
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.

Recent Comments