Picked up for $5, even at that price I bet most would pass on it. RCA radios are good performers and I think this cabinet is a good looker. I always start with the cabinet restoration first. The cabinet was easy to knock apart, the top piece of walnut was missing and the front walnut was missing quite a bit so I decided to replace the front piece. I used the inner piece of the front for maintaining the correct dimensions and added a 3/16 piece of plywood on the backside and two ply alwood walnut for the front. I chose a nice matched section from a 2X4 foot piece of walnut. I used Titebond wood glue and ironed the face and the top veneer, this process works well and is quicker than using contact cement. I have been using old fashioned joint compound for years as the wood filler. It is also quick and easy to use. For the walnut I used minwax English chestnut oil stain first and after twenty four hours I applied a coat of alcohol based Van Dyke brown aniline dye over the entire cabinet. The score marks were created using a Dremel tool with two round stones placed against a clamped piece of steel. I have two sealer coats sprayed, I'll add 3-4 top coats of clear semi-gloss lacquer in the next day or so.

Definitely a labor of love, nice work! What do you use to color the joint compound prior to filling?

Like to see what the chassis looks like.

I apply the joint compound to the veneer let it dry, sand and then use oil based stain over the filled veneer.

Here are pictures of the chassis and speaker. The voice coil is dragging a bit, may need to re-cone the speaker, the underneath side of the chassis is remarkably clean, the top side as seen has quite a bit of surface rust. I will remove the tuning capacitor and dial and bead blast and then clearcoat the chassis.

Thanks for the additional pics. Will be following this restoration.

Bead blasted the chassis after removing the tuning gang and dial. Painted the transformer black and clear coated the chassis. The dial lens was very dark with dark spot so I decided to make a new one. Stay tuned for more updates.

Looks great Larry! Nice work.

A little more time spent on the RCA this weekend, made a plastic dial cover, couple of coats of sealer, four coats of semi-gloss clear and grill cloth salvaged from a console. The chassis has been recapped some of the rubber wire replaced, new gromets under the tuning gang, found the audio output transformer opened, it was potted in tar, used a butane torch to heat and removed the bad transformer. Bead blasted and clear coated the can. I'll stuff it will a good transformer next.

Finished the RCA chassis and speaker restore and placed in back in the cabinet, IMHO the radio turned out well and is a good performer.

Excellent work! Out of all the similar RCA tombstones, that particular model with the fluted pillars is my favorite. The repurposed grill cloth is a very nice touch. Enjoy that beauty!