Speed bump

I was cleaning out the garage last week. It was an unusually warm day (around 60) in the NE. To make a long story short, my youngest daughter (20) backed out of the garage and ran over my Philco 20 that was behind her car. She didn't just hit it....she ran it over with her rear tire. All that was left was a pile of toothpicks, broken glass and a blob of metal, formerly known as the chassis.
Does anyone else have a horror story about a radio mishap? Misery loves company, so feel free.
Did I mention I just finished a complete electrical and cabinet restoration of this radio.

So the radio was a bit TIRED?

eeee-yowch!
I don't have a story even close to that. My worst 'restored' disaster was parking a freshly sprayed tombstone along the wall underneath a nail holding several circular saw blades. We apparently had a momentary gravitational burst and you can guess the rest. At least it was repairable.

Hmmm...in your case I wonder if your home or auto insurance would be of any use?

Resistance is Futile wrote:So the radio was a bit TIRED?

LOL, now that's funny! Thanks, I needed the laugh.

When we moved several years ago I didn't really have time to put up shelves in the basement due to all the other renovations that took me longer upstairs than I estimated. Our new neighbor offered me these 2 x 4's with shelf brackets that seemed to work fairly well for some smaller radios. I put small sets on them and then piled other radios in front of them. Sometime later while in the basement I noticed a shelf severely leaning. When I finally moved enough sets to survey the damage I was pretty fortunate. Only one set was pretty well trashed but my beautiful Jesse French looks like someone put their fist threw the top. As long as it's on a high shelf it isn't visible, but someday I'll have to fix it because I know the damage is there.

John

Years ago I was restoring a Philco floor set. I'd spent weeks sanding it down and preparing it for refinishing out in my Father's shop. I refinished the set with several coats of Polyurethane. That night there was a tremendous thunderstorm. Somehow a leak had sprung in only one spot- right above the radio, which got soaked with rainwater. Luckily the finish was only marginally damaged and I was able to sand it out. The radio dried out and still worked.

When I was a teen ager, before the Waltons were ever on tv, I was given The twelve tube deluxe "Walton" radio. Mint cabinet, and, still playing.
I left it on the basement floor one day.
We had a 6' deep flood of sewer water.
When it went down, I was told the radio HAD to be thrown out. Ouch. Still wish I had another.
Bill Cahill

I had moved to northwest Arkansas in 2006 to run a retail store up there, and was unloading my Truetone radio collection from my pickup truck. I picked up one of the wooden radios holding onto the radio underneath the top of the case. When I got the set out of the truck, the radio came completely apart at the seams and the entire radio and chassis fell at my feet on the concrete below. The radio was a total loss. Fortunately it was a battery set and not one of my better radios. Still, it made me sick to see it fall apart like that. I'll never pick up a radio case that way again. I learned the hard way.

moses_007 wrote:I had moved to northwest Arkansas in 2006 to run a retail store up there, and was unloading my Truetone radio collection from my pickup truck. I picked up one of the wooden radios holding onto the radio underneath the top of the case. When I got the set out of the truck, the radio came completely apart at the seams and the entire radio and chassis fell at my feet on the concrete below. The radio was a total loss. Fortunately it was a battery set and not one of my better radios. Still, it made me sick to see it fall apart like that. I'll never pick up a radio case that way again. I learned the hard way.

I had a similar accident happen with a 1940 Philco table model. I had just bought it and was walking to the car with it and for some reason i grabbed it by the top while i was unlocking the car door. The top came loose and the rest hit the asphalt. I was able to repair the cabinet but after that it just wasn't the same. It is a waterfall style cabinet so any repairs will always be noticeable unless i totally re-veneer the cabinet. Luckily it didn't do any damage to the dial scale or chassis.
-Tony