Hacking With Gum

I picked up a Crosley 516 AM/SW radio at a hamfest for $30 last year; electrically it worked fine, but was in terrible cosmetic condition; the wood was chipped and warped in places, it was missing knobs, the grille cloth was completely rotted away, and it had been painted over several times:

Cabinet Front View

Cabinet Top View

Inside The Cabinet

Underneath the layer of off-white paint was another layer of baby blue paint; even the knobs and brass had been painted over. After much sanding, and scraping, I finally removed all of the paint from the wood. I was able to chip the paint off the brass with a small screwdriver and then shine it up with brasso. The brass screws for the dial plate had to be replaced, but a replacement set was easily found at Lowe’s. The internal chassis was also cleaned up with a touch of brasso and a can of compressed air.

After applying a couple coats of wood stain and re-affixing the brass dial plate, the cabinet was looking much better:

Cabinet After Wood Finish And Brasso

I found some replacement grille cloth from Antique Radio Grille Cloth. It only cost $7 and was an exact match for the grille cloth that was being replaced (although I don’t believe that it was the original pattern used by Crosley). Per their instructions, I ironed the cloth out, then fixed it in place with spray adhesive and a staple gun. With the grille cloth in place, the internal chassis could be placed back in the cabinet:

Cabinet With New Grille Cloth And Chassis In Place

All that was left now were the knobs, which had to be replaced. Unfortunately, antique radio knobs are not cheap; I found some original replacement knobs for this model radio, but they were selling for $30 a piece and were not a complete set. Instead, I purchased a set of four replica wooden knobs for $5 each from Radio Daze which I think look even better than the original plastic knobs that the set came with. After a quick wipe-down, it was ready for display in living room:

The Crosley 516

Way cooler than it’s faux counterparts (and a fraction of the price)!