[Ron Ramirez]

Fall is here and it will soon be too cold to spray lacquer in most parts of the country. So I've been hurrying the past few days to try and get a Philco 44B cabinet redone before the weather gets too cool here for spraying lacquer.

I thought I would present a day by day report on how I have been slowly bringing this cabinet back from near ruin, for your amusement.

So without further ado, here we go...

Monday, October 18.

As so often happens when I start on a large project, I forgot to take any "before" pictures.

Actually, I have a "before" photo, of sorts...

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...44_034.jpg]

Look behind and to the left of the 40-130, and you will see the 44B cabinet.

A closer look:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...44_035.jpg]

This 44B had peeling and bubbling veneer on the top and sides, veneer issues on the front arch, and delaminating veneer in the grillework of the front panel. You can see a large bubble in the front arch veneer in this photo. Also, it is evident that a fair amount of veneer is missing from the left grillebar.

This is an early 44B with an inset front panel, not the more common later 44B with a flat face.

The first thing I did was to remove the old veneer from the top and sides. 99% of it came off easily; a couple stubborn spots prevented it from coming off 100% easily. If it had, I would have reglued the original veneer back onto the cabinet.

The owner of this cabinet furnished new veneer for the top and sides; this veneer had a self-adhesive backing. I had never applied any veneer like this before, nor had I ever applied veneer to the entire top and sides of a cathedral cabinet.

This should be an interesting challenge...