Firestone had a nice little chain of retail stores starting in the 40s. Some of the toys that I got as a kid (tricycle for one) came from the local Firestone store. :thmbsp:

"The 1940s saw the emergence of the Firestone Home & Auto Store — a store concept of a one-stop retailer offering everything from automotive services and tires to large household appliances, televisions, toys, bicycles, lawnmowers and even outboard motors with the Firestone name brand affixed. The evolution of the retail stores continued with Firestone Complete Car Service opening in the 1960s offering expanded diagnostic under-car and under-hood service."
From:
http://www.bridgestone-firestone.com...bout/bfrc_cobg

They also sold their own brand of cool looking sparkplugs (pix#1)
(a person can't just collect radios, you know :D)
jr

Thanks, Jr. Tech, you beat me to it. I remember seeing Firestone car batteries, and some folks who lived near us had a Firestone refrigerator. NostalgiaAir refers some Firestone radio models to Stewart-Warner. Not sure in this case but sometimes with "store brand" sets the seller contracted with various manufacturers from year to year.

That's some really nice work! What did you you use for grain filler? I've tried Behlen water based filler a couple times and I'm not that happy with it. I've also used Shellac, but that requires loads of sanding.

You've really got me thinking with that embossing powder. I have several cabinet that were refinished by someone else that obliterated the gold decals. I was considering having custom decals made but that's really expensive. What powder did you use and where did you get it ?

Thanks.

Thanks. The grain filler is Bartley Paste Wood Filler, "Dark." I got it at a woodworking store some years ago. I recently read about coloring and using plaster of paris, which sounds interesting and fast drying. The stuff I used has to dry overnight.

The powder is called Stamp Stuff embossing powder, I used "Pirate Gold" color. Got it at Michael's crafts store. The decal paper came from

http://www.supercaldecals.com/

I ordered the clear. For inkjet printers only. I'd recommend a new black cartridge if yours is kinda iffy.

The way I work it to conserve the paper is to come up with my designs by trying various fonts, etc. Then I print out in black on a piece of plain paper. Then I cut out a piece of the decal paper and carefully tape it all around over the part of the plain paper previously printed. Rub the paper all over with a dryer sheet to cut down static. Then feed it back into the printer so that it will print onto the decal paper this time. Set the printer for best quality print and for photo paper. When it comes out immediately pour the powder over it. Let sit for fifteen seconds. Pour powder off and back into the bottle. A bottle of this stuff will last a long time. Use a small soft brush and brush off the remaining powder from the decal or else you'll have little gold speckles on your decal.

Now you heat the powder. Some use a heat gun. I used the toaster oven set to broil, heat from above. Watch carefully and the gold will appear. There is some happy medium between too much and too little time in the heat. I had to experiment with a number of decals to arrive at my best results. They need to have a thin spritz of lacquer before cutting them out to make them more manageable.

I already described how to apply them. I had to experiment there, also, to get best results. If you PM me some words you want and font (I used Arial Western 16 point on the ones for this set) and font size, I'll be glad to make you some N/C since I'm all set up to do it with more material than I'll probably ever use. That goes for anybody else needing to finish a set.

I'm going to be in Texas for about ten days so can't get back on this radio or anything until after that. Coming down the home stretch on it, though, I hope.

PS: I can even make decals of brand logos if there's something on the web to go by.

Well I'm finally getting down to the end on this radio! There were a lot of tough spots to work through and recreating the damaged dial was no exception. If you recall from earlier pictures, the reverse-painted glass dial had areas where the paint had been scratched off and some of the paint was alligatoring. I reproduced the dial (painfully!) using MS Paint and intended to print it on a translucent peel-off label product that I bought, but the image looked washed out and the resulting large "sticker" was very hard to handle. I ended up printing it on good inkjet photo paper and cutting out with a sharp blade the two horizontal lines where the moving dial pointer shows through. I cut two pieces of clear acrylic of the sort used for storm doors, etc., and sandwiched the photo between them. The edges were then sealed like King Tut's tomb with strips of aluminum HVAC tape. That stuff is made to last in hot attics for decades so oughta do OK here. Here's the dial before mounting it. The pencil behind it shows how the pointer will be seen.
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...created002.jpg

Since it's an AC/DC set, with a capacitor and high-value resistor from line to chassis, I wanted to make the set a bit more safe. I got some nylon bolts and J-B welded some metal nuts to match over the existing underchassis mounting tabs. The nylon bolt heads are exposed underneath the radio. Found some thick round felt pads at Lowe's and stuck on under the four corners. I installed an .01 mfd cap in the line that goes to the external antenna connection. Finally I made a back for the set from 1/8" masonite: six 1" dia. holes with a holesaw in the drill press, and some saber saw work. Now there is no exposed metal that could go live or give a tingle.
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...oneback004.jpg

