Topic: Restoration of a 1934 RCA radio.

[Wheelhorseracer]

.. we are getting a foot of snow..

Anyways.. I sued to find a ton of old tube radios when I was driving a recycling truck. I used to sell them on E-bay.. people love them old tube radios.. just like I love my old tube amp..

[matts mowing]

lucky about having green grass, im gettin 5-10 inches tonight into tomorrow on top of the 3 we have now

[mowinmachine]

Well, I feel for you all. I did live in Eastern Mass for a few years and I did not really care for the snow... so I moved. If it were totally up to me I've live in Arizona in the desert.

[matts mowing]

never mind the last comment... i now have 8 and a half inches and its less than three quarter over. interstates closed

[freakboy]

Well, I feel for you all. I did live in Eastern Mass for a few years and I did not really care for the snow... so I moved. If it were totally up to me I've live in Arizona in the desert.

you are so lucky... we got 3 feet of snow pennsylvania is in a state of emergency right now and all main highways are closed due to snow... and you have green grass... i am so jelouse right now.

[matts mowing]

you are so lucky... we got 3 feet of snow pennsylvania is in a state of emergency right now and all main highways are closed due to snow... and you have green grass... i am so jelouse right now.

foot and a half... for now anywayin notheast pa

[amr5080]

I'm in south central and can't see my honda civic in the driveway...

[mowinmachine]

My Mother and Law lives in Eastern PA and she's pretty much snowed in. Lost her power and everything. She has a leaky basement too so hopefully the power will come on before it floods.

[Wheelhorseracer]

I'm in south central and can't see my honda civic in the driveway...

You can't see a Honda Civic on a hot summer day.. all you see is the 12 inch tailpipe coming out of the stainless steel muffler... 

[amr5080]

I'll tell ya what tho, that was my first car when I was 16 and I'm all but 23 now, and up until this past fall, it was my only vehicle. I've put over 100,000 on that thing and all that has been done to it was basic maintenence, a  distributor, adjusters in the back end, and a valve cover and pan gasket seal. Those 100,000 weren't easy miles either. About everyone knows how a new driver is with a car...

[mowinmachine]

My wife had a 91 Civic hatchback. Super easy to work on, very well built, and it also had a sort of timeless styling that still looks pretty good today. I still see tons of these on the freeway every morning. We would've kept it forever except we inherited her dad's 2002 Toyota when he passed away so we sold it to some 16 year old kid. I hope he didn't turn it into a fart can car.

 My biggest issue was that the car had zero power. I had to floor the thing to merge on the highway. This was made back when they hadn't yet figured out how to squeeze more power out of small engines. I rented a Chevy Cobalt a few years back and it was amazing how fast and peppy the thing was even though it was a 1.5 liter. Other then that I really liked the car.

[mowinmachine]

Got some more stuff done on the radio this weekend. All of the capacitors were ordered, I got 3 NOS tubes, and some other stuff. In the meantime I cleaned the chassis. These tend to be nickel or galvi plated. After sitting around for 80 years they get filthy. I tried something different this time around. I first used a shop vac to get up all the dust bunnies and then followed up with a few applications of naval jelly. I'd never used the stuff and one of the older guys I know who restores these swears up and down by it. Not sure what its made out of but it just ate right through the grime and rust like nothing.Next up was some more work on the cabinet. My wife has been carefully sanding it down for several weekends now. She's done a heck of a job. I noticed that the top of the cabinet was just made out of veneer. I thought that was a bit odd that something as big as this would have no reinforcement. A closer look showed that there had been a wooden brace that ran across the top and back of the set. There's another one up front. So I cut out a new piece and glued it in. I suck at woodwork, don't have any fancy woodworking tools so this took hours to make it work.Lastly I gave it one final sanding with fine sandpaper and applied the stain. I chose a ZAR brand "Early American" stain. I used to sell paint for a living and ZAR is one of the best. It goes on very evenly. The hue was a good choice. It really brought out the color and texture of the wood grain. I'll let this dry for a day or 2 and then apply a semi-gloss or satin finish.

[matts mowing]

will this radio sound like the ones out(at least the cheap ones) because the one that works for us is very poor quality sound, and we would restore it if it would sound better

[mowinmachine]

Well, that's kind of not the reason you restore old radios anyway. I do it because these are historically interesting electronics. They use totally different technology than today's radios. It would kind of be like restoring a 1918 Model T. You wouldn't expect it to drive or run like a 2010 Camaro. That said, some of these old sets sound just as good, and sometimes better than the stuff they make today. I have one which is a 1938 GE with 3 bands. The shortwave band picks up stations from all over... China, India, Russia, Japan, and Cuba. Its also sounds great. Back then they hadn't quite figured out how to deal with all of the interference and static issues. So on the AM band you'll typically get a "dirtier" sound. Secondly, these things get pretty hot from the tubes. I usually don't play them for more than a few hours at a time.

 But the bottom line is that I just think they're cool and I like restoring them to original condition. They also tend to appreciate in value. This one will be worth close to $400 when done.

[Wheelhorseracer]

I always wondered why you can get short wave from all around the world. Is it that the beams will bend with the curvature of the earth? I think AM does that to some extent..

I could be wrong.