New Vintage Audio Restoration HQ

Several before and after pics.

Group 1 is the before / during / after how I bring back the white lettering that has faded over time.

Group 2 is before and after on the metal work on the vintage short wave radio I just received.

Final one is a pic of the two metal switches from the radio - on original and untouched and one after about an hour of polishing.

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Nice work, Michael! I don't know how you have any time to review audio gear considering everything that you've been restoring. Please don't tell me that you have a full-time job as well. If so, my next question will be: How many hours are there in a day in Texas?
 
JCS123 said:
Nice work, Michael! I don't know how you have any time to review audio gear considering everything that you've been restoring. Please don't tell me that you have a full-time job as well. If so, my next question will be: How many hours are there in a day in Texas?
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Yes - this is all part time for me as I do work a normal job. :)

I pretty much eat, sleep, breathe hifi audio when I'm awake and asleep.

I don't want to allow audio to become a full time job. In my mind when that happens and then you need to make money from it, the dynamics change to a place I'd rather not go.

Right now I get to review gear (I turn down about 70% of requests), topics, and restore items that I WANT to spend time on. To me I can't think of something less desirable than creating content on something I don't like.

I also just scored an inbound piece from 1898!! This is going to be an entirely new process for me because rather than restoring / refinishing like I have been doing, I need to move into a preservation-only mode as they are SUPER rare.

I studied how the museums clean preserve and protect middle aged armor over the weekend (to deal with the different kinds of metals, woods and dyes) and ordered about $200 in museum-type preservations products to learn how to tackle that.

For instance, the metal I'm going to be dealing with uses a red Japanese ink dye that is totally unique!

This is going to be fun.......
 
This guys has a channel on restoring vintage audio gear.

He should be put in vintage jail for using Restore n finish on anything.

Basic rule - for the most part if HD or Lowe's sells it, never use it on your nice projects. The only exception would be the Shellac they sell.

This pains me to look at...




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Michaels HiFi said:
This guys has a channel on restoring vintage audio gear.

He should be put in vintage jail for using Restore n finish on anything.

Basic rule - for the most part if HD or Lowe's sells it, never use it on your nice projects. The only exception would be the Shellac they sell.

This pains me to look at...
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Finding those cases these days is pretty hard...
 
Michaels HiFi said:
I don't want to allow audio to become a full time job. In my mind when that happens and then you need to make money from it, the dynamics change to a place I'd rather not go.
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Wise choice. I had been a woodworking hobbyist for many years, but when I started doing it professionally it took all the fun out of it. When you smell sawdust for 8-10 hours a day, the last thing you want is to smell it when you get home.
 
It's amazing to me how in some instances the test equipment from the past runs circles around modern test equipment.

I just got this military analyzer to add to my growing array of vintage test gear to use to restore vintage tube testers and other vintage pieces.


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