Some time ago acquired this Astor Sportster which after a rub over with a damp cloth has come up pretty well. Powered up with a Tony Maher 67.5 v inverter and a D cell. To my pleasure the set burst into life and is working exceedingly well. All local stations come in excellently with good audio and even 2KY, 2GB and other Sydney stations from my Bathurst location.
The 8 inch ferrite rod does well for this radio. A full recap and dodgey resistors is planned.

The battery compartment is badly corroded and ask as to how best clean this. The cradle is held in with metal tabs which can be bent so it can be removed.
As well some advice on how to remove the knobs which I think are the pull of type.

Thanks for any comments and a Happy New Year to all.

It would be an idea to post a photo of the battery holder as there are different ways of dealing with plastic & wood. For example, the content of carbon zinc batteries turns wood black & dissolves it. And there are two of those I have had to deal with.

Thanks, have posted some photos but they have not appeared as yet. The battery cradle is of plastic and metal construction.

Plastic will handle water, so can be washed. Initially it can be soaked in something alkali, to kill the acid, maybe brushing. Then asses it.

A strong solution of Sodium Bicarbonate (pool buffer or baking soda) will clean it up and neutralise any remaining acid.

With TVs that are plastic or metal I normally follow this up with a scrub with a solution of dishwashing detergent, followed by the garden hose (remove the speaker first!)

Re the knobs, a very gentle levering using two knives covered in cloth should get it. Once you can lift the knob enough to get your fingers onto it with a good grip, pull gently using an orbital motion.

Good luck!

Thanks everybody for comments so far.
Progress, all knobs successfully removed, a little squirt of WD40 was a great help. Battery cradle removed ready for cleaning, will try the bicarbonate process. Chassis removed from the case ready for an overhaul.

So the state of play to date.

Dry batteries can be either alkaline or acidic. Alkaline batteries use a potassium hydroxide electrolyte, while acidic batteries typically contain ammonium chloride or zinc chloride.

So to neutralise you need to know which type have leaked.

Bleach to kill acidic, vinegar for alkaline.

Acids tend to be the easiest to remove. Alkali can be very oily & stick. Chlorine bleach can be rather nasty & yield chlorine gas if not used carefully, its also savage on skin.

Ideal if you cannot get dirt of skin, It will remove the skin from the dirt. Saying that, in industry I have used lots of it & actually have around 10Litres of the concentrated stuff.

Er, alkaline batteries in a vintage battery radio?
They weren't around back then....

Don't over-think this thing! Just hit it with ordinary washing up detergent, a brush and the hose!

Ignoring all, the modern batteries are in some cases, worse for leakage than many of the old ones.

The 10 year AA cat batteries in my PAT tester, began leaking within two years. The Cattery imply a warranty but that in reality, for me has proven to be a load of blah, blah, blah. Despite the batteries having date stamps on them, they threw up every stupid hoop, to make sure there, was no way they were going to entertain a claim.

So I would suggest, like me, think twice before you buy them.

There may be a crust left that refuses to dissolve, that is the point you try a brush, before resorting to more interesting chemicals. Knowing what chemicals are in the battery helps, as does knowing the metal in the battery holder before using the wrong chemical & dissolving it and the metal.

All going well, put the battery cradle in a bath of bicarbonate solution and gave it a good soak. Worked out how to remove the metal strips from the plastic case and gave them a good scrub with a small wire brush. One of the battery +ve caps had rusted onto the metal strip and had to be prised off with a pocket knife. Scrapeing of battery residue with the pocket knife and final buff up with fine steel wool and the metal strips are gleaming like new.

Photos uploaded. I apologise for the delay - I've been away and about to go again and have limited access to e-mail during those times.

I wonder what the point of all those electros is? Does this thing have a mains input option?

Thanks Brad for putting the photos up..

Yes the Sportster is dual mains/battery operation. On the power switch there is a position "reactivate", the idea being to recharge the carbon zinc D cells. Recharging carbon zinc cells was popular once but suspect it led to a lot of cells going leaky.

In the interests of safety have disabled the mains power option and in any case the "reactivate" function would not be suitable for alkaline cells which I am using.