I think this one turned out pretty well, despite running into a stupid error that had me scratching my head for a while. This (I think) came out in 1939, and you’d buy one of these from your local Firestone tire shop, presumably while you were in getting rubbers for the Desoto or Packard or whatever.
It had some ratty rubber wiring that was disintegrating, so that needed to be addressed. Some of those rotten wires were for the IF coils, which I do not like trying to disassemble. So I instead ran an experiment where I picked up some colored heat shrink tubing and just covered up what remained of the wires. That seemed to work great.
Of course once it was all done and the tubes checked…. Nothing.
Turns out when I was de-soldering on one of the tube sockets I managed to pull too much, and when it went back together one of the connections got left basically “hanging.” Secured that and boom. Instant radio.
Its a gorgeous little radio, and its in more-or-less good condition, save for the top, and the veneer inlay “stripes” on the front that have shrunk and pulled out of the grooves. I’m going to attempt to put those back, and then figure out what to do about the top. The entire thing has a “crazing” in the lacquer that probably needs to get smoothed out, also.
But it works once again. Another one saved, as they say. If the cabinet restoration goes well, I will probably put this one up for sale.