Dan's Radio Restoration Tips

Here's a radio restoration tip you may want to share with my fellow Herculodge readers. I've attached a couple of photos, too. 

During cosmetic restoration of several vintage Panasonic radios, I noticed that the anodized-aluminum parts were often tinged with 30+ years of embedded dirt. Scrubbing with traditional household cleaners (e.g., Windex, Cinch, 409, etc.) did next to nothing -- the decades of dirt seemed to be embedded in the "pores" of the metal and refused to be released.

Not willing to give up, I headed out to the garage. Over the years, I've amassed quite a collection of car-care products and decided to try a combination of clay bar and detail spray. Typically, clay bars are used to thoroughly cleanse a car's paint before wax is applied. I reasoned that if a clay bar is able to remove embedded grit from a car's paint, then maybe it can do the same for an old Panasonic RF-1080.

It works! I just misted a little automotive detail spray onto the radio's dirty aluminum and wiped briskly with a clay bar. The dirt sticks to the clay and is magically extracted from the metal leaving a clean, like-new surface. Best of all, there's no risk of scratching the vintage aluminum because there are no abrasives involved.

For a few bucks, you can buy a clay-bar cleaning kit in any auto supply store. And one clay bar will last long enough to clean a hundred radios. Try it! 

Regards,

 Dan Somers

Westford, Mass.

 

Comments

[Guy Atkins]

This is an excellent tip, Dan! I've used clay bars on my cars' finishes for years but never thought of trying it on radio cabinets.

Another useful product for cleaning up grungy receivers is "Magic Eraser" pads from Mr. Clean. There are also generic versions of these in the stores and both seem to work identically. There are no abrasives or cleaning chemicals in the sponge-like pads, but like the clay bar treatment they lift out dirt and grime from surfaces. Be gentle when scrubbing though, because on some surfaces the Magic Erasers can very slightly change the shine or reflection from smooth surfaces. I think it is safer to use the pads on any finish that has a texture to it.