Restoring Firestone 4-A-20

[Reece]

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.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Reece

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.

Congratulations on a job very well done. 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.

[matt_s78mn]

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

[RitchieMars]

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.