The cabinet repairs were first since I did not have the tubes for the radio yet. I started working on the cabinet, first gluing together some of the wood that was splitting. Second, the whole cabinet was stripped down and some repairs were performed on the wood strip at the bottom right. I used provincial stain on most of the cabinet and walnut stain on the trims. After the stain dried, the cabinet was varnished then lightly sanded with steel wool and varnished again. What once looked nasty came out as a gorgeous radio.
By the time the tubes were obtained, all of the capacitors had been replaced. The chassis was inspected for one last time then the radio was fired up. The radio did not even hum or make any sound, which suggested that there may be bad connections but it turned out that the output transformer was open. A modern audio output transformer from Radio Shack was used to replace the dead audio transformer, and brought the radio to life. Well, it hummed but that is a start!
The grid caps on the tubes were tapped but produced no audible noise, which indicated a possible problem with the audio amplifier stage. The grid bypass resistors were checked and most were way out of value. After these resistors were replaced, the radio produced feedback noise when the grid caps were tapped. However, the stations were not coming in clearly; any station tuned in was just a buzz or crackle. Perplexed, I replaced the 6A7 oscillator tube to see if there was a difference. Indeed, there was a noticeable difference in the hum. Finally, it came to me that the missing tube shields could be the problem. Some tube shields were stolen from parts radios, and voila! The radio played perfectly.
Since the output transformer was very tiny and modern, it was hidden behind the original transformer so the interior appears original. A new dial cover was remade using a method here. New grille cloth was ordered from Antique Radio Grille Cloth. Also the chassis was cleaned and polished before it was inserted back in the cabinet.
