I posted a pic of this box a couple of days ago before it was finished under "What Boombox Are You Cranking..."
Well, I finally finished it.
I got this from member Styleking at a little mini-meet we had at my place back in August, along with a Telefunken 1M. I agreed to go through his Sanyo MX-920 and figured I'd dig into the Telefunken when I was wrapped up with the Sanyo. I finished the Sanyo and took a break for a week. Then I started a huge roofing job in Boston (I'm a project manager) that cost me most of my waking hours until this past week.
Now, the Telefunken works, but is due for some TLC. The 20/20, on the other hand, was a different story.
Jerry handed it off to me partially disassembled with a plastic grocery bag of parts and told me that he was told everything was there. I'm usually skeptical about stuff like this but I trust Jerry, it cost me nothing, and I'm up for a challenge. Worst-case-scenario: I'd have plenty of parts for members who needed them. I decided to take it on before the Telefunken only because I hate to have more than one open project at a time, and this was already a project underway.
After a close inspection a day or so later, I realized that it was absolutely saturated in nicotine residue, much like the one in member stevenrob's post here: https://boomboxery.com/forum/index.php/topic/25832-stop-smoking/
I like to think it spent it's working life behind the bar in a social club or something, but I have no idea. I had a lot of trouble trying to catch the filth on this thing with my old S4, but you can even see in this crappy pic a few of the spots where the nicotine stains really collected. I actually took this pic after a light coat of flat white on the woofs, just to see how they'd look behind the grills.
I started off slow, due to the little free time I had, with all the usual cleaning and polishing.
Then it was time to get down to business. The pots and switches were practically useless due to all the noise and lack of reliability, most likely due to the awful smoke contamination. I started with zero-residue contact cleaner just to flush out the bulk of the filth inside the controls. I then hit them with plenty of Deoxit D100 - apply - work control - flush with contact cleaner - 'nuther dose of Deoxit, and so on.
Here's a gratuitous pic of the main board in the back case with the deck removed.
Once I was satisfied, I wanted to get a better look at the tuner board. It was really weak trying to pull FM, but had no trouble with the other bands. Now, I didn't order a service manual for this box only because it's just a very straight-forward build with a mechanical deck. That said, I figured a visual "once-over" on the tuner board may yield a clue. I noticed a few heat-damaged resistors.
I was surprised to find they were only slightly out of spec, but enough to warrant replacement (I don't remember the values off the top of my head). There was certainly an improvement after I changed them, but FM is still weaker than it should be. I'll end up breaking down and getting the service manual. There's obviously more to it than just those resistors, but I wasn't in the mood to remove and test all related components. FM is working (in stereo), and that's enough for now.
Last but not least, I cleaned, lubed, and re-belted the deck. I've got to say: I really like the simple-yet-decent build on this mechanical deck. My only pic of the removed deck is on my work laptop, and I'm not going near that place today. I'm sure there are plenty of pics on the internet if anyone wants to see what it looks like.
As for cosmetics, I wanted to keep it as original as possible since it's a fairly rare AKA. I did take some artistic liberty, which you should spot in the finished pics. I only painted a few of the face surfaces where someone had taken a Brillo pad to the plastic. The color match was pretty darn close, but a little more metallic than I was looking for. Still, a vast improvement and I don't think most would even notice. The blemishes seen on the sides go into the plastic, so they are still slightly visible.
I also painted the back case. I was hoping to do a Retro-Brite treatment, but after cleaning off the nicotine stains I found it to be covered in white overspray that I could not remove. This is the second box I've used automotive interior paint on the back case and, so far, I'm super-pleased with it.
Without further ado, here's the finished box (for now):
A special
to Jerry (Styleking) for making me a 20/20 Club Member.
This wasn't as comprehensive a restoration post as some of Chris' (Lasonic TRC-920), but it's been a while so I'm a little out of practice.
Considering what I started with, I'm really happy with the finished product. I'll eventually get that tuner dialed in.
