I'm just about done restoring one of these 'hippos'. It's playing great with excellent reception. I decided to re-stuff the one electrolytic for a final touch. I've restuffed a few metal can types, but never a paper/wax one.
Here's how it went.
First I pulled the old caps. out of both radios. 3 new caps need to go into each one.
I tried heating up the caps to free up the innards. After a few minutes I gave up
The tubes were starting to fall apart which is the only part I cared about salvaging.
Why not roll my own?
I painted them yellow with some kids paint.
Then I made some water-slide decals using paper left over from another project.
I also 'dirtied' them up a little using a light spray of flat black paint. I don't want them to look brand new. The original is in the middle.
Next, I soldered the 3 caps together and reused the original wires.
Finally, I inserted the caps and filled up the tube with wax. First, I stuffed up one end and filled it 3/4 with wax. Then removed the plug and filled the other end.
One down, one to go
