The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay The Radio Bench restoring my original radio?

I have my original radio that came out of my 52 that needs complete restoring. Anyone ever had theirs restored? If so, who? how much? Is this something that I might could do myself if I were to get the parts?

Here's a picture of it: http://www.52resto.com/images/radio.jpg

Blake,
there are several options that you might want to consider. It is difficult for me to give you a simple answer about doing it yourself because I don't know how comfortable you are working with these radios. For me it is an enjoyable hobby but I don't have the time at this point in my life, to do it for a living. They are a fairly simple radio to work on, and obtaining parts is not a big problem. If you wished to give it a try, I could guide you step by step here on the forum and deal with any problems that might come up. In the event that you were stuck, I could resolve the problem if I had access to the radio for a few days. Here are some other options.

There are some in the business of restoring these radios, or at your option, completely replacing the insides with modern electronics. In general, with the modern electronics, I would expect that you would end up with a twelve volt setup.

There are also vendors that sell brand new radios that use reproduction dials and knobs and they look virtually identical to the original. You could buy one of those and sell your radio. When the bidding is really intense on Ebay, these unrestored radios do go for up to $350. As a trend, the prices seem to decline around Christmas, presumably because of other priorities with the buying public.

In any event, these radios are a valuable item to own at the moment. Just the other day on Ebay, there was a volume control offered for one of these and the bidding was at $201, the last time I looked!

I think I am going to try and rebuild it myself, since I am able to get the gasget, knobs, radio bezel, etc... ALTHOUGH... I had a guy price me at $250 to restore it after I bought the parts and shipped it to him...

Blake I have older man here in canada who restores radios. he charges around $200.00 complete plus shipping He did mine and it works great for an am radio. A complete radio recently went for $1000.00 on ebay. get it restored. Peter

Blake,
they are just as much fun to restore as the truck. The feeling you will get when you hear the first tunes is just like running your rebuilt motor for the first time.

Fred

Fred is right get it restored

I repaired a radio for my 54 and am very pleased with how it turned out. Take your time and it will be well worth it.
Steve

hourhand,
thankyou for that posting. We need more members to tell how rewarding it is to repair your own radio!

Fred

I have repaired several old tube type radios. We have a 1930's Zenith Console radio in our living room that I like to listen to baseball games on. But my point is with patience and a schematic of the radio its not that hard. Replacement parts are available from many sources. I think its cool to listen to the 2006 World Series on a radio made 50-80 years ago.
Steve

That is very cool indeed. That would be a true fall classic!

Fred

There's a guy at the Charlotte AutoFair and will probably be at GoodGuys this weekend who has an antique car/truck radio business. He's got several for sale and they look like new, most of his radios run in the $300-$500 range. I think he converts them over to AM/FM... turn on once for AM, turn off and turn back on for FM. I can get information for you tomorrow if you want when I go to GoodGuys.

Lee

A very helpful book for repairing old radios is "Antique Radio Restoration Guide" by David Johnson. It walks you through the steps needed to repair an old radio.
Steve

whos the most reasonable radio restoration guy for my 51 chevy truck radio? im in texas but will send anywhere would love to listen to longhorn games on am in the truck

dbone how good or bad shape is your radio in..Peter

Dbone,
if you search this forum, you will see that a number of people has used this service. I haven't myself because I do this as a hobby:
http://www.taymanelectrical.com/

Although most of the entries here were talking about a modern conversion, his website does say that he restores them for those who require it.