Hitachi TRK-7800E Restoration

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kilroy-71

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Nov 4, 2017
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Sweden
This is my first full boombox restoration. This Hitachi model is a lower end model, but the build quality is quite good (if you omit the awful speaker grills and the speakers). It feels quite sturdy and has some weight too. The handle gives a very good quality impression similar to a Sharp GF-8585 that I have. The boombox is also very service friendly.

When I got the Hitachi, it was in a pretty sad state. It was very dirty and the cassette player did not work. The paint was quite worn, but not too bad. The radio worked fine and all pieces were intact. There was also a lot of crackling when operating the controls. The backpiece, speaker grills and the cassette player buttons showed some yellowing.





Besides cleaning it up, fixing the crackling controls and repairing the cassette player I wanted to do something to the speaker grills. My first thought was to replace them with some nice metal speaker grills, but that turned out to be hard as they seem to be glued very hard to the case. So the second best option was to paint them black.

When I opened up the case and reached the cassette player I saw that the belt was totally gone. I found some pieces around the wheel that sits on the motor, which I had to remove



My first attempt to fix it failed. It turned out that I have mounted the new belt in the wrong way, so the tape drive mechanism went in the other direction. See the picture below how I mounted it. The red marking shows how it should be mounted in the correct way.



After fixing the cassette player, spraying the potentiometers with contact cleaner, cleaning the housing, polishing the tuner glass and all controls, cleaning and demagnetizing the tape head everything was put together. The result is shown below. I feel very pleased with the result! Everything is working fine including the cassette player. There is still some minor crackling in the controls and sometimes the tuner only plays in one speaker when in stereo mode, but that can be fixed by turning the tuner on and off once.



Note also the chrome that I added to the cassette controls. I think that it was a nice way of hiding the yellowing on the plastic. The painted grills are also much better. I only wish that the speakers had been more visible as they have chrome caps. The speakers sound a little weak, so if I find some suitable subsitute speakers later, I will replace them.
 

Xander

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Oct 25, 2017
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Nice work very tidy, it does look much better with the black grills.

Well done sir!
 

MyOhMy

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Jul 26, 2015
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Sleaford, Lincolnshire, UK.
Cracking job, the black grills really do make a vast improvement. Did the grills turn out to be plastic moulded along with the case? If they are, what was your painting technique? I ask as I have a TRK-8300 which may benefit from the same treatment.
 

kilroy-71

Member (SA)
Nov 4, 2017
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Sweden
Did the grills turn out to be plastic moulded along with the case? If they are, what was your painting technique?
I do not know, either that or they are glued. I masked the entire boombox carefully and used a plastic primer first. Then I painted the grills with a matte black spray paint. The good thing with the primer was that the paint sticked very well to the plastic grills. The downside was that the primer gathered up along the edges of the grills as a sticky residue which was practically impossible to remove completely. So I had to cover it in some way. I had a black silicone sealer at home that I decided to use for this. So I put a thin string of silicone around the grills and carefully removed the excess.

Maybe it is better to skip the primer. I would probably try without on one speaker grill if I did the same thing once more...

 

Gerrit

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Feb 8, 2018
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Hello Kilroy-71

I am new here and working on the same Toshiba TRK-7800E.
The drivingbelt was some kind of melted.
I messured the length with a peace of rope and it is 27cm.
Because the belt must be shorter, I wonder what the length should be.
Can you tel me what the right length is.

Greatings Gerrit
 
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