old radio from around 1935- 1940 maybe?

[philford]

I have an old AM radio and was wondering what it could be from.
Its a philco and I believe Philco owned ford or was it the reverse.

it has a round dial that is to go in the dash. it looks really cool, the radio itself is in a wrinkle painted tin box that would be hidden under the dash.. the dial turns a cable , and it probably has a similar volume control.

i restore radios of the era as a side hobby, so I was considering restoring it.

the dial has a V with an 8 in the middle of the V so its from somethign with a V8 and i thought maybe some who are into older fords might be familiar.

it does not say ford. but I thought maybe others would be familiar with that V8 logo it's probably unique enough to point ot a brand.

it could be from somewhere intot the 40's I assume, its tubes not transistors.. I think its pretty early, whatever it is.

It's rare, not many radios had the dial separate from the radio itself.

i figure somewhere out there there is a guy with a round hole in his dash that would really love this thing.

i have a bunch of others some are into the 50's I assume, big box that fits in the dash or under the dash.

anyone know when ford cars went from 6 - 12 V?

old radios like this used vibrators, not like the one your wife has, it's a buzzer that makes pulsed DC.. the tubes need higher voltage so once it is AC it can be transformed up to a higher voltage.

I have a really early book about installing radios in very old cars with canvas tops

 

[DON]

. Pics?

 

[philford]

this one is 1937 , mine is very similar.

looks like the V8 symbol doubles as the station pointer. so he'd be at about 840 on the AM dial , in the pic.

First car radio receiver 1937

When did ford introduce the V8?

This would be a pre war radio, and not so long before WWII and most companies that made radio factories would have been redirected into military purposes not long after. likely cars for the consumer market also moved towards military contracts.

after the war, radio production resumed and tube radio technology had changed significantly.

philco likely made radios for other cars but I think that unique V8 logo might mean it's from a ford.

 

[TrickSix]

I have an old AM radio and was wondering what it could be from.

i restore radios of the era as a side hobby, so I was considering restoring it.

Cool! Although I like almost anything old. Maybe you'll find these of interest. I didn't think I would ever buy a collection of early 50s Crosley tube radios. But a buddy knew somebody who knew a guy who was liquidating a big radio collection, I think it was an estate situation, and they were cheaper by the dozen! Although my buddy got the coolest wooden ones... The two twin dial ones are clock radios with alarm. Set the time, and when it comes around the radio turns on and an outlet built into the side of the radio energizes, probably for a coffee pot. All with tube technology.

 

[philford]

I have examples of all those and I agree the D-25 is the nicest of the lot. I restored a couple of those, one I painted the metallic grey color with basecoat clearcoat and got the color close to that show, the other was for a friened, he had a beautiful white example.
the techron clocks are pretty common , yes that one does have a switch for the plug in on the side. I usually drill a small hole in the copper can and lube them up.. it contains gear motor for the clock its basically a sealed up motor that works off the resonance of the nearby wire coil. As they age out the clocks can get a little grumbly but clocks like that always keep the exact time, they are extremely accurate.

prices vary but roughly a hundred - 200 maybe double after restoring.

one I had would "thunderstorm" its caused by "silver mica disease" which can affect the IF transformers.

if you wan tot work on it I;d replace the electrolytic transformers power it on gently, I like to ramp up the voltage,,slowly..

and then replace any paper caps one at a tinme with a test between. then I check all the resistors and replace any out by more than about 15 %.. then perform allignment.

the schematic and allignment instructions are here

Nostalgia Air: Crosley Corp.

the one wiht the clock is often coined a "dashboard radio" its from about 1952

it is a D-25, for the others , refer to the tag on them.

you'll see there are some different schematics, proabably basically the same but maybe slight differences.

this is a good place to buy capacitors

Capacitors, Resistors and Schematics for Tube Radios / Electronics

Specializes in high voltage Capacitors and Resistors for vintage tube radios / electronics. Sells high voltage axial and radial Electrolytic and Film Capacitors. Also carries Carbon Composition, Metal Oxide, Metal Film and Power Resistors for tube electroncs.

justradios.com

before you begin I'd read some of this its well written and helful info

Replacing Capacitors in Old Radios and TVs

any old radio will hum , it will not perform properly , it needs restoration .

it should be checked over , so personally I never plug one in unless its on my bench and apart so I can see whats going on inside , and if it looks safe to plug in. in some cases youcan burn out the speaker or power transformer by something like a capacitor being dead shorted.

also becaue of age, I do not recommend leaving old radios plugged in when not in use.
that said a properly restored radio will wirk well for years and they can be rebuilt and the tubes do last when not being used. the tubes used in those are quite common ones.

some radios are "hot chassis radios" they are not uncommon, Id suggest you try to understand what that means, I use a isolation transformer.. an isolation transformer isolates me and my test equi[pment from true line voltage. it is a 1:1 transformer, it can only conduct so much, mine is 2 maybe 3 amps.

an isolation transformer has no electrical connnection between the input and output leads. energy is only transfered by induction, not direct connection. htis is for your safety.

if you dont onw one just be careful and make sure its unlplugged when you touch it and you should be ok.

grounds are considered dangerous around a radio bench so an ungrounded wood bench is normally used.



briefly,, a lot of those all "american five radios" have hot chassis... yes it is electrically connected to the plug and the plug was not polarized so yes you can get electrocuted by touching the chassis.. the only isolation was a back cover , which many have lost, and the plastic knobs..

you can look up "dim bulb tester" basically just take a extension cord, cut one wire, install a light bulb socket between the cut wires and you now own a dim bulb tester. you can look that term up. it will be helpful.

this one has metal knobs probably is not hot chassis but just be aware of it if you go working on them..

you can restore one of those in a few pleasurable evenings and if you do I can almost guarnatee youll want to do more, its fun.

alignment requires a signal generator you cna try downloading a free one. otherwise I have lots of test gear, it circulates amongst any radio interest groups and is nto hard to get or expensive. some just like to collect neat test equipment , some was quite beautiful.

I gust gave away a quite beautifyul crosley console radio from 1936 and I aquired a small british portable, the portable wants a 67.5 volt battery. a second transistor portable followed me home wth get this,, a wind up clock with contacts that can turn on the transistore radio, I guess in 1970 0r so battery clocks hadnt; become mainstream so it made me laugh to find it was a wind up clock.

I also got a "citizen" color tv with a whopping 9 inch tube lol and it also has a built in VCR, new in box, never unwrapped.. lol ,,

I basically traded the radio for the TV and we both had a laugh over the friendly deal I said I won becaue the TV is smaller ;-)

same guy sold me two neat tachometers. you put a piece of refflective tape on a gear or somethign then poin the thing , it has a sweep dial that shows the RPM, i thas a nice red bakelite case, looks a bit like a video camera or somethign.. I can pointit at eh chuck on my lathe and itll show my RPMs .. up to 2000 ,,

we often barter I said "20 bucks", he says no $5 is enough ,, then we might settle at 10.. I got him this time by saying ok donate the rest ot the club kitty.. thats how friendly a lot of old radio collectors are.. fun..
the last few times I took freebies, I collected too many and its fiun to see others working on them and having fun..