What's Your Hackiest Fix?

[Gluecifer]

We all try and do our best at restorations, but sometimes we have those fixes we aren't to proud of that work well as place-holder (or sometimes permanent!) fixes to get our radios rockin on.

I'll open up with my favourite.
I hate having a radio I can't run on batteries and carry around with me, I don't like it at all. There's nothing worse than getting a killer new box only to find some corrosion or rust on the battery terminals that prevents batteries connecting properly. Of course the correct way to repair this is to take the box apart and replace the terminals, or sand them back to bare metal at least. But all to often I find this is the only thing wrong with a box I receive and the effort required to remove the other components to get in to where the terminals is not an attractive proposition. Especially if it's a notoriously tricky box to get apart or you share my unlluckiness in reassembling a box to find you've accidentally cause a new issue.

So, what do you?

(Norm, please stop reading now)

My favourite go-to fix to get the current flowing again is getting some aluminium foil and scruching it around the offending terminals. When it's only slight surface corrosion this bridges the terminal perfectly to the battery. Most of the time the corrosion is only on the outside end of the terminal and a bit of foil covering this and wrapping around the still conductive terminal coils works wonders and has brought to life every box that refused to work on batteries previously with this problem.

Theres numerous radios in my collection with very tetchy terminals but this little hack fix makes them all rock hard out in the wild.

What's your favourite hack you use on a regular basis?



Rock On.

 

[redbenjoe]

" you talkin' to ME " ????


i make battery covers, handles , deck doors , brass engraving covers, aluminum crack patches,
odd speakers jacks & plugs , spray jobs w/o masking tape , emblems-
and have made TWO entire woodie cases

ALL HACK

( dont buy from me )

 

[THAFUZZ]

Electrical tape to hold down the Transformer due to the mounting screw posts busted off. Then, switched to double sided sticky tape.

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

Oh Gawd, here goes all my credibility on this site (like I had any )

OK, My TRC-920....one of the TRUE work horses of my collection was fondly referred to as the "Epoxy Box". It shows up from UPS pulverized....in 40 plus pieces ranging in size from Half the radio down to 1/4 inch slivers....

The radio had been glued together before and many of the back posts had been repaired, but they were all broken now...

But I just couldn't see her go in the trash

So, I broke out the epoxy, a 12 pack of beer and stayed up all night putting Humpty Dumpster back together again....

Sadly, many of my great connections didn't line up to good

For the REALLY big cracks I lined the inside of the radio were the crack was with pennies and epoxied them in place to hold the two sides together....

That was over two years ago....and she is still solid as a rock

I will never ever sell this radio, so I don't care....she is fully functional and sounds great...

She is like many of my old girl friends, "Good from a far, but far from good"

STILL PUMPIN'
[youtube]BwYbsE-bYc4[/youtube]

 

[Gluecifer]

Hahah this is all awesome!!!

You guys are the best.



Rock On.

 

[Jboogie2384]

Glue gun on all my Lasonic's that come to me with the transformer dancing inside the radio!! Crazy gluing tape keys that fall off praying I don't have to work on the decks afterwards!

 

[sony_apm_fan]

I prefer all of my repairs to be with genuine parts, following the printed service manual to the letter.

All repairs then take place in a dust free clean room environment with positive pressure airflow.

How one could consider using aluminum foil is beyond me.

I would like to suggest that ALL boxes this individual has "repaired" in this manner be shipped to my location promptly.

 

[Gluecifer]

hahaha!



Rock On.

 

[redbenjoe]

almost forgot to mention my ultimate regular hack job --
it quickly repairs cracks, etc and adds color and excitement to most any boxes

example --these little F3s --sound great -
( SELLING A MINTY JOB HERE ___TODAY)

so perfect to carry about the shore --to use as footballs, etc

one of mine arrived from ebay with holes in the woof grills -
lots of 'bruises' and paint spots --
plus the dreaded cigar MELT syndrome :'-(

so --popped over to the dollar store --
nabbed the 100 stickers for a buck deal-
fixed up this little guy --
and still have plenty left over for whatever future boxes i post for sale to you fellas

 

[ledmeter]

This is so cool! Awesome thread Glue.
Hmm.., I've never done a quick fix on a box... all mine I've I've opened them have had a full strip (never did they ever feel so special), a bath in warm soapy water in the actual bath, every single immersible piece cleaned an scrubbed with a soft toothbrush an toothpaste on stubborn bits, especially the plated parts which form green corrosion spots, then a nice lukewarm shower to rinse off, a soft towel dry and a blast of compressed air in all the parts which retain water, since I became a painter,if the cabinet is poor it gets a proper paint restoration including colour matching and every crack or dent repaired!
Then all the interior parts get a high pressure air blast from my huge compressor, cassette mechanism lubricated as new belts are put in, if the head is poor then it is replaced but don't ask me if I use correct replacement... All clear plastic parts are taken to work and professionally polished, if they are scratched then I sand it out then polish to high lustre. Speaker grilles are also taken to work and 'panelbeaten' and repainted in 2part colour match.
Sometimes I feel bad about taking away the history and life of the box with a restoration but all in all it does them good as then I'm sooooo happy to sit and stare at them until someone makes a remark suggesting how wrong it is to be so in love with a radio cassette player. Then I sneak some sly glances whenever applicable.

 

[ledmeter]

but the hack I'm most proud of is replacing the center pin or the 'hub' of a busted volume control pot (how did this happen?!) and straightening out the contacts in a big Hitachi TRK-8600 which was the stereo at my art class in school, I remembered it and went back to ask about it, and was promptly given it straight away!, minus the cassette door which was later located and brought to me! The teacher was so inspired by the idea of his box being part of a collection as he's a collector himself of various things. I never restored that box, it just wasn't possible.., so I just got it clean and fully working. I love it.

 

[hemiguy2006]

Omg Ira you have me laughing to myself at work.
Oh btw please don't ever open up that 1000

 

[Fatdog]

Let's don't forget Ira's pièce de résistance - the battery cover made of wood. And... he even made poor Skippy pay 67 cents more in postage!

 

[redbenjoe]

yup

and that story gets even ' more worser '

by the time skippy scrounged $ around to accumulate the 67 cents --
he had already sold the freekin box !!!!

:annoyed: :annoyed:

 

[stormsven]

My Hackiest fix was on one Sony CFS F5 which i got from a trade with Zippy. The tape not workin and was stuck. I decided to open and see what is goin on inside. The boomer was hooked to electricity and i just turned it upside down to check what kind of tools will need... heard some clicks...... tape was workin again . So thats my hackiest and favorite fix
O yea - almost forgot - other "easy" fix on other Sony - my Zilbap tape was dead as well. Was playing with tape control knobs to see the status. Pushed play , nothing, at that time somebody called me and i went out leaving (forgot) the pure boomer to struggle. And miracle - when i got back home after few hours found the cassette at the end and the tape playing perfectly again
So that what i call REAL hack

 

[redbenjoe]

stormsven --thats not a certified hack

those 2 repairs are twice in a lifetime luck

 

[bklyn sound]

ira you are to much my hack job is my restorations......a hack saw jb weld and a buzz bomb in hand

 

[skippy1969]

LOL!!!! I almost forgot about the woodie battery door........
But I didn't forget the 67 cents Ira stuck me with................. :annoyed:

 

[Superduper]

I am appalled. Shocked even.

HOW ARE WE FRIENDS ?
































:grim:

I'M OUTTA HERE.

 

[JustCruisin]

This is so cool! Awesome thread Glue.
Hmm.., I've never done a quick fix on a box... all mine I've I've opened them have had a full strip (never did they ever feel so special), a bath in warm soapy water in the actual bath, every single immersible piece cleaned an scrubbed with a soft toothbrush an toothpaste on stubborn bits, especially the plated parts which form green corrosion spots, then a nice lukewarm shower to rinse off, a soft towel dry and a blast of compressed air in all the parts which retain water, since I became a painter,if the cabinet is poor it gets a proper paint restoration including colour matching and every crack or dent repaired!
Then all the interior parts get a high pressure air blast from my huge compressor, cassette mechanism lubricated as new belts are put in, if the head is poor then it is replaced but don't ask me if I use correct replacement... All clear plastic parts are taken to work and professionally polished, if they are scratched then I sand it out then polish to high lustre. Speaker grilles are also taken to work and 'panelbeaten' and repainted in 2part colour match.
Sometimes I feel bad about taking away the history and life of the box with a restoration but all in all it does them good as then I'm sooooo happy to sit and stare at them until someone makes a remark suggesting how wrong it is to be so in love with a radio cassette player. Then I sneak some sly glances whenever applicable.