But I do have a message for the Telefunken: "You're next..."
Well, I finally finished it.
I got this from member Styleking at a little mini-meet we had at my place back in August, along with a Telefunken 1M. I agreed to go through his Sanyo MX-920 and figured I'd dig into the Telefunken when I was wrapped up with the Sanyo. I finished the Sanyo and took a break for a week. Then I started a huge roofing job in Boston (I'm a project manager) that cost me most of my waking hours until this past week.
Now, the Telefunken works, but is due for some TLC. The 20/20, on the other hand, was a different story.
Jerry handed it off to me partially disassembled with a plastic grocery bag of parts and told me that he was told everything was there. I'm usually skeptical about stuff like this but I trust Jerry, it cost me nothing, and I'm up for a challenge. Worst-case-scenario: I'd have plenty of parts for members who needed them. I decided to take it on before the Telefunken only because I hate to have more than one open project at a time, and this was already a project underway.
After a close inspection a day or so later, I realized that it was absolutely saturated in nicotine residue, much like the one in member stevenrob's post here: https://boomboxery.com/forum/index.php/topic/25832-stop-smoking/
I like to think it spent it's working life behind the bar in a social club or something, but I have no idea. I had a lot of trouble trying to catch the filth on this thing with my old S4, but you can even see in this crappy pic a few of the spots where the nicotine stains really collected. I actually took this pic after a light coat of flat white on the woofs, just to see how they'd look behind the grills.
I started off slow, due to the little free time I had, with all the usual cleaning and polishing.
Then it was time to get down to business. The pots and switches were practically useless due to all the noise and lack of reliability, most likely due to the awful smoke contamination. I started with zero-residue contact cleaner just to flush out the bulk of the filth inside the controls. I then hit them with plenty of Deoxit D100 - apply - work control - flush with contact cleaner - 'nuther dose of Deoxit, and so on.
Here's a gratuitous pic of the main board in the back case with the deck removed.
Once I was satisfied, I wanted to get a better look at the tuner board. It was really weak trying to pull FM, but had no trouble with the other bands. Now, I didn't order a service manual for this box only because it's just a very straight-forward build with a mechanical deck. That said, I figured a visual "once-over" on the tuner board may yield a clue. I noticed a few heat-damaged resistors.
I was surprised to find they were only slightly out of spec, but enough to warrant replacement (I don't remember the values off the top of my head). There was certainly an improvement after I changed them, but FM is still weaker than it should be. I'll end up breaking down and getting the service manual. There's obviously more to it than just those resistors, but I wasn't in the mood to remove and test all related components. FM is working (in stereo), and that's enough for now.
Last but not least, I cleaned, lubed, and re-belted the deck. I've got to say: I really like the simple-yet-decent build on this mechanical deck. My only pic of the removed deck is on my work laptop, and I'm not going near that place today. I'm sure there are plenty of pics on the internet if anyone wants to see what it looks like.
As for cosmetics, I wanted to keep it as original as possible since it's a fairly rare AKA. I did take some artistic liberty, which you should spot in the finished pics. I only painted a few of the face surfaces where someone had taken a Brillo pad to the plastic. The color match was pretty darn close, but a little more metallic than I was looking for. Still, a vast improvement and I don't think most would even notice. The blemishes seen on the sides go into the plastic, so they are still slightly visible.
I also painted the back case. I was hoping to do a Retro-Brite treatment, but after cleaning off the nicotine stains I found it to be covered in white overspray that I could not remove. This is the second box I've used automotive interior paint on the back case and, so far, I'm super-pleased with it.
Without further ado, here's the finished box (for now):
A special
to Jerry (Styleking) for making me a 20/20 Club Member.This wasn't as comprehensive a restoration post as some of Chris' (Lasonic TRC-920), but it's been a while so I'm a little out of practice.
Considering what I started with, I'm really happy with the finished product. I'll eventually get that tuner dialed in.
But I do have a message for the Telefunken: "You're next..."
After restoration looks mint! 
