One man's trash.......

Is my treasure!


This M90 came from a member on S2G selling this as a 'parts only' radio. They took some parts, swapped decks, and already had some parts removed ready to sell in pieces.


Thanks to a tip from a member here that needed a part, but couldn't justify the cost of shipping the whole radio overseas, I agreed to buy the whole thing to help them out. No problem. Everyone can use M90 parts, I was happy to get them spread out.


One problem.... the seller said this radio works! Besides some cosmetic issues and a big ass-hole in the case, why tear it apart!? We all know a whole semi-working M90 is better than no M90.

I had some hope that maybe this could be literally a 'beater with a heater'. I am still holding up my bargain with the member that asked for the speaker, I have 1 I can send him and still keep this radio together.

It showed up not packed very well. No screws holding it together. Power switch board removed and smashed. VUs removed. 1 screw holding the deck in. 2 screws holding the chassis in...... A lot of things rattling around and I wasn't too sure it would be ok. I had to wait to test anything because of the smashed power switch board. I lucked out that babboybill had the board from a unit he parted out a few years ago. Lucky me!

I soldered the switch to the new board, plugged in the pcbs I needed to, and it actually does work!!!!!

Time to break it down for a cleaning, paint some ****, and put some lipstick on this pig!

http://youtu.be/EqamOSYQccQ

she lives

Glad all worked out for ya Joe 😎👍😎👍😎👍😎


Bad Boy Bill

Looking good!!!

She lives, but now in pieces! I'm excited to see what color to try this time.

A mere mortal such as I would balk at the challenge, I nominate blu-fuz for a Purple Boombox bravery award.

Nice one

The tuner works ok and amp sounds strong and looks balanced. Fantastic basis for a strong user box in a custom colour!

nice save , joe -
from this point on you will be known thruout this site --and the entire free world as
Norm // superduper JUNIOR

after you ship out a speaker -
will it still have 2 factory m90 speakers ?

White, white handle, sapphire blue speakers, red JVC badge! Lol!
M60 deck is the same I've heard?

Ira, yes - this M90 will keep it's original woofers. I have a spare black painted original woofer from my Redfire M90 that I can send to the other member. PS, super-duper JR level I would vote to Chris. He is like the Frankenstein version of Norm, hahaa

Hisrudeness, this radio did come with the cassette deck. It doesn't matter to me if it works or not, so I will just stick it back in as-is and if I ever get a rainy day to tinker with it, I will try to resurrect the deck.




Jimmy, you are right, the sound is balanced, clear, and all the pots seems to be working good. The volume pot at about 40% volume gets scratchy but clears up. Hopefully it is just dust and not broken feelers inside the pot. It gets plenty loud at 40%, it might be OK.


There are a lot of broken posts that the speakers, chassis, and rear case. (5) broken woofer screw posts out of 8. Both power switch screw posts broken. (3) chassis screw posts broken. 1 or 2 rear case mount screw posts broken.

Besides the power switch, Bill also sent me a SW radio band button, metal trim around the radio bands, and chassis screws. I had a banged up M90 top trim here I can straighten out a bit and use for this blaster. It's a little cruddy inside so it will get the full bath treatment. The case will get a new corner grafted in from one of my M70 part boxes. The grills will get straightened and painted. I think I will go with a nice royal/medium blue metallic. It will have the same scheme/layout as my Redfire M90 where the center section will remain original M90 gray.


This is exciting!!!

Joe the boombox savior!
He raises the dead!

Bill is great help! Great guy!

He hand delivered me a micro switch for my Big Ben and now the cassette works like magic.

Wow, judging from the state of this poor box, it at least attests to the build quality as this box obviously had a Rough life and can still be working !

Nice to see it will get some lovin' it has so sadly been missing in it's life !

Look forward to the new color!

MyOhMy said:

A mere mortal such as I would balk at the challenge, I nominate blu-fuz for a Purple Boombox bravery award.

Click to expand...

MyOhMy said:

A mere mortal such as I would balk at the challenge, I nominate blu-fuz for a Purple Boombox bravery award.

Click to expand...

purple for Prince

WOW, WOW and SUPER WOW!

When I stumbled into this community years ago people were just starting to take radio's apart, clean them and make them look good again (Hemiguy). Then came the next new trend of custom painting (Mellymelsr).

Now we are to the point of ultimate salvage, where what would have been a parts box or just trash is able to be returned to working order. Even more than that, members have parts "In Stock" . One again BadBoyBill is there in a clutch!

Damn these threads are inspirational! IMPRESSIVE!

As for me being Norm Jr,....I WISH! I just like mashing parts together to see what works and what smokes

Ain't no doubt about it Joe, you are the MAN when it comes to bringing back M90's from the brink!

^ ^ ^ Now, that's what I call a very complimentary, positive and inspiring post.

The line that had the most impact was: " Even more than that, members have parts "In Stock" " I had to laugh!

You guys/gal are awesome. Thanks for the kind words, it helps motivate more than you know! I truely enjoy the challenge and also love the the history these radios tell by their scars. The enthusiast in me says to rebuild it, so I have to.


Onward and upward!

Some progress tonight. Peeled the stickers off and goo-gone the sticky crud. Bath for the case. Straightened and painted the grills. Polished the tuner window and VU plexi. This is fun!

Awesome bro. I can't wait to see the case repair. You mentioned using the case from an M70?

Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk