Restoring RCA Victor 28T

[Reece]

This is an 8-tube 1941-42 set with broadcast and two short-wave bands. It has a TRF stage and push-pull output. The case was structurally strong but it looked as if a solvent had been spilled on top removing the finish. Also it had been hit on the front left curved corner punching in the veneer, so a full refinishing was required. Luckily a reproduction decal set is available for this radio. The grille cloth is torn and dirty. The dial glass is in good shape but for a small piece broken at the left edge. I will superglue the piece back but will attach a thin piece of wooden molding at left and right ends of the dial to camouflage the repair. It won't affect the dial markings. The knobs were incorrect so I ordered the right ones from Mike Koste of Gobs of Knobs. Luckily all the preset pushbuttons were there and OK.


Damaged top and left end of dial glass broken.


Veneer punched in and fingernail damage around incorrect generic knobs.


The copper clad chassis was very dusty but otherwise looked good. The loop antenna board was delaminating so needed to be reglued and clamped flat. The heavy 6 x 9" field coil speaker tested good. All tubes except one 6SQ7 tested good.



Underchassis inspection revealed that RCA used yellow rubber-covered wiring for heater and other connections and most of this was crumbling; some was gummy. A lot of the other wiring is cloth-covered and OK. All of the paper caps needed to be replaced: one of them had a big hole burned through it! Another was a PHILCO cap; that and a couple of Philco tubes up top must be evidence of having been serviced by a Philco dealer at some point.



Nice big hole barbequed in that cap top left! .......Evidence of Philco dealer being in here....


A couple of the crumbling wires are shown along with lots of crumbs!


Almost all of the rubber-covered wire was replaced with new traditional-looking green cloth-covered wire. Most of this was in pretty tight quarters, and in one corner required unfastening and carefully moving to one side a scary-looking you-can't-get-this-no-more RF coil. This wire has plastic insulation inside the cloth covering. I sleeved rather than replaced a couple of wires that were hard to get at with heat-shrink tubing. All paper caps were replaced. The original can electrolytic was cut loose and left on top and new terminal strips went in for new underchassis electrolytics and new 10K and 2K 5-watt wirewounds to replace a big 12K 3-watt dogbone that had drifted high x 3. Line safety caps, a CL-90 inrush current limiter, and a new line cord completed the rewiring. Cleaned up the chassis topside using orange Goop hand cleaner with no pumice.








More fun to come!