[Ron Ramirez]

This cabinet originally left the factory as a 38-643B battery set.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00000.jpg]

Yes, it is a 1937 Philco cabinet, and they did not produce this style during the 1938 season. The only answer that makes sense to me is that, somehow in spite of Philco's tight production controls, they had some 37-643B/650B/etc. cabinets left over and these were fitted with chassis and sold as 1938 models.

A genuine 38-643B can be seen here:
http://philcoradio.com/gallery2/1938a/#Model_38-643B

Anyway...the photo above is a set I used to own. It's a long story, but I ended up with the empty cabinet once again about a year ago. While it was gone, all of the veneer on the left side of the front panel came off. As it turned out, this set was in much worse shape than I thought it was when I owned it previously.

I had some old veneer, and fortunately, I had enough to replace the veneer on the left side. The next photo shows how I have removed the lower molding in front and have already replaced about half of the missing veneer:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00001.jpg]

Once all of the veneer on the left had been replaced, it looked like this:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00002.jpg]

Then, the bottom front trim was reinstalled on the cabinet, the entire cabinet sanded down, after which grain filler was applied to the cabinet. This photo shows how it looked at this point:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00003.jpg]

As you can see, the "new" (old) veneer doesn't quite match the color of the veneer on the right of the front panel. But...veneer that isn't quite the same color is better than no veneer, right?

I assumed that once toner was applied, everything would even out. Well...that wasn't quite so:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00004.jpg]

This is how it looked after application of toner. I used Medium Walnut overall, with Medium Dark Walnut on the bottom trim. This time, I only applied two light coats of Medium Dark Walnut on the bottom trim, and you can still see the grain on the trim. I didn't want the trim to look as if it had been painted. A slightly darker shade of toner would have been better here, but this isn't too bad.

Two coats of clear lacquer were applied after the toner.

This past week, I ordered a few Philco decal sheets from Antique Electronic Supply so I could get the proper-looking PHILCO decal. These arrived only three days after I ordered them, and so today, I finished the cabinet work on this set.

First, I wet-sanded the entire cabinet with 800 grit wet-dry sandpaper, sanding lightly. I only wanted to sand enough to smooth the finish and make it just rough enough for the final coats of clear lacquer.

Next, I applied the authentic PHILCO decal and let it dry. This step was followed by carefully brushing some Micro Sol onto the decal, so that it would completely conform to the surface. You want to be very careful with the Micro Sol, because it literally melts the decal! Too aggressive brushing will destroy the decal as will bothering it while the Micro Sol is wet.

So I let it dry (it was laying on its back while the Micro Sol was applied and active). Once the Micro Sol dried, the cabinet went outside for final coats of clear. I used Deft semi-gloss, as I have used on every cabinet I have done this year. It received two coats of Deft on the sides and top, and three coats on front.

Here is how it turned out:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00005.jpg]

With all of the lacquer now in place, the color of the veneer on the left side of the front panel now more closely matches that of the right.

I already have a 37-650B escutcheon, chassis, and speaker. This cabinet will become a 37-650B when finished. I also have the proper "Ribbed" cloth.

More photos when it is reassembled...which reminds me, I will need to acquire a complete set of knobs.

I feel that I have learned a lot about refinishing this year, and I'm looking forward to more cabinet projects in 2012.