Rescued From House Fire and Reborn With New Life!

 

 

Once in a while, I take on a project that probably nobody else will touch. I didn't exactly run into a burning house to save a baby, but....

 

This higher end model from Sears Silvertone came to me like this. It had been in a house fire, seemingly, but was not burned or melted at all. It was covered inside and out with what looks like water damage resulting from firefighters.

 

No, the sooty residue did not just wash off with soap and water.

Yes, it smelled smoky. Although, not totally unpleasant, I thought.

 

 

 

 

The entire exterior of the cabinet needed to be polished down to the original color plastic then successfully buffed and restored with painstaking effort and attention to detail.

 

This is a model worth saving because it sounds great. It is a 6 tube circuit design which means 3 transformer stages for improved sensitivity. It is a dual speaker design as well.

 

 

Surprisingly, the radio worked as soon as I plugged it in! The clock was frozen though. All the insides looked like it was covered in black inky sooty grime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are not collectors. I repeat: I do not collect radios. In actuality, I kinda want them out of the building after I'm done working on them.

 

My mission and pleasure is working on these radios and saving them for future generations to enjoy and pass on to their children. My belief is these old radios are nostalgia items of old Americana. Like classic cars, these radios are works of art. Unlike cars and other nostalgia, old radios have not found their way into mainstream collector consciousness as much as I feel they should have.

 

My goal has been to change that.

 

 

After cleaning and polishing, the pink part is starting to look good. I left the interior discoloration and staining intact. I figured it was part of this radio's history. Plus, it was getting to be too time consuming.

 

 

 

 

The front white piece needed to be repainted. All the black staining and soot was not cleaning up even with steel wool or sandpaper. The discoloration between the slats was too difficult to remove without risking damage to the plastic slits.

 

The insides were cleaned up a little bit. It was just too difficult to bring back to as-new condition.

 

 

 

More importantly, it was working fine after a few replaced capacitors and resistors. The IFTs wouldn't budge so I left them rather than risk destroying the ferrite cores. The tuning capacitor wouldn't soak clean so I used cleaning brushes. The clock motor and mechanisms were cleaned and repaired to working condition.

 

Is it pristine? No, it absolutely isn't.

 

Does it have a story and journey like no other radio?

 

Yes, it does.

 

Does it smell smokey?

 

Yes, no mistaking it.