One of my hobbies is converting old car radios to AM/FM/Bluetooth and handsfree phone.
A mate has purchased an imported Plymouth delivery van and asked to me to convert the radio for him and what a challenge this radio has been. This is the first time I have seen a radio style like the Philco and it was in a very sorry state of repair. For starters the volume/tone control was open circuit and these are impossible to buy new necessitating the modification of a modern pot to replace the 73 year old one. I drilled out and turned down some brass rod in the lathe to make the two shafts that were needed and silver soldered them to the shafts of a modern dual shaft potentiometer. Note: you have to use low melting point silver solder such as Commweld 965 to avoid heat damage to the potentiometer carbon tracks. Once the internal shaft has been silver soldered in position wrap a piece of alfoil around the shaft before sliding the external shaft on and soldering into position - (the alfoil stops any stray silver solder from the external shaft soldering to the inner shaft) pull the alfoil out from between the two shafts when finished.
the photos below show the old pot, modified pot and unmodified new pot
A mate has purchased an imported Plymouth delivery van and asked to me to convert the radio for him and what a challenge this radio has been. This is the first time I have seen a radio style like the Philco and it was in a very sorry state of repair. For starters the volume/tone control was open circuit and these are impossible to buy new necessitating the modification of a modern pot to replace the 73 year old one. I drilled out and turned down some brass rod in the lathe to make the two shafts that were needed and silver soldered them to the shafts of a modern dual shaft potentiometer. Note: you have to use low melting point silver solder such as Commweld 965 to avoid heat damage to the potentiometer carbon tracks. Once the internal shaft has been silver soldered in position wrap a piece of alfoil around the shaft before sliding the external shaft on and soldering into position - (the alfoil stops any stray silver solder from the external shaft soldering to the inner shaft) pull the alfoil out from between the two shafts when finished.
the photos below show the old pot, modified pot and unmodified new pot
