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.
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.