Weren't there safety standards for AC-DC radios (Underwriters Labs, et al.) when this Firestone set was new? :scratch2: If not, IMHO, there should have been, as some of these older AC-DC sets (especially those in metal cabinets, such as Arvin's model 540T, et al.) could pose a real hazard if the line plug was inserted in the socket a certain way (i. e. so the chassis is hot). I would think your Firestone radio would have been designed from the start with isolation networks, etc. so that there is nothing in the radio to create a shock hazard.

I hate to say it, but my Zenith H511 5-tube set from 1951 doesn't seem to have any kind of isolation network between the line cord and the chassis either. When were radio manufacturers required to design safety features into AC-DC sets? I can't believe this type of radio was in production so long (since the '40s if not earlier) without having protection against electric shock (except, perhaps, for plastic knobs and/or cabinets). I cannot begin to imagine how many people were shocked, injured or killed by these poorly-designed radios (from a safety standpoint), although some of these accidents could have been avoided had the radio been used in dry areas and not, for example, in a bathroom. I read in an old appliance-repair book some years ago of an incident involving an AC-DC radio that was being used in a bathroom, while the owner was taking a shower. He reached out to turn up the volume or tune in another station, the radio fell off the shelf it was sitting on, and fell into the water; the fuse protecting the bathroom circuit immediately blew. I read of another incident (in the same appliance repair book) in which a young mother was giving her baby a bath in the kitchen sink, with a plugged-in electric frying pan nearby. The child started waving its arms around wildly, got caught in the cord, and pulled the appliance into the water. Needless to say, the baby was killed instantly.

Chassis is in the cabinet, felt washers under the knobs, all done. I plugged it in and tuned around for some music. The first thing I hit was Frank singing "You make me feel so young." It was like the radio was singing that to me! Go back and have a look at how sad it was in the beginning. Again thanks to Matt for sending it to me. Finally came to the end of the long, long Firestone road. Hope y'all enjoyed the trip as much as I did. :wave:

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...nished2001.jpg

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...nished2003.jpg

That looks really killer!

Beautiful job :thmbsp: That new veneer and finish really turned out nice.

I have an Admiral 5R11 from the early 50s that came in both UL and non-UL approved versions. Mine is the non UL version with a hot chassis :yikes:

Thanks. The Firestone originally had a back per the screw holes but it was missing. The chassis isn't connected directly to line but through a cap and high value resistor. It wouldn't kill you (unless the cap shorted) but you might get a tingle if you were grounded. The way it is now it's as safe as anything. This radio was built before lawyers were invented. :yes: Besides, anybody who really wants to see fireworks can go stick a fork in a toaster!

Congratulations on a job very well done. :thmbsp: The radio now looks like it just came off the assembly line. However, I am wondering where you found an AM music station in your area. I just looked at the AM radio listings for the Harrisburg-Carlisle area on RadioLocator.com, and found one--exactly one--AM music station in the area, WHYL-960 in Carlisle. The other AMs in the area are sports, talk, or religion, just like everywhere else in the United States today. I wish one of the AMs in Cleveland was still playing music (all of the AMs in this area are talk or a variation thereof). The only music station left in the Cleveland area is WWMK-1260, Radio Disney. There is, however, one good standards station on 1590 from a city about 60 miles southwest of me, which I can hear quite well on my Zenith C845. Another station you may be able to hear in your area, CFZM 740 in Toronto, plays the type of music you mentioned as well. It has a 50kW signal and is heard quite well throughout the northeastern United States; unless there is a strong station on or near 740 in your area, you should hear this one without too much trouble. I live within a mile of the south shore of Lake Erie and can hear it practically 24/7.

WOW Reece! It looks incredible. I've enjoyed following your thorough restoration process.

After reading through the whole process, there is a lot to appreciate in the final result! This is a great example of how even a truly rough-looking radio can be fully recovered by going the extra mile. Particularly crafty is the way you made that dial face decal! I've worked a bit with graphics design programs, but I would feel really intimidated by such a task. I guess it's all in the attention to details, even though I'm sure tiny liberties can be taken that would likely never be noticed.

In any case, I'll have to refer back to this thread for reference in the future. It's restorations like this one, and the end results thereof, that keep me wanting to learn more about the hobby.