Norm wrote:
> Hello all!
>
> Yes another post from the newbie! With all the talk about radios I have a
> few questions?.....first....are they like, hard to find?.....if found but
> not working, can they be restored? And can they be converted to 12v?
> Radio's were somewhat rare for trucks. 48 to 53 are all the same for
> pratical purposes though there are some minor wiring differences between
> years.
I have bought and restored a couple. Figure that any original will need at
least some cosmetics including knobs, pushbuttons, escutcheon, speaker seal, as
well as a speaker, electronic vibrator, buffer capacitor, solid state diode.
Assuming you bought the radio right, $50 or less you are approaching $200
invested so far. Now you can get to the innards. You should have all
capacitors replaced as they are tin foil and wax paper type and deteriorate
over time. This is relatively cheap for parts but labor intensive. Should also
check all resistors and replace any out of tolerance. There may also be bad
tubes or potentiometer and the tuning mechanism will likely need some tweaking.
This makes the $400 or so reputable repair places charge for a restored radio
seem like not such a bad deal. Ask anyone who is selling a "restored" radio
what exactly is had been done. There is more to it than sprucing up the outside
and testing the tubes. Also consider many places want to do the restoration
themselves before they will put in a printed circuit board to convert to FM.
Even though I did everything mentioned above I had one popular shop in Fla.
tell me they would still have to charge the $275 to restore an already restored
radio before they converted it to FM. They also had a rather rude condescending
attitude which sent me looking elsewhere. I did find a place in Mass the
converted it for the FM conversion price only. They also converted it to 12
volt. The only proper way to do this is to change the transformer and all tubes
to 12 volt. Can be expensive.
This method of restoration leaves the radio intact and more less unchanged
while providing FM. There are also other types of modifications that can be
done to these radio's that require a lobotomy that will give you high power
stereo and such, I just can't bring myself to do this to a otherwise
restorable radio.
>
>
> Grant
50 310052 GMC
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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