motorola clock radio
 

This is the first radio I've picked up in about a year, and I usually pass up the plastic radios too, but I liked the looks of this one here when I saw it at a thirft store yesterday. The radio really isn't much, just a series string tube set all mounted on a single circuit board, but there's this cool orange light in the clock, I'm still not sure what there using, when I pulled the back off I didn't see any bulb back there. There's the usual bad electrolytic filter cap caused hum, so I'll probably swap those, clean it up a little more, and then this will replace the little plastic rca I've been using for a clock radio. What's good to use to polish up plastic radios? When I first got this yesterday it had some white paint overspray and scratches on the top, I used some polish (the kind with some grit in it) to remove the paint and the scratches, but it left lesser scratches and swirl marks. Here's a pic of the radio...

I use Novus plastic polish #2. Available from http://www.tubesandmore.com/ and other suppliers.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

That's a cutie, Adam!

I will second the vote for Novus which I have seen work well on the lacuquer on the German sets. You might find it in a marine supply store too.

I picked up some of that polish and it worked good. When I pulled out the can it made a mess of the circuit board, and it just took me about 6 hours to fix it, but it's ok now. Here's some pics...

Oh yeah, "style and design"...I remember those days...

I love those radios
 

Of course, the older ones are a lot of fun, too, but those radios that have a certain "Jetsons" flair to them have a big weak spot in me.

Cleaning them is always a lot of work, more than it looks, since it usually requires almost total disassembly to get at some stuff. Like the slots in the front for the speaker, since they are "blowing in the wind", they get filthy, but can't really be safely cleaned without speaker removal.

How many boxes of Q-tips did you use, Adam? :D

Q-tips, that's a good idea, next time I do one of these, I'm going to try them. I was just using a rag and a variety of small brushes.

Cool radio and it sure shined up nice. That's a pretty funky chasis design too. Is that an EL84 in that thing? Must sound pretty good

output tube is a 50C5

Yer welcome. get the cheaper store brand for this purpose. they are skinnier and will fit easily into more places. Use 'em liberally, they're the cheap ones, remember :)

A 50C5? Not familar with that one myself.