Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

AM wonder

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • AM wonder

    One of the things I took from that 2R11 truck yesterday was the factory stock radio and it's various pieces. I told Anne I thought it was a valuable piece and how fortunate I felt in finding it intact with a nice faceplate and chrome. I just knew it would shine up with a bit of cleaning. Of course, being 55 years old, I had no fantasies that it might play when powered up, but there's folks that specialize in rehabbing old radios and that would be some new owner's option to pursue.
    After I'd been home a short while, I retrieved the radio from the truck and carried it into the garage. I was going to find a piece of extra fine steel wool to rub the tarnished chrome bezel with so I could see it gleam![]
    I set the radio on top of a box that set in the middle of the garage. I turned towards the shelf to look for that wad of Steel wool that I'd seen the day before. .......CRASH!
    The box that the radio was on had collapsed and sent the radio to the floor, face first. @!!**%)$@_!! ~+__*&%^$!!![8]
    Before I even picked it up, I could see pieces of the once fine tuner glass shattered on the floor. It fell all of maybe TWO feet and yet the chrome bezel was twisted and cracked, 3 knobs broken and of course, that pretty dial glass. (explitive deleted!)

    I went into the house and fumed for about a half hour. Then I marched out to the shop to see if I still had one of these radios that I'd liberated from a 49 Commander some years before. Sure enough - there it was collecting a thick coat of dust on a shelf.
    I brought it up to the garage and started taking it apart to scavenge the face and knobs. Since Stude used this same model radio from before WWII into the 2R truck years, there's a fair number of them still out there.
    I started to realize that this "donor" radio was cleaner and nicer than the one I'd gotten out of the truck. But I took the bezel off anyway so I could give it a good cleaning.
    It was only this afternoon that I got around to continuing with the radio's cleanup. I took the tubes out 1 by 1 and blew the dust out of the case. The speaker cone looked good whereas the one in the truck radio was ripped all to hell.
    So anyway, I finally got around to socking 6 volts to the thing and the vibrator started humming right off! [:0] Good sign.[8D] It hummed a bit with an uneven tone until the tubes started to glow. Then there came a baseball game out of it's speaker! HOT DOG! I was so amazed that the damned thing was playing that I didn't even notice who the game was between.
    SO - one truck radio and install kit coming to ebay real soon. Pretty cool - even after the tragedy of the crash!

    Miscreant at large.

    1957 Transtar 1/2ton
    1960 Larkvertible V8
    1958 Provincial wagon
    1953 Commander coupe
    1957 President 2-dr
    1955 President State
    1951 Champion Biz cpe
    1963 Daytona project FS

  • #2
    Hey Biggs.

    With a radio that old, it was probably the Minnesota Twins and the Baltimore Orioles!

    [img=left]http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j259/stude53/studesmall2.jpg[/img=left]Bob Feaganes (stude53)
    53 Starliner Hardtop
    Newton Grove, NC

    Comment


    • #3
      quote:Originally posted by stude53

      Hey Biggs.

      With a radio that old, it was probably the Minnesota Twins and the Baltimore Orioles!
      Actually would have been the Washington Senators and the Orioles.

      Guido Salvage - "Where rust is beautiful"

      1946 M-16 fire truck
      1948 M-16 grain truck
      1949 2R16A grain truck
      1949 2R17A fire truck
      1955 E-38 grain truck
      1957 3E-40 flatbed
      1961 6E-28 grain truck
      1962 7E-13D 4x4 rack truck
      1962 7E-7 Champ pickup
      1962 GT Hawk 4 speed
      1964 Avanti R2 4 speed
      1964 Cruiser
      And various other "treasures"
      Hiding and preserving Studebakers in Richmond & Louisa, Va.

      Comment


      • #4
        Or the Washington Senators and the St. Louis Browns! And you all thought I was a kid masquerading as an old f**t.

        wagone

        Comment


        • #5
          Ah, the St. Louis Browns...



          ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Tom - Lakeland, FL

          1964 Studebaker Daytona

          Michigan Speed - www.michiganspeed.com
          Club Hot Rod - www.clubhotrod.com
          LS1 Tech - www.ls1tech.com
          Tom - Bradenton, FL

          1964 Studebaker Daytona - 289 4V, 4-Speed (Cost To Date: $2514.10)
          1964 Studebaker Commander - 170 1V, 3-Speed w/OD

          Comment


          • #6
            But don't they(the old radio experts)advise against powering up a radio that has sat up for many years without replacing the capacitors, first? I have been wondering about this because I'd like to see if my wonderbar radio will work, and "they" say that even if it does, bad caps can cause failure of other components in the set.

            Comment


            • #7
              quote:Originally posted by Packebaker

              But don't they(the old radio experts)advise against powering up a radio that has sat up for many years without replacing the capacitors, first? I have been wondering about this because I'd like to see if my wonderbar radio will work, and "they" say that even if it does, bad caps can cause failure of other components in the set.
              You're 100% right. Having said that, I'd have done the same, but carefully watching for any signs of distress. If NOTHING else is changed, one should change the buffer capacitor, which is a waxed paper capacitor, rated at 1600 volts, connected across the secondary of the vibrator transformer.

              The radio works, for now. Better to properly recondition it so that it will last for for many years, than to install it as-is and play it until the smoke gets out.[8D]

              Gord Richmond, within Weasel range of the Alberta Badlands
              Gord Richmond, within Weasel range of the Alberta Badlands

              Comment


              • #8
                GordR, were you the one who posted awhile back about this subject, then? IIRC, Seems like you mentioned a source for electronic parts, capacitors in particular, to upgrade and refurbish old tube radios. I have plenty of experience soldering and my labor is cheap, if I knew where to buy those components.

