I picked up a beat up and incomplete Philco 70 cathedral at a local radio swap recently for $20. I have no idea why, other than the fact that it was cheap. No speaker, and as you can see, the arch top was cut for some reason
Debated what to do with it, but I figured what the heck, I'll test tubes, throw some new filter caps and the bypass caps I could get to (without doing the bakelite blocks
), see if I could locate a speaker, and find out if the old gal had any life.
I managed to pick up a Philco 70 console speaker on ebay for $10 plus shipping, replaced 2 tubes, did the caps as mentioned above, and what do you know, the son of a gun works!!!
So here I have an abused yet working 70. Now what?
I didn't want to really put any money into it, and figured that I could just mount the oversize speaker inside a small stand that the radio would sit on, and make an arch top out of something and use it.
But then I thought....wait a minute. If I Rube Goldberg this set now, some future collector is going to get their hands on this set and curse the day I was born in the same way I'd do that with someone that barn-jobbed something that I wanted to restore.
I decided to re-glue all of the loose but complete veneer on the speaker grille, and repair a missing chunk in the top right with a section from the side. Didn't turn out too bad so far. Still have to give it a coat of Howards. I'll end up buying a repro arch top from that guy that makes repro Philco cases, and eventually find the correct speaker. And then I'll have a really nice 70! Or at least decent
The moral of the story: even if it's pretty far gone, whatever you do, just keep in mind that we're but a step in the set's journey.