A '37 Detrola lives again!
 

My friend for many years, who does all my elec. repair work, had this 1937 Detrola model 159 on a shelf behind his work bench. The poor thing had a extra control cut in front and a large eyesore of a audio input plug next to it, almost at the left side curve. The plug had a big old plastic like cover on it with 4 screws. When I took that off I found a big, roughly cut hole. I decided that I'd never be able to blend in the walnut grain pattern, so why not give deluxe trim?! I thought one dark walnut band would look too obvious, so I put a smaller band on the top edge, and also used dark walnut on the 2 grill bars to make it all blend together. I did the rest of the cabinet in natural walnut. The original grill cloth was decent, so I just repositioned and glued it down. The stapled in dial had to be removed and was a bit of a chore to reposition. The on/off switch was replaced with way too long post, so had to use my Dremel to cut it back. In the end I feel proud of my second full cabinet resto! I must have at least 15 hours into it.
It's a really appealing little set that surely would've ended up in a dumpster if I hadn't save it.

Bee-Yoo-Tee-Full.. You sure this 'un's only Numero Dos ?!? (Grin)

Thank you Sandy. I've done touch up work on radio cabinets for decades, so I guess that gave me a bit of a kick start. Doing a full restoration always seemed like something I could never do. I have to give credit to YouTube. I just watched a variety of wood refinishing vids, took notes, and narrowed the steps down to what made sense to me. Everyone seems to have their own slant on it.
I'm probably not going to a 3rd for a while because the work is pretty exhausting!

I wish I could do this. (spends lots of money on refinishing classics)

Believe me Rick, I'm tapped on these last projects. Financially and physically! Luckily my friend was kind enough to give me this set and I used materials I already had. I initially spent at least $100 on material that I needed to do this work.
Funny, but although I'm prepped to take on more projects, it's actually going to be a long time before I do.
I would say to try refinishing a small set. You'd be surprised what you can do. Watch some YT vids on refinishing before you start your project.

The finish restos I think I could do, but, I'm dumber than 2 sackfuls of rocks when it comes to tacklin' the "Guttiwutts" of a radio...Apologies to Malcolm McDowell Droog in "A Clockwork Orange...." Remember THAT one, anybody ?!?

Nice work, looks great!

Anybody who has seen that movie isn't going to forget it. Great movie but disturbing for sure. Or at least I hope folks find it disturbing. If not, I'm disturbed!

I only do minor elec. work myself. Local friends restore the chassis' for me.
I went on a "cult-classic" marathon many years ago and covered just about all of them including "Clockwork", which is one of the milder ones. These movies are just art-pieces from minds on drugs...….or should be on drugs....and psychiatric care.
One time only for me with them and I still can't get the stains out of my mind! LOL

LOVED the soundtrack, too... "I Wanna Marry a Lighthouse Keeper..." An', c/mon.. Who DON'T love "Singin' In The Rain" ? One of those other classical songs was the theme for "NBC Nightly News" 1st time I saw "Clockwork"... I'll say this for Kubrick-He SURE knew how to incorporate a KILLER "Mind-Eff" in almost every one of his movies..

If you want to see a real wacky cult "classic", watch John Waters "Desperate Living". You'll never be the same again. LOL