Zenith 12A58 Baby Stratosphere.
 

I picked this radio up a few months ago at an estate sale for $60. BUT....the two speakers (a 12" woofer and a 5" tweeter) were missing. The owner's sons removed them years ago probably thinking they could use them in their stereo systems, only to find out they didn't work once unplugged from the Baby Stratoshere. They claimed the speakers were dry rotted, but I think not.

Lucky for me a fellow antique radio collector located in CA had a spare set of speakers and sold them to me at a reasonable price. I finished the electronic restoration a few months ago and then turned my attention to the chassis and associated parts. This unit must have been kept in a very damp environment since there was a light surface rust over every metal part.


The first picture is one taken by the seller at the estate sale.




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Here are some before and after pictures of the chassis:


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The cabinet needs some work, but it's not in need of a total refinishing job. The grill cloth, although loose, I think can be removed, cleaned and then reinstalled.

The radio works great and sounds terrific.

Bob

I'm in love....Or at least, SERIOUS Lust....(grin)

Zowie, that chassis looks like new. The 12-A-58 is my favorite console in a house full of radios.

Your dial lettering looks just about perfect. Mine has begun to flake a little here and there. I have heard of people clearcoating the back as a preventive, but the penalty for messing that up seems dire, so I have left it alone for now.

Take it easy on that grille cloth, but you probably know that already.

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

P.S. Paying $60 for one of these might get you booked for Grand Larceny in this county :)

Hi Phil;
I didn't notice any flaking on the dial, and I hate to admit it, but I put quite a bit of elbow grease into my cleaning efforts on that dial. I guess I lucked out on that one.

Having destroyed another 70+ year old grill cloth with my overzealous cleaning a few years back, I may just remove the cloth and lightly brush off the loose dust and dirt. It really does look pretty clean but appears to have come loose at the top and has drooped.

I guess I'm guilty as charged re: your larceny charge.
Bob

That is a beautiful chassis, what a job! You might try this on the grille cloth: there is a dry cleaning spray called K2R. I've seen it recently in a large Ace Hardware. It's a dry cleaning fluid in a spray can with something that looks like chalk or talc. I'd try this on a hidden corner first to check compatibility with your cloth. You shake shake shake the can to put the chalk in suspension and spray the cloth. Allow to dry thoroughly, 30 minutes perhaps. The fluid dissolves the dirt and the chalk absorbs the dirty fluid. Then you use a soft brush to remove the chalk. In some cases where the baffle board with cloth attached can be removed from the set you wouldn't have to detach the cloth.

That sounds like the same "stuff" that a company called ChemDry uses to clean carpets, upholstery, etc. It's spayed on in a heavy mist, allowed to dry and then vacuumed off. The cloth in my Zenith is very loose, so whatever it was that held it in position has let loose. I think it'll be easy to remove. Once I take it out and have a better look at it, I'll decide on a course of action. This dry cleaner sounds like a good idea..............

Thanks for the information.
Bob

As others have noted, that radio looks almost like new after all the work you put into cleaning up the chassis; this is one of the cleanest Zenith chassis I have ever seen, in 40+ years of electronics experimenting.

Glad to know the set sounds good as well. Excellent sound fidelity was a hallmark of Zenith radios for many years, until the company went offshore some 30 years ago; those older sets (up to about the end of the '60s) always sound excellent when they are working as they should (I have two Zenith table sets, K731 and C845, that will run rings, as far as sound quality and RF sensitivity -- to say nothing of build quality -- goes, around any of the cheap plastic headphone stereos available today).

BTW, I noticed a segment of one of the tuning bands (150-400 kHz) on your set has a bracket around the range 200-250 kHz or thereabouts, marked "weather band." Was this the 1930s-'40s forerunner of today's 162.55 MHz, et al. FM weather radio service? If so, the National Weather Service (if such was even in existence in the 1930s, which I doubt) was very much ahead of its time, even to have an AM weather radio alert network.

wow looks good wonder how many baby strats were bade

That is a beautiful radio.