A few days later it turned up and I eagerly carried the box upstairs not really knowing (as I was too lazy to find the pics) and opened the box with anticipation. It really wasn't that bad, a bit on the grotty side with years of use and, by all accounts, living next to the chip pan for years... we all know what sort of gunge they can dish out. So, this was it, time to make plans for my first ever attempt to give it a clean, rip it apart, replace the leatherette and get it all back together again without having bits left over that I was sure should go somewhere.
You could say it had done well to get this far in life. But I was very confident that I could do something, and it wouldn't look any worse when done. First thing I did was pinch the on/off knob, as I have a Sovereign II RP25A that needs a better one. Polished it up, and re-did the white line in fresh Tamiya Acrylic White, and it came up a treat as you can see below.
It's not super perfect, but for a 40 year old bit of plastic, it's not doing bad! Anyway, on with the project. I had done some research on the Rexine covering and recently found out that the last roll of Rexine was made in 2005 and that a company up North makes their own equivalent. I was a bit stingy to pay over £22 for a metre delivered, so went hunting at Fabric Land here in Bristol. Voila, they had black faux leather, so I grabbed a metre of that and some synthetic 5mm wadding for the front and back and went home happy with the fact that I could now do something constructive.
The radio was duly deconstructed and a photo taken, to show that I wasn't telling fibs and the box it was delivered in was the parts box and sat next to the coffee table for the next few weeks as I patiently tried to get a decent finish on those confounded rounded edges.
Case 109 was in for a shock, mostly because its covering was about to be removed. The front and back was pretty simple, but the case itself, well, they used a pretty good glue on that as it pulled quite a bit of wood off (forgot to research how to get it off without ruining stuff). Anyway, we got there and theback cover was duly removed and uncovered. I gave the wood a light sand, and measured out some wadding to cover the back and clipped it as close as I could to the top using gigantic dressmakers scissors. I gave the panel a liberal coating of PVA, put a weight on it and let it set overnight ready for the fun to begin with the faux leather..
It had started out looking rather sad, a bit like this......
But ended up looking rather nice like... well a bit like this......
Spurred on by this flash new arrival in my midst, I was gung-ho to give the front a go. It was looking rather sad, but I was confident although a tad scared I might chop bits of my fingers off in the process!
I thought that it would have been much easier, but I made a fatal mistake of cutting the speaker aperture out BEFORE I had glued the faux leather on. Yes, you could call it a doh moment. But, onward I plugged and after a bit of polishing, bending, urging, tweaking and painting the black fins in the grille in Humbrol Matt Black, it looked really cool. Almost like a bought one.
After finishing the front, I was keen to get the casing sorted. I did forget to mention that I took extreme care in removing the plastic piping from the original cases and spent probably an hour on each scratching off the old glue from every part of it. It was a bugger of a job, but it had to be done. I gave up on standard PVA, it just didn't have the strength so obtained some extra strong PVA from the Bostic range and that worked a treat for all the essential gluey bits. Front grille and the dial were polished up with T-Cut, available from most shops that deal in car goodies. It's a tad on the expensive side, but I doubt if I've used a tablespoon since I've had it, and it has come in handy for polishing all sorts.
The old case had been modified by its original owner and a 12v AC supply had been fitted, and had obviously been up to the task although I have removed and refilled the hole with Milliput and you'd never guess there ever was a hole. The fill was given a liberal dose of Stayzon Black to match the inside of the box along with the grille cloths which gave them a nice deep black look, hiding the years of light damage.
Where the hole was, can just see where it used to be but I guess if you never knew, you'd never bother to look.
Other tools and a dabble with Bostic Leather glue, although not much, helped to complete this lovely little radio. Yes it still goes, but needs a few tweaks inside to make it completely refurbished. The only things missing now are the tone control knobs and the clips for the handle. I replaced the original rubber washers on the handle mounts with 1/2 inch tap washers, suitably drilled to take the brass washers that the screws sit in. Oh, and some work to do on the corners on the dial plate. Apart from that, I think you'd agree that she looks fabby now!
A tale of two Hackers, the RP25A Sovereign II on the left and refurbished RP37A Herald on the right. A few more in the wings, so more fun coming up.
Absolutely fabulous, great job!
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