                Comment


                • #9
                  I can still hear the screams over the radio....."The Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant!!!!!"

                  Ah, if only we could travel back to the Polo Grounds................

                  Actually one can....only surprise...you'll find a housing project there........

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Yup, the warnings were sounding in the back of my head as I powered up this old 8-tube, AM beauty. At first, I was just mystified that the old vibrator decided to make any noise at all. And initially it sounded like a B-17 with it's engines out of synch.[B)]
                    But as the old, cold filaments started to glow orange (and you just know they'd not been called to do so in decades, to look at the thick coat of dust on everything inside the case!)the pilot appearantly twiddled the props and throttles to where the throb seemed more in step with itself.
                    At first, I was just fascinated that it was trying to power up without "letting the smoke out" of any of it's component parts. It was only after the vibrator settled in to a drumming that sounded right that I thought to turn up the volume control a bit. This, of course, resulted in something akin to the sound of 36 grit sandpaper on thin sheet metal. Once I let go of the knob, there was silence, but not a "dead" silence. I let it set there for a moment until an announcer's voice cut the quiet: "Here's the pitch..... swung on a missed. Strike two!"
                    I let it go a bit more but never did get a clue as to what teams were involved. But it was kinda neat that the first thing out of this big ol' box of a radio was a ball game. It's been YEARS since I listened to a ball game on the radio, so it was a bit of a time warp as I set, entranced by the fact that this antique piece was taking me back to a time when it and me might have been regular buds.[^]
                    Anxious to see if the tuner worked as well, I pushed one of the 6 black buttons and it dutifully pulled in another station. This one offered up an accordian tune - Mexican style. Other buttons got static or silence. Probably because whatever stations they'd once defined were gone OR the truck resided in some other place during it's useful days and consequently it's buttons were tuned to outputs on it's home turf.
                    I tried the manual tuning knob and different things came and faded. Talk shows, christian blather, hispanic gibberish and even some old rock music.
                    I tried the tone control knob and it seemed to work as well. That was it - I pulled the alligator clip off the power lead and let it fall silent again. I set there staring at it and pondered the luck that it played at ALL let alone fairly well.
                    The wife appeared from the house and slightly tilted her head to accentuate her query as she asked: "Did I just hear that thing playing music???"
                    "Yup, you did!"
                    "Amazing!"
                    And that it was.
                    I'm gonna offer this radio up on ebay. I have every intention of presenting it as a set that plays but one that really NEEDS to be checked over by a specialist and have it's capacitors replaced before being installed and called upon to do what it's supposed to do.

                    Miscreant at large.

                    1957 Transtar 1/2ton
                    1960 Larkvertible V8
                    1958 Provincial wagon
                    1953 Commander coupe
                    1957 President 2-dr
                    1955 President State
                    1951 Champion Biz cpe
                    1963 Daytona project FS
                    No deceptive flags to prove I'm patriotic - no biblical BS to impress - just ME and Studebakers - as it should be.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Note to LAEMMIE, I still feel bad for Ralph Branca (and Don Newcombe)! But the good old days are gone forever......today, the game of baseball doesn't hold a candle (or a tinker's damn) to the way it used to be!

                      wagone

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Yes ,Baseball as we 'ole timers ' know it is a thing of the past.It was played more for the love of the game, money second.Now its money first a great game second.My idol died a few years ago,Don Drysdale.

                        David Baggett Mantachie,Ms.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Pro ball today is populated by high-priced "guns for hire" modern day Paladins (rest in peace Richard Boone) all in for the huge payday... back in the day I would go to all three ball parks, Polo Grounds, Ebbets Field, and Yankee Stadium...my dad was a Brooklyn fan...me all Yankees...I clearly remember the "rifle" arm of Dodger Carl Furillo(sp)...[]baseball was so damn EXCITING then...heard over the small cheap hand held transistor radio..money and the "juice" have killed the game...[xx(]and Barry Bonds....[V]please don't get me started..at least I have vivid memories of my youth and baseball..for that I am thankful!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            quote:Originally posted by Packebaker

                            GordR, were you the one who posted awhile back about this subject, then? IIRC, Seems like you mentioned a source for electronic parts, capacitors in particular, to upgrade and refurbish old tube radios. I have plenty of experience soldering and my labor is cheap, if I knew where to buy those components.
                            Packebaker, here's some links:
                            <http://www.justradios.com/>
                            <http://www.oldradioparts.net/>
                            <http://www.tubesandmore.com/>
                            <http://www.nostalgiaair.org/>

                            The first three are parts vendors, and they specialize in catering to hobbyists restoring old radios. Just Radios is in Canada, which is fine for me, and the others are Stateside. NostalgiaAir has a library of radio schematics, INCLUDING the Philco models used in Studebakers, and they are free to download.

                            Happy hunting!

                            Gord Richmond, within Weasel range of the Alberta Badlands
                            Gord Richmond, within Weasel range of the Alberta Badlands

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              The radio that I jogged to life...



                              Miscreant at large.

                              1957 Transtar 1/2ton
                              1960 Larkvertible V8
                              1958 Provincial wagon
                              1953 Commander coupe
                              1957 President 2-dr
                              1955 President State
                              1951 Champion Biz cpe
                              1963 Daytona project FS
                              No deceptive flags to prove I'm patriotic - no biblical BS to impress - just ME and Studebakers - as it should be.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X