It’s soooo obvious that’s it’s actually not a spray job! Sometimes less is more when it comes to repairs! You don’t just pull things apart for the sake of pulling it apart!

Guys it's the old old argument.
How far do you go?
Is it a 100 point restoration back to factory original in ALL respects.
Then to be judged by peers and win the show?
Or a tart up to just get it going, or something in between?
So one can have an oldy playing in the background.
Whose judgement is involved?
Same with every hobby.
I have done the whole gamut from "lipstick on a pig" to 100% refurb.
Actually 100% is almost impossible as re-making electrolytics and rebuilding paper caps as well as impossible to get valves means substitution and maybe 90% original.
Also there is POINT OF VIEW.
Us engineers want the chassis to be better looking than the cabinet because WE all look at the back and not so much at the front.!
A historic person or owner may just want the front and cabinet to look great and original and not worry too much about the back view.
Its going to look great and if the owner is happy with that, that's all that counts.

Personally, I would, have stripped the chassis to bare metal and then refinished it by sanding rust kill and sympathetic spraying to a matt metal colour finish. But that's just me.
The re-builder involved has polished some of the alloy work, I would not do that, prefer to beat out the dings and go for a matt dipped finish.
The re-builder has elected to apply a silver frost paint on the chassis top hopefully a rust converted surface.
Not for me, i've done that in the past and it looks horrible.

If I do all the things to get to maybe 80% original its a LOOONG job and if you do all the work yoursel cost not much.
If you are getting it done commercially hundreds of dollars.
So maybe its best to spend the most effort and money on the cabinet and get the chassis up to working condition and smartened up a bit.
Just don't open the bonnet!!!

I rambled a bit there I wonder how every body else sees it?

Fred.

Guys if you had seen what the under chassis looked like in the beginning you would know what I meant by a dog's breakfast. This set to me is a incredible effort.
The valves in this set are fairly common. 6A7, 78, 75,41 &80. The 41 was the only faulty one.

I have sent another photo of the dial.

While I do have a supply of the "push wire". To add strength & the real risk of terminals on grid fly leads shorting to the shielding can. I cover the wire end and bare part of the terminal with heat shrink (originally rubber tube). When using, or repairing heat shrink and circuit board lacquer stop cloth covered wire fraying.

I will often wind fibre fishing cord around cloth cable passing through holes, or sometimes damaged ones to speakers etc. Agree that some of that wire in the photos belongs in a bin. I will take a photo of a cordage wind, may even have one already.

For the curious: There's an "in work" Astor 500GF on the other end of the cable.

Looking forward to the pix of the finished job.

Its great to see a survivor being restored.
Thats the whole point of the hobby, saving things that otherwise would wind up as land fill.
I have never seen one the same as that, good job Carl.

Fred.

Photo uploaded to Post 18.

Photo uploaded to Post 19.

Fred
Unfortunately the case will be a couple of months yet. I am looking forward to it as well.

Well I received a phone call today from David Bartlet. He gave me the lowdown on what had been done to this set. Would you believe there is no paint on the chassis at all! He said all he did was clean it and there is a special polish He uses. So what you can see on the chassis, valve Cans and cap Cans is all original wow!
He also said that it's a exceptionally strong performing set for 1934. It's apparently a American themed circuit . After doing a few basic repairs he really had no faults to find as it worked straight up and its had at least 60 hours burn time.
I am so looking forward to getting this set completed.

Well how awesome this set will be.

Re Fred's comment Post # 17.

I thought long and hard about removing the full electronic harness and properly restoring the chassis of my STC 830 radio. But I thought I may do damage that I could not repair especially to the wave-change switch and maybe the RF transformers of which there are 6 sets. So I went for the mask and respray treatment with abrasion, rust-kill, prime and paint preservation route leaving it much better than I found it. After all that there was no change in tracking or performance even though the tuning gang was removed for restoration. In another 85 years if someone else wants to remove the wiring they are welcome.

When I did go ahead and make necessary repairs to IF transformers moving around inside their cans when making alignment adjustments, I got into trouble with alignment even though the transformers are continuous.

So I agree with Fred, it depends on your circumstances. I could have been in a worse situation if I had removed the whole wiring and circuitry harness.

Have had to take a long time off the radio because of medical issues, but am fronting up to it again.

Well I got this baby back this week and gave it a good run last night. The chassis has absolutely no paint on it at all. What you can see here is a very high quality build. The finish on the chassis is all original but only polished with a silver polish. The sensitivity of the set has blown me away.
When I tested the Bluetooth it sounded so very good. I have delivered the case to a restorer this week and should have it back in a few weeks. This Radio is 90 years old. Wow.

I have updates on the Case restoration and boy does it look nice. Photo sent to Brad.

Been told the cabinet will be completed in two weeks. Looking forward to it.

Photo uploaded to Post 28.