Levels of Restoration - Is it worth the effort?

[Kent King]

This may start a religious debate....but when do you think it is worthwhile to go to the trouble of stuffing original capacitors and all the other detail work that makes a restoration as "original" as possible?

For myself, I have only done this in a few cases, primarily the rarest or most historically significant sets in my collection. Sets like an Allwave 27 (Baby Quaranta), a Special...those sets certainly deserve the detailed treatment. But what about an Allwave 23 or a Philharmonic? From a purely financial standpoint, it is doubtful that you'd recover the time and effort from such work. If it is done purely as a "labor of love", then perhaps that doesn't matter as much.

I have actually gone to this trouble for an Allwave 23. I bought a virtually mint set at an estate sale years ago, I became the 2nd owner. It had been serviced, but was 98% original, so I restuffed everything and made it look like it did the day it was delivered. Even if I don't recover that time in dollars, it was worth it to me to see the beauty of the finished result.

What are your thoughts? When do you do a highly detailed restoration vs. an "operating" restoration?

Kent

[Bill Liers]

Kent,

For myself, I would reserve re-stuffing for radios of historic significance (ie: Quaranta and possibly Baby Quaranta). It calls the question to mind, "how often will someone be looking under the chassis ?". I've only done this on my M.S. VI. One of my Philharmonics was restored (yellow cap) by an old Scott employee and I'm still on the fence about how to go about the work on my latest Philharmonic FM.

I often re-stuff electrolytic cans and boxes primarily to preserve the locations and save me from installing terminal strips however, few of the 100 or so radios that I've worked on now have had all resistors in tolerance. I wonder how you approach a set that you would perform a "re-stuffing level" restoration on which needs resistors replaced. I typically use larger wattage types to "improve" the period look but these are far from original.

regards, Bill

[Scott Seickel]

There is nothing worse than looking under a chassis and see cheap chinese yellow caps....YUK! 

I think Scott's are rare enough, especially with only a 7% survival rate, that they all are special and should be as authentic as possible.  These sets were not made by the millions like Philco and others. 

I certainly would pay LESS for a set that did not look authentic under that chassis- especially if they were those yellow caps. 

[Lonnie Price]

I don't think its over the top to restuff these caps.  I am going to try it more.  I would include on items I restore a BOM which would accurately describe the pieces  added or modified internally in order to preserve the originality. I love turning a Hi-Fi amp over and finding pretty mullards, orange drops, black beauties, bumble bees,etc.. But I like to see those big wax caps in there original spots. I would liken it to putting a period quadrajet on my SS rather than the factory tagged carburetor. I think going the extra mile to preserve the markings and brand of the original pieces has its place.  Those with a WAF factor may need to politely consider the mess they WILL make and avoid domestic turmoil by not doing this in their kitchen..Of course I'm a bachelor and can get away with wax and messes like that in the kitchen..haha. If you do consider this, Buy yourself a hot plate and save your marriage.

I have a Sixteen that I would stuff, my 800 likely not, My "new" project, a 300lb , '39 Capehart 400, 2a3 PPP amped, record changer, WE stuffed cab will likely get the detailed treatment.. 50 bux BTW on CL yesterday..:-)  Sadley One of these projects might be on the bubble now.  I may be offering the Sixteen for sale again (to a restorer) to finance the Capehart. I am running out of space.

I guess the bottom line is that it is up to the guy holding the soldering iron..