success. Note where the nails were located:


I also decided to remove the old metal feet. They’ll be replaced by small felt pads:


Lastly, the inside of the cabinet got a good scrubbing. It cleaned up pretty good:

There must be someone who has replicated the faux finish on this particular model, I know that there is a site where the fellow redid the front on his Philco model 600. Too bad the lacquer thinner trick didn't work, that yellow paint obviously wasn't latex or it would have some off instantly. In my case I was having some success removing the paint, which I believe was enamel, but I was doing so in a very small area of about an inch at a time. It was still worth a try, at least before stripping the cabinet wholesale.
It may very well be that in your case the faux finish was worn through right where the paint refused to come off, so the paint was more firmly bonded to the wood. It's also possible that the area around the knobs had grease or other dirt around them which prevented the yellow paint from adhering.
Many people claim that Philco products went down hill after 1938, I don't entirely agree with this for reasons that I have mentioned before. Well in one way they went up hill at least, in cabinet quality, they cut back on the use of faux finishes, the 1939 or 40 equivalent model to a 37-610 used real veneer.
Best Regards
Arran

It was cold today, but since the cabinet wouldn’t strip itself, I slowly dragged my butt out the door.
Forum member, PartTimeMember, recommended “Multi Strip Pro Paint & Varnish Stripper” as a stripping agent. I appreciated the suggestion, but it was too expensive for my taste. So I made a quick trip to Lowe’s and picked up a can of this stuff. It claimed the ability to remove just about anything, including Polyurethane and Epoxy paint, so I went for it.
I poured a little out, waited a few minutes and tried a test scrap. Seemed to work pretty well. BTW...if you ever get any of this stuff be sure to use it outside. It's pretty powerful:


So a little more was applied and scraped:


Then a whole lot more. It began to look like the ole photo-finish might be saved after all:


Wrong. The instructions on the can said to wipe off excess stripper with mineral spirits…so I did. Bye-bye photo-finish:


Anyway, the mineral spirits bit was going too slow for my blood, so out came the acetone. Things moved along at a much faster pace:


The sides and top were next. I don’t know what that mustard-colored paint was, but it was tough. A lot of stripper and elbow grease was required to remove it:



The final wipe down with 0000 steel wool and acetone:


I’m glad it’s over. Time to order some cool-looking veneer:

Maybe time to try your skills at using inlays ? Vandykes has that narrow inlay veneer stuff . You could try to put it in there somewhat like those original strips were . The black could be felt pened on ?
It will be interesting how this one goes .

I'm not interested in spending a ton of money on this radio, and for sure there's no way I can or plan to reproduce the original photo-finish pattern. I just hope to find a reasonably priced, decent looking veneer and do the best I can to make the front look acceptable. Anything will make it look better than before.