Coca-Cola cooler radio
 

So finally managed to pick up one of these that wasn’t absurdly priced. Mine is missing the grill cloth, does anyone know the proper color cloth? I believe it was a solid color, but most of the internet photos are hard to see.

Should I repaint this thing? Besides the typical nicks and scuffs (which I’m fine with) the paint on the one side is particularly worn

Attachment 197474

The other side has some weird thing going on with the colors. Almost looks like a crappy repaint on only part of the radio

Attachment 197475 Attachment 197476

If I do repaint, it’ll give me an opportunity to repair a few of the broken bars on the grill as well

Thanks all,
Zach

As I recall, the cloth was a coarse buff (tan) colour.

;) Unless your 101% certain you can cosmetically restore it to a degree that an "expert" couldn't tell it was cosmetically restored , I'd leave it alone and repair the internal electronics only , and only to the degree it needs to get it running . Like you so rightly said , where most of those are "absurdly priced" I'd even consider restuffing the caps to preserve it's original internal appearance . In the future the "patina" and slight cracks will be seen as signs of it being a survivor , whereas a badly done cosmetic restoration will DRASTICALLY reduce it's